Snapshots: Key to a good evening

Peter Beck of Rocket Lab with PM John Key at the American Chamber of Commerce Awards in Auckland last week.

Prime Minister John Key provided the entertainment at Thursday's American Chamber of Commerce awards, cracking jokes about everything from thinking he was Hawaii's best travel advocate before his son's promo video, through to having an imposter John Key address on the Ashley Madison website for adulterers. "I kind of feel like Hawaiian Airlines has done a lot for New Zealand and I've done a lot for Hawaiian Airlines," Key said. "Having bought a house in Hawaii I've kind of been a one-man marketing machine for Hawaii. Well, I thought I was a one-man marketing machine for Hawaii until my son turned up as the Associate Tourism Minister for Maui." Key said he loved America. "We own a house in America. I've worked my entire career for a couple of US banks - Bankers Trust and Merrill Lynch. I kind of love everything American - sports, food, golf courses, there's nothing I don't like."

That is not entirely true.

"Last night I am at dinner and I get out and I turn on my phone and I think, 'Holy hell, I am on this Ashley Madison site?' It's 11 o'clock at night I ring the wife - hey, I may be Prime Minister but some things never change - I ring Bronagh and I say, 'Hey honey, I'm on the Ashley Madison site,' and she says, 'What's that, pumpkin?' I say, 'It's an adultery site' - can you imagine it, me [and] the mistress on one table and the [Diplomatic Protection Service] on the other."

In true fashion, Key couldn't miss an opportunity to promote the changing of the flag but when asked about the cost, joked he was helping keep New Zealand Post afloat by paying it $7 million in stamp costs to send out the referendum. The annual awards, now in their 50th year, attracted a full house of just over 500 at the Pullman Hotel in Auckland. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare scooped the supreme award for the night after winning the award for Exporter of the Year to the US over $5 million.

The Investor of the Year award was won by Bessemer Ventures for its investment in Rocket Lab.

Hard work at Harvard

Jucy chief executive Tim Alpe will be studying at Harvard Business School for the next three years, after securing a Prime Minister's Scholarship last week. Alpe, the son of rich lister Chris Alpe, said he was "so lucky to live in a country where the [Prime Minister] is keen to support Kiwis doing executive programmes offshore so that we can come back and build bigger, better businesses".

Dinner at the red sheds

Wine and beer flowed at Vector Arena for the annual Warehouse gala dinner, with the more than 1500 black-tie guests entertained by an enthusiastic Dominic Bowden - who seemed to still be channelling his Dancing with the Stars character while getting the crowd to give themselves numerous rounds of applause for doing little more than being in attendance. Warehouse Group's Mark Powell showed what it meant to be a chief executive, mingling and chatting with as many of the guests as he could and looking smart in black tie - a change from the usual Warehouse red. The evening raised more than $725,000 for charity with the line of the evening going to Sir Stephen Tindall, who opened by talking about the "international internet" - who knew?

Apologetics

Powell will be hanging up his red shirt early next year in favour of a master's degree in apologetics - not a degree in saying sorry, but in the academic and historical study of Christianity. Powell received a standing ovation at the awards for his work as the company's chief.

Fit for a feast

Fifty or so executives and business leaders left accounting firm EY's offices a few kilos heavier last week, after the EY Entrepreneur of the Year degustation dinner. The nine courses, paired with a variety of Villa Maria wines, included a brioche crusted hapuka dish, duck cannelloni, tomato sorbet and a collection of desserts. Guest speaker for the night was Sir Ray Avery, who in setting out his reasons for loving New Zealand, remarked that he was fairly sure every person in the room had something on their property which didn't have resource consent - resulting in some nervous laughter.

Let us know

This is not a gossip column but ...

The new weekly Page 2 is a chance to share stories and pictures about business personalities and events so please drop us a line at page2@nzherald.co.nz