Matt Carter, 2011 Young Executive of the Year, Southern Region, is presented with his trophy by Brian Soutar, NZIM Southern President. Carter is general manager, human resources and student services at the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin. He will represent the South Island in the national final of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards in Auckland on November 24.
The winner of this award receives trophy, executive management development training with NZIM to the value of $5000 and travel prize from the award’s associate sponsor Singapore Airlines.
Focus On Management coverage…
2011 Young Executive of the Year Southern Final
… very special event
The annual function to find the Southern regional winner of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year is always highlight of the NZIM Southern calendar, but this year’s final was even more special than usual.
The reason is that this year’s guest speaker, Sue Lindsay, was the South Island regional and national winner of the award in 1997, NZIM Southern’s CEO, Joseph Thomas was the South Island and national winner in 2000 and we also had last year’s regional winner, Brendon McWilliam present to hand over the baton. What line up!
The calibre of the six finalists was once again of very high quality, making the job of the judges Gordon Richards, Cathy Hemsworth and Bill Tate very difficult indeed, to the extent that three extra days were required after the conclusion of the interviews to decide on the eventual winner.
Judging wasn’t made any easier when just after midday on the first day of interviews, 6.3 earthquake forced abandonment for the remainder of the day.
There was good geographical spread of contestants this year with one from Invercargill, two from Dunedin, one from the West Coast and two from Christchurch. Companies represented included Noel Leeming Group, Westland Co-operative Dairy Products, Fulton Hogan, MacIntyre Dick Accountants, Metropol Magazine and Otago Polytechnic.
The overall winner was Matthew Carter, general manager, human resources and student services, at the Otago Polytechnic in Dunedin. With 835 people on the payroll, Otago Polytechnic is one of Dunedin’s largest employers and Matt is responsible for the full human resources and organisational development function across health and safety, HR generalists and payroll. His student services responsibilities include the Student Learning Centre, counsellors, Student Support & Advisory Services and the Childcare Centre.
As general manager, Matt is member of the Polytechnic’s leadership team, responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Polytechnic. He is also currently president of the Southern branch of the Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ).
Matt’s previous positions included HR manager of community services for the North Shore City Council and management consultant for Ernst & Young.
The NZIM Southern team wishes Matt every success as he heads off later this year to represent the South Island in the national final of the NZIM/Eagle Technology Young Executive of the Year Award at the Deloitte/Management magazine Top 200 Awards in Auckland.
