Opportunity Hamilton
Who teaches the ETP Programme?
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Q: Who teaches the ETP Programme?

A: Our trainers are some of the most experienced and motivational experts in New Zealand. Here are some short bios on some of our current instructors:

Jenny Barkle, Staples Rodway Chartered Accountants
Jenny is a qualified chartered accountant at Staples Rodway, and has over 20 years experience in the business advisory services. Jenny is particularly interested in business development and works with a variety of clients to help them grow their business. She has run numerous workshops and trainings for clients on how to grow their businesses. She enjoys coaching her clients to success and working with clients on their plans for businesses growth.

Ambrose Blowfield, The Marketing Company
Ambrose Blowfield of The Marketing Company specialises in delivering high quality sales, marketing and communication training for companies in all industries. His in-depth knowledge in the sales and marketing arena in New Zealand and overseas, together with our contagious enthusiasm and passion for life, leads to very motivating training and speaking engagements.
Ambrose Blowfield is becoming known as a passionate and dynamic speaker and trainer. Visit www.themarketingcompany.co.nz for more details

Roger Brady, Pinnacle Business Solutions Ltd
Professionally before moving to New Zealand Roger worked for the largest Constructions Company in Southern Africa, project managing huge residential property developments of up to 600 houses each. He has formal qualifications in Civil Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Project Management and also holds a commission in the South African army, obtained when making the most out of a compulsory stint of two years national service. An unusual mix, which allows him to understand most elements of business from practical real life experience. For more details visit www.therightmix.co.nz

Richard Brathwaite, Strategia Limited
Richard has been in the manufacturing field for close to 20 years. He has had roles in maintenance management, project management, product and process design and manufacturing management. He is a qualified mechanical engineer from Canterbury who has devoted his career to manufacturing. Richard presents workshops and coaches manufacturing businesses in best practice and has a thorough understanding of the relationships between the parts of the business and where opportunities for improvement lie.

Roger Brooksbank, The Marketing Improvement Group
Roger is an active consultant and speaker, and works with universities, public sector organisations, and enterprise agencies throughout Europe and Australasia. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Administration and a Ph.D. in Strategic Marketing from Bradford University in the UK. He has published more than eighty articles in professional and academic journals, and is the author of the highly-acclaimed book, 'Hot Marketing, Cool Profits'. Roger is also the author of a series of top-selling self-help audio/workbooks, written specifically for small business owner-managers. Roger's specialist subjects are strategic marketing planning, business promotion, professional selling, and entrepreneurship - A true Marketer Extraordinaire. For more details visit www.rogerbrooksbank.com

Wendy Edwards, Powerful Insights Ltd
Wendy Edwards has successfully developed, implemented, maintained and audited business systems to comply with a range of standards. Wendy has over 18 years experience in quality assurance, ensuring systems she develops are simple. Her practical skills are supported academically by a post-graduate Diploma in Quality Assurance from Massey University, New Zealand’s highest qualification in this field, at the time of graduation.

Kingsley Field, Accuwrite Wordsmiths and Media
Kingsley Field has more than 35 years’ experience as a professional daily newspaper journalist, including five years as chief sub-editor on the Waikato Times and eight years as Hamilton bureau chief for the New Zealand Herald. Since 1997 he has successfully run his own business in professional writing and editing.  He was a lecturer in journalism at the Waikato Institute of Technology for several years and is a book reviewer for the Waikato Times. He is also the author of two books.

Wendy Harris, Bounce Solutions Ltd
Wendy has worked extensively in systems, quality assurance and management positions over the past ten years. She specialises in the development of business systems including Quality Policy and Operations Manuals, in order for businesses to increase their productivity through efficient systems, healthy workplaces, and committed staff.  For more details visit www.bouncesolutions.co.nz

Kevin Garty & Sharon Honiss, Garty Honiss Ltd
Kevin Garty & Sharon Honiss are Chartered Accountants and share years of experience between them in the industry. Kevin & Sharon are the owners and partners of Garty Honiss Ltd which is a highly successful practice employing 10 other team members. Being in business themselves, in a competitive market place, they understand only too well the trials & tribulations that come with owning & operating your own business. This is the platform for understanding the importance of writing a business plan & teaching others ‘business skills’ to implement in their businesses. Kevin & Sharon have a strong commitment to client satisfaction.

Chantelle Laurent, Formula One Results
Chantelle began working for Gallagher Power Fence Systems in 1989 while studying for a Bachelor of International Management at the University of Waikato. During her time with Gallaghers she helped to design and implement a national and international marketing programme including resources for the 100+ distributors worldwide (PR, brochures, manuals, packaging and advertising material). Majoring in French and International Marketing gave Chantelle the platform she needed to establish a career with internationally focused businesses. Chantelle has over 15 years of experience working for, in and on a wide range of businesses operating in a wide variety of market sectors. In April 2006, Chantelle established Formula One Results Ltd which is allowing her to provide valuable assistance to businesses seeking growth.

Liz Muller, Get Stuff Done Ltd
Liz has more than 15 years senior management experience with global icon food manufacturing companies and experience at conducting business internationally with Europe, Asia, South America and Australasia. Liz is executive committee member of Export NZ, Bay of Plenty.

Steve Murray, Opportunity Hamilton
Steve has been self employed for 12 of the past 18 years, and when not self employed held senior positions covering a wide variety of roles and industries. These included fashion, computers, publishing, transport, and international trade; he is experienced in manufacturing, sales and marketing, and general management.  For the past 11 years Steve has run his own coaching business working mostly with small to medium sized businesses. During this period he also developed, with his ex-wife, the multiple award winning Murray Gallery.  In the past 8 years Steve has personally worked with the owners of over 1500 businesses and brings a wealth of both business and life experience to help his clients achieve their goals.

Peter O'Halloran, WebSpring
Peter completed his Electronic Commerce Degree in 2003, then worked as a youth worker for four years before joining WebSpring as Sales Manager.

Samantha Palmer, Leap Fourward Training Solutions
British-born Samantha has been aligned with training and development for more than 20 years and has a Diploma in Learning and Development.  Since migrating to NZ in 2003 Samantha has provided training workshops on customer service, recruitment, development and retention of staff.

Steph Smith, Strategia Limited
Steph has extensive experience in sales and marketing, both nationally and internationally, with particular expertise in taking products to market. She has fulfilled this role for her own businesses and assisted other companies to identify markets and develop market entry strategies. Steph has exhibited at trade shows round the world, the largest being EuroShop in Germany where she was one of only five exhibitors from the Pacific out of a total of 3000 at the show.

Elisabeth Soffe, Webspring
Elisabeth has been working in the website development sector for the last 10 years. Her last assignment in the UK before emigrating to New Zealand in 2004 was as website developer and project manager for the world’s largest credit insurance group. Elisabeth has experience of working as a manager and team leader in many other different sectors including retail, publishing, vehicle hire and telecommunications. Her specialist subjects include: usability, accessibility and how to make your website work for your business. The company offers a range of affordable results-driven website solutions for businesses in NZ.

Sandy Turner, Faithster Consultancy Ltd
Sandy has been self employed for a number of years and for the past 3 years has run her own consultancy business. Through her years of being involved in the hospitality industry, tourism, and fishing industry, Sandy has a wealth of experience to offer. Sandy has a passion for planning and personal development and sees these as valuable tools to ensure business success.

Merv Williams, Everst Group Ltd
Everest Group evolved from a group of Waikato-based business professionals with human resources and business ownership backgrounds. We especially work with small to medium size business owners to teach them how to implement HR to build the most productive team possible. Merv works with the Everest team primarily as an on-site HR advisor to clients. He is trained in adult learning and has particular strengths in educating business owners about HR. Merv thrives on showing business owners how HR unifies an organisation. “When businesses really engage their staff they gain immediate value. HR isn’t about a manager controlling their staff - it’s about working out how to align goals so everyone is willingly moving in the same direction.” For more information, please visit www.everestgroup.co.nz

Go back
 Hamilton is New Zealand’s largest inland city, and 4th largest urban area.  Hamilton is on the main tourist route between Auckland and Taupo. Hamilton is the heart of the Waikato.  Hamilton has a land area of 98.6 km2 (New Zealand's smallest city in terms of land area).  The average age in Hamilton is 31.3 years compared to 35.9 years nationally.  Hamilton has a youthful population - around half of residents are under 30 years old.  New Zealand European makes up three quarters of the population, and Maori 19%.  Hamilton is home to more than 80 ethnic groups from 65 countries.  Over half of all New Zealanders (53 percent) were living in four main urban areas (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch) at 30 June 2009.  As at February 2008 there were 12,476 small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hamilton. This figure accounted for 94% of the total number of businesses in Hamilton.  SMEs contribution to employment in Hamilton stands at 33% which equates to 25,810 employees.  The growth of SMEs in Hamilton city between 2000 and 2008 was 31% which is above the 25% percent growth recorded in the rest of New Zealand over the same time period.  Hamilton is the home of the mighty Chiefs and Waikato rugby teams and the 26,000 capacity Waikato Stadium.  Hamilton will host 3 matches in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.  Hamilton hosted the New Zealand round of the prestigious V8 Supercar Championship in the city for the second year in 2009. The inaugural race in April 2008 attracted 172,000 attendees plus 5,000 people associated with the running of the event. The event generated $28.3 million of new money into the local economy in the first year and is estimated to generate $156 million over the seven years that the event will run.