Leadership Academy
Developing future Southland leaders.
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The Southland Leadership Academy has been developing Southland leaders since 2019.
The Leadership Academy has been delivered across Southland including Invercargill, Te Anau, Edendale, Gore, Lumsden, Otautau and on Stewart Island / Rakiura. During 2024 we will host three further intakes in Invercargill, plus one in Gore, and Te Anau.
The purpose of this programme, which is completed over multi-days, is to provide leaders with the opportunity to build leadership capabilities through their own personal development and by learning from the experience of others.
The Leadership Academy is for people who are passionate about developing their existing leadership experience and who have the potential for holding senior positions and governance roles.
The participant, at the completion of the experiential and reflective learning sessions, will be better equipped and have a good understanding of what is required to be a leader in their own organisation and in the wider business community.
Each session is led by a senior executive from significant Southland – Otago based businesses or other organisations. The participant will benefit from the opportunity to interact with the presenter and build an ongoing connection with them, and other participants.
At the end of the programme, participants will graduate and be invited to become a member of the Southland Leadership Academy Alumni.
Meet our Inspirers.
Jason Tibble
Chief Executive
Gallaway Cook Allan
Jocelyn O'Donnell
Director
HW Richardson Group
Robert Boekhout
General Manager
Blue River Dairy
Geoff Finnerty
General Manager
South Port NZ Ltd
Dr Flora Gilkison
CEO
Hospice Southland
Bernadette Hunt
Farmer, and Vice President
Federated Farmers
Richard Roberts
Jackson Engineering Advisors
Penny Simmonds
MP for Invercargill
Richard Gray
General Manager Operations Lower South Island - Fonterra
Michelle Henderson
Director
Red Rabbit & Co
Shaun Drylie
Consultant & Designate Group CEO
Carbn Group Holdings
Dean Addie
Leading Relationship Manager
T4 Group
Aimee Kaio
Programme Manager
Tokona te Ao of Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu
Paddy O'Brien
High Performance Sevens Referee Manager
World Rugby
Danny Leonard
Operational Excellence Business Partner
PowerNet Ltd
Stephen OConnor
Principal
Mitre Wealth Management
Dougal McGowan
CEO
Football South
Clare Hadley
Former CEO
Invercargill City Council
Paul Adams
StabiX Founder Stabicraft Co-Founder / Director
Chris Blenkiron
General Manager
New Zealand's Alunimium Smelter
Bharat Guha
CFO
Invercargill Licensing Trust
Prue Halstead
CEO
Invest South
Terry Nicolas
Representative
Te Rūnanga o Hokonui
Cr Darren Frazer
Councillor on the
Southland District Council
Todd Grave
Former CEO Blue Sky Meats
Stewart Hamilton
Former General Manager, New Zealand's Alunimium Smelter
Onno Muller
Former CEO
Southern Institute of Technology
Mark O'Connor
Director
O'Connor Consulting
What our alumni say
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We were provided with excellent speakers, all of whom shared their wisdom openly. Strongly recommend this short course to anyone wanting to improve their leadership skills. 
The Academy allowed me to challenge the status quo and utlise real life stories to learn valuable leadership learnings. Being in the rural sector it has widened my connections and networks. A great programme for realising where the gaps in your journey lie. 
An amazing 8 weeks. Being able to hear leadership stories, learning and reflections from amazing leaders was a true privilege with so many takeaways. A must do investment for any organisation to support your leaders to lift their gaze and grow and strengthen their leadership skillset. 
The opportunity to upskill, challenge my thinking and meet like-minded people from different industries was invaluable. I quickly realised that all leaders have the same issues and challenges and the course content was very relevant to our business. I would highly recommend the Academy. 
A highly valuable course, well worth the investment! Awesome opportunity to learn from and be challenged by highly effective leaders while forming lasting connections with likeminded people. An incredible course that I would highly recommend to people wanting to challenge themselves. 
A fantastic interactive group of sessions with likeminded people from other industries. It’s great to hear from local leaders to see what they do and what ideas farmers can grab to add value to their businesses. 
The presenters we had were of such a high quality, extremely interesting and very approachable - you left each week feeling invigorated and with more strings to your bow. Fantastic initiative and a definite must for the current and future leaders of our Region. With thanks to our community
SPONSOR
SUPPORTEd by
Scholarships
SPONSOR
SUPPORTEd by
Scholarships