Leading business in tough times

Many businesses have inexperienced CEOs and executive teams, with many having been in key roles for less than two years.  Many directors and mid-level - senior leaders have (aside from the covid pandemic which was quite different) have never led through a prolonged and challenging economic cycle. Combined with high inflation and market and geopolitical volatility right now and into the near future, there some challenging times ahead across all industries. But opportunities also exist for those with the head space and strategic insight to execute, and business leaders are now seeking insights from those who have led in tough times. 

This informative and interactive panel discussion seeks to share insights about leading in tough times, how to thrive, and will invite those attending to ask questions and share their experiences. 

Di Humphries

MInstD

Di Humphries is an experienced governance director with over 15 years working with various multi-faceted organisations across retail, sports, education, wholesale and tourism.  Di has also had an extensive executive background spanning over 25 years – 3 x CEO leading some of New Zealand’s top NZX publicly listed companies. Di lives in Christchurch.

Current governance roles:
Chair of St Margaret’s College: Di has played a critical role chairing the leading independent girls’ school for over five years. Her strength in strategy development, aligning skillset around the board table to successful strategic objectives and relationship management to support the organisation to continue their success to be the leading independent girls school in New Zealand.
Independent Director, Oderings Garden Centre: She contributes to the strategic oversight and governance practices, enhancing the company’s governance structure and is a specialist in retail best practices.
Independent Director, Canterbury Rugby Football Union: As an independent board member, Di is instrumental in steering governance policies and framework, fostering culture of ethical practices ensuring robust stakeholder engagement development frameworks and focus on transformational change strategic monitoring.
Independent Director, Horse of the Year Ltd: Providing expert advice on governance structures, risk management frameworks and regulatory compliance to lead this equine performance sports event across multiple disciplines.

Di’s strength and expertise is strategy development and monitoring to navigate complex business landscapes to achieve sustainable growth, risk management mitigating potential risks and ensuring organisational resilience, strong financial acumen- Di has a deep understanding of what good financial reporting looks like aligned to good governance, strong stakeholder engagement and commercial acumen: she has deep understanding and structure required to enable strong performance outcomes.

Di has held various board roles, previously she sat on the Hallensteins Glasson’s Ltd board for over 10 years- leading the transformational strategic change to the Australasian leading brands you see today. 

She is a director and owner of her Strategic Advisory Business- Palorose Holdings Ltd- working with various organisations to lead change in ever-changing and challenging landscape.

Di is leader for Mentor Walks Canterbury networking with woman across Canterbury to mentor women across all industries. Di is always focused on strong governance performance working in the best interest of the stakeholders of the organisation. 

Di is a member of the Institute of Directors NZ and always actively curious and open to new learnings she can bring to the board table to improve the performance of the board.

David Boyd

Based in Canterbury, David Boyd chairs the national board of Export NZ. David is an experienced executive and company director with a background in specialised manufacturing, medical devices, and consumer products, with a focus on international markets. He has particular expertise in international distribution and branding targeting wider European markets.

David is a director of and advisor to a number of New Zealand-based companies, and a past director of Orthopaedic Synergy Inc, a United States-based orthopaedic company which had three subsidiaries -Christchurch-based Enztec Ltd, Omni Life Science Inc of Raynham, Massachusetts, USA and Praxim, France. He served on the Beachheads Board for NZTE for 16 years, finishing up in 2023. David is also the founding shareholder of Foot Science International, the producers of Formthotics, and is still actively involved as a director and in their R&D program.  He is also the founding shareholder of Foot Science International, the producers of Formthotics, and is still actively involved as a director and in their ongoing R&D program. He is particularly interested in things that haven’t happened yet.

Kendall Langston 

CMInstD    

Kendall Langston is Managing Partner at Pivot & Pace, and is an experienced board chair and director having held appointments on boards such as Angus NZ, Oderings, Link Engine Management, and the Connect Group.  As both a director and strategic advisor, Kendall has helped many businesses go through leadership transitions, and effectively managing succession on boards.

Greg Allnutt, MC

MInstD

Greg Allnutt, MNZM, is a Partner at Pivot & Pace Ltd. He works as a strategic advisor to many boards of directors, board chairs and is currently the Independent Chair for Jani King New Zealand and formerly Chair of Surfing New Zealand.

As an executive leadership coach and strategy expert, he works closely with a number of executive teams of medium-sized businesses across New Zealand, Australia and the USA.

He is an author, business speaker and is passionate about ensuring that businesses navigate and thrive in change.