Eyes on emerging leaders

Among the 450 people at the Leadership Forum the greatest expectations may not lie with the headlining speakers like Professor Paul Romer or Juan Enriquez Cabot.

They lie with a group of 100 emerging leaders - 50 selected by the Trust and 50 by newspapers spread through the country - and the networks they will form after the event.

The emerging leaders will meet today, the day before the conference proper, so that they are able to make a focused contribution to the Forum debate.

This initiative answers criticisms from Knowledge Wave 2001, that it needed more young faces and was too Auckland-focused.

Trust executive board member Andrew Grant says the involvement of regional newspapers will also help the Forum to obtain a more national profile.

These are people who have runs on the board less than 20 years into their careers.

Five were selected by the New Zealand Herald from 150 nominations and are profiled in the following web pages with an explanation of the talents and views they bring to the Forum.

Among those selected by the Trust are Jacinta Ruru, who last year received the Inaugural National Maori Academic Excellence Award and won a New Zealand Fulbright Travel Award.

Dr Richard Templer is a general manager of research and development, managing the funding for New Zealand's sheep, beef and goat industries. In 2001 he won the New Zealand Institute of Management Young Executive of the Year Award.

Steven Carden is a Knox Fellow to Harvard Business School studying an MBA and was a founder of the Kiwi Expat Association in New England. He also founded the First Foundation Project, which assists financially disadvantaged young people to gain tertiary education.

Herald Special Report - February 18, 2003:
Knowledge Wave 2003 - the leadership forum

Herald feature: