| Born in Caithness, Scotland and raised in a small town called Stonehaven 15miles south of Aberdeen, a city slightly larger than Christchurch. There I started my career in sales at a sport store called Olympus Sports the biggest sports retailer in Europe. I started on a government run scheme called the Youth Training Scheme (YTS) at the age of 17yrs which was designed to get school leavers into work thus ensuring they didn’t go on the dole. With nothing to lose and everything to gain I seized the opportunity to get ahead, quickly becoming a product expert in racquet and training shoe technologies and from there started training others in store with what I’d learnt. At 19yrs old I was offered a place on a Manager Training Course which I jumped at, I passed with merit and secured my first Managers position before my 20th birthday, making me the youngest manager ever in the company. |
The next 3yrs saw me in as many branches, I was quickly recognised as a bit of a trouble shooter, wasn’t scared to get into branches and roll the sleeves up and do what needed to be done to turn the branches around and make them profitable, this is what makes me tick, it gets the fires raging inside, doing a job where I can make a difference. My strong points are paying attention to detail, training and developing staff and recognising those with potential and bring them on to positions of responsibility. The next 9yrs was spent opening bigger stores until I left for New Zealand handing the reigns to my then Assistant Manager of a 10,000sq foot Super Store.Arriving in New Zealand I vowed to do something different than Sports Retail, I ultimately secured jobs working in the communication industry, initially in the cell phone industry where I managed a couple of stores then laterally in the two way radio industry where I took on the role of Key Account Manager. My time in the communication industry has been great for developing my skills in Contract Negotiations, Building of Dealer Relationships and managing a network of dealers. |
