Tell us about your professional experience before discovering the Corporate Governance Institute.

Flying instructor from age 19. Joined New Zealand Airforce at age 21 in 1983. Spent ten years as a fighter pilot and senior instructor. Joined Royal Brunei Airlines in 1998, flying as a first officer on the B757 & B767. Joined Emirates Airlines in 2000 and flew the B777. Flew there for 20 years; the majority of the time as a Senior Training Captain. Now I live in Thailand, but I spend about 50% of the year in Korea as a consultant to Boeing Korea, doing simulator training for Korean Airlines B777 pilots. In business, I’ve owned cafes, and co-owned a sports supplement manufacturing company in New Zealand, and co-founded a digital wellbeing company based in Dubai.

What challenges or opportunities were you facing in your career or on your board before taking our course?

I was at the time the Chairman and Company Secretary of my corporate wellbeing company. I was dealing with several board members who were significantly more experienced than me in managing boards. I admit to feeling a bit of “imposter syndrome” being the chairman ahead of these highly experienced shareholders.

Why did you choose to study for the Diploma in Corporate Governance with us to help with these challenges/opportunities?

I wanted to validate what I was doing as the Chairman and Company Secretary. I was learning “on the trot” and felt a formal qualification would both provide me with more confidence in what I was doing, and provide more credibility when dealing with new shareholders and large companies who were potential clients. I wanted to create a sound governance architecture to be able to hand over to our most experienced director to step up to the Chairman’s position. 

Can you describe any particular elements of the course that stood out to you or made a significant impact?

Culture and Strategy were probably the two modules I learnt most new information from. Much of the course was validation of what I was already doing, which was really valuable. 

How has completing this course influenced your career, leadership approach, or governance or ESG skills?

After completing the course I refined a number of aspects of our governance; restructured our remuneration committee, introduced a CEO assessment process and formed an audit committee. While I am proud to say our small company had a fairly advanced governance structure in place, the course allowed me to refine it further.

What did you find most beneficial about studying with the Corporate Governance Institute?

The confidence in putting myself out there as a director or advisor to help startups navigate the governance journey and being able to navigate the sometimes difficult relationship with directors representing venture capital or large private investors.