Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
I'm currently the CEO at Goodnature, a Wellington based company reinventing global pest control with smart and humane solutions. We're a tiny but mighty team of 40, vertically integrated across all functions from product development to production, software to e-commerce, and everything in between. Over 80% of our revenue is outside New Zealand, but we're only just getting started - watch this space! Prior to that my roles as VanMoof's Chief of Staff and Chief Marketing Officer were part of an unbelievable 6 year journey. We created the best electric bikes in the world, and our super-powered global team did an amazing job scaling the business (more than 30X in 6 years) through game-changing products, brand building, and experience design. VanMoof's wider mission is to 'get the next billion on bikes', and everything they do from product to brand to service supports this. Out of work hours I take huge satisfaction working with my wife and her team at Abel as a Director. When I'm not doing the above, I'm probably seeking adventure. I love doing things I've never done before and seeing how far my body can take me; my last big challenge was the 100 mile Faultline ultra-marathon earlier and prior to that I've been fortunate enough to complete some pretty epic adventures in the Welsh mountains and the French Alps.
Our mission is to create the world's best natural perfume without compromising on ethics or aesthetics and in doing so, inspire positive change. Founded in Amsterdam in 2013 by Frances Shoemack, Abel's collection of 100% natural perfume for men and women has been created with Master Perfumer Isaac Sinclair, working with the latest developments in natural science. Abel is available at abelfragrance.com and in a very select group of department stores and cult fashion, beauty and lifestyle boutiques around the world.
Goodnature is a New Zealand based but globally minded conservation tech company committed to 'rewilding the world' through automatic, smart, and toxin free traps to keep pests under control in backyards big and small all over the globe.
FTN Motion are breaking the norm on transport with minimalistic, classic styled electric motorbikes and mopeds that are designed, developed and produced in house then sold through a D2C model. They are a team of awesome people, led by founders Luke Sinclair and Kendall Bristow. From here there are big plans for global expansion and further product development - watch this space!
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is the Government agency charged with growing companies internationally, bigger, better and faster, for the good of New Zealand. I advise a variety of New Zealand businesses looking to expand in the EU, with particular focus on business strategy, brand building, Digital /eCommerce, and HR.
This awesome role includes the following components: 1. High Level Strategy - Leading strategic discussions and decision making (together with co-Ceo's). As part of that, taking the lead to make the right strategic choices on an annual basis, and supporting with strategy/storytelling for existing and potential new investors when required. 2. Internal Communications/Spokesperson - Lead for all internal communications globally, including monthly company wide all-hands meetings, bi-weekly stand-ups, internal announcements, and employee on-boarding. 3. OKR (goal setting) ownership - Coordinating the quarterly OKR process company wider with Senior Leaders to ensure we are as focused and collaborative as possible, with the end result being that the mission and high level strategy is broken down into annual company objectives are broken down into ambitious yet achievable bite sized pieces. 4. Running the Management Team - Focus here is on levelling up our Management Team with an improved and optimised way of working. Lead and facilitate the MT meetings and follow ups, with a constant focus on building the strongest and most effective MT possible. 5. Sounding Board - Act as a confidante and advisor on a day to day basis for VanMoof's co-CEO's and MT members, supported by regular 1:1's with all and diving into special projects when required to provide objective advice and input.
- At VanMoof we are a DNVB (digital native vertical brand); e-commerce first, direct sales channel, end to end service, patented bikes. - Labelled 'the Tesla of bikes' by Wired, and one of Time Magazine's best inventions of 2019 - My role initially focused fully on global marketing (I was Marketing employee #1), but expanded over time to include sales/commercial, customer experience, culture, and people operations (key connection point between our founders and the company). - In this role I build out all core marketing and sales functions; content production, creative, PR, Growth Marketing, digital/e-commerce, and B2B (company bike programs with the likes of Google and Amazon). - While in this role, we grew sales by more than 25X over 5 years and expanded our team from 20 to 400 people. It was a wild ride - always uncomfortable, but hugely satisfying to reflect on.