Awarded the Florence Nightingale medal this year, she has tended to the wounded and the innocent in places where arrest, torture and murder are commonplace.

She’s had a gun held to her head. She’s been robbed and threatened with death. She has negotiated checkpoints while driving a pregnant woman to a clinic. She has delivered babies in the most difficult circumstances, celebrated their survival and mourned their loss. Through it all, the Geneva Conventions and some luck have seen her through to the other side relatively unscathed.

We are thrilled to have Dame Therese Walsh as our next speaker. Dame Therese has had a stellar career in Senior Management with various iconic organisations in New Zealand.

Therese is a chief executive and business leader from New Zealand. Her particular successes include her roles as the chief operating officer for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and head of the organising body for the 2015 Cricket World Cup, held in Australia and New Zealand. Walsh serves on the Boards of NZX, ASB, Air New Zealand and is Chair of Television New Zealand. It’s going to be great to hear about the journey she has taken to get to where she is today.

A dream job for many, Dr Krista Hupman has dedicated her life to her work with Marine creatures. She is now a NIWA researcher of Dolphin, Whales and Leopard Seals in New Zealand Water.

We have the great honour of having Winston Peters join us for our first club Northland of 2020. Winston Peters was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs after the 2017 general election. He is also appointed the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for State-Owned Enterprises, and Minister for Racing.

Mr Peters has had a long political career. He first entered Parliament in 1978 in the electorate seat of Hunua, was MP for the electorate seat of Tauranga from 1984 till 2005, in subsequent years has entered parliament as a list MP, although held the Northland seat from 2015-2017. In 1993, Mr Peters formed the New Zealand First Party. He was Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer from 1996-1998, leading business and finance delegations to Asia’s capitals, the US and Canada.

As well as being a former primary and secondary school teacher, Mr Peters has practiced as a barrister and solicitor, including in his own law firm.

When life serves up the ultimate test of survival, character and determination, it’s a case of get busy living or get busy dying. Darryl Sabin’s journey of survival and recovery following a catastrophic brain injury traverses the depths of the human spirit as he overcomes challenges even seasoned medical experts thought well beyond him.

His tale of survival and recovery unveils five lessons for life which provides everyone a point of reference and perspective to deal with the challenges life inevitably puts in our path. While playing rugby Darryl had started suffering successive concussions two years earlier and after a six-day stay in Auckland Hospital with a brain bleed everyone, none more so than his father, were telling him he should never play again. However, medical advice subsequently gave Darryl the clearance he was looking for and he started playing again in pursuit of his dream to be an All Black.
On ANZAC 2009 destiny, fate and Darryl’s head all collided and he entered a fight for his life that ironically saw him earn his own black jersey and become the 23rd man of the All Black squad.

Darryl’s compelling story celebrates triumph over adversity and will inspire you to the core of your character as you are immersed in a journey from which all can draw parallels. It will have you seeing your life and the challenges you face in a new light and provide unbridled inspiration to live life to the full.

Dunedin-based internationally-acclaimed wildlife cameraman Max Quinn is prepared for all eventualities. His work life and passion intertwine to become a unique lifestyle of travel, adventure, survival and art.
From spending almost a year in Antarctica, where temperatures rarely rose above minus 25 degrees and where there was a three-month period when the sun never rose, to filming the diverse animal population of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona in temperatures close to plus 50 degrees, Max has seen it all.
Max was the first cameraman to film Emperor penguin chicks in Antarctica hatching and the male birds handing the new-born to their partners after balancing the eggs on their feet for 60 days. He has been stalked by an angry mother polar bear protecting her cubs in the Arctic, where he was also on hand as a US nuclear submarine surfaced thrxough the ice cap.
Southern right whales, long thought to be extinct in New Zealand waters, emerged before Max’s camera lens in another first, he has filmed the construction of some of the world’s genuine megastructures, and has worked on such global success stories as Our Big Blue Backyard and Abalone Wars. In recent months he has trekked, heavy camera equipment on hand, in China and Tibet where he is considered a legend by major television companies. The Otago Daily did a fantastic feature on Max …https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/wild-heart

Phil Richards told the New Zealand Herald “I left Whangarei at 18 with two goals: to become an accountant and to get a job on Queen St. After university the largest accounting firm in the world at the time, Arthur Andersen, offered me a job. I used to see everyone working really hard in their corporate jobs, with no work life balance, and it wasn’t a future I wanted.” Since pledging better things for himself and his family Phil Richards has started eight businesses including a chain of optometry stores, the cloud-based payroll company SmartPayroll, an international butter chicken business and a chain of accounting practices. And still has time to compete in Iron Man competitions around the world, enjoy golf and spend time being a proud Dad of two. Phil is passionate about helping others achieve a better balance in life. What an inspiration! We are delighted that Phil will join us and share how he has done it!