“I will study, I will prepare,

and my opportunity will

come”

Abraham Lincoln (unverified)

Despite failing an early attempt to get into a teaching degree program at 30, I became an undergraduate. Uni studies and teaching followed years working in various New Zealand and Australian industries, including the following: opossum skin processing, telephony wiring and cabling, dairy and juice factories, retail and office machine sales, small business management…you get the picture:).

Along the way, I ran a couple of marathons teaching me the power of desire and persistence, and rediscovered a passion for teaching, communicating, and learning…leading to a PhD in Communication.

In my early 40s I rejoined the business world, sold residential investments, later joining my wife in buying a mortgage agency. We built it up to a profitable business and sold it 12 months later, before I returned to academia for the next two decades, researching and teaching communication and media practices in New Zealand and the Middle East, where I also served as Head of Department.

What drives me

For me, being part of a community dealing with real-world challenges and seeking solutions through empathic communication is important. From placing on the academic and policy record the plight of sometimes forgotten groups such as people with disabilities or rural Australian communities struggling to access a reliable and affordable telecommunication service to sharing the stories of survival and sense-making of Sri Lankan survivors of the 2004 tsunami, and mapping state and community communication initiatives after the 2012 Christchurch earthquake that destroyed the CBD. I’ve used a number of media and communication platforms to share stories, including local newspapers, television and talk-back radio.

I’ve also run workshops for regional councils how to communicate unpopular but necessary environmental policies, and published insights into successful social media strategies developed by key managers in international organisations such as the UN. For more info on any of the above check out my research published in international peer-reviewed journals listed on this google scholar page.

Along the way, I picked up an appreciation for excellence in people wherever and in whomever I see it…convinced the right attitude will always spur along aptitude. That unverified quote (there are quite a few) of Abraham Lincoln’s became my professional mantra…and as far as mantras go, it’s not a bad one:)