My biggest influence: Theresa Gattung

Theresa Gattung

Theresa Gattung heads New Zealand's largest listed company, Telecom.

She is the country's highest paid executive - close to $3 million a year - and is highly regarded locally and internationally for her management skills - so much so that Fortune magazine lifted her in its ranking of the most influential executives outside the United States from 37th last year to 32nd this year.

She has led Telecom since being appointed chief executive in 1999 at the age of 36, taking it through one of the toughest periods in telecommunications history.

Gattung says her biggest influence on her career is someone closer to home - her father, and his "unwavering belief that his daughters could do anything they set their minds to".