Who got that job?

Job title: General manager, Carich New Zealand


The chance to lead a burgeoning company attracted Gareth Jones to his new role as the head of private computer and English training company Carich.

"It was an opportunity for me to be involved [in expansion] at ground level," he says.

Carich has nine campuses in Auckland City, Manukau, Hamilton, Lower Hutt, Wellington and Christchurch.

Staff number 200 and the student body has grown from 1000 to 7000 in the past two years.

An increasing proportion of them are from Asia, Europe and South America, and Jones says the plan is to set up Carich campuses in Australia and China.

Carich's most popular courses offer national computing and business administration courses approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, which attracted taxpayer subsidies.

But Jones, 37, is unruffled by recent speculation that the Government is looking to reduce support for mushrooming private providers in favour of state institutions.

He says Carich is more than holding its own: a recent NZQA check of its curriculum at the Manukau campus awarded top marks.

"We feel the quality of our courses will get us through this," he says.

Jones last worked for CCH NZ, one of the largest legal publishers in New Zealand. He is a former country manager for Readers' Digest.

Jones has worked in Melbourne, Sydney, New York and Singapore.