Winner across the board
The winner of the top honour in the Women of Influence awards adds another chapter in a ‘mad’ career, writes Tao Lin.
Businesswoman, board director, chairwoman and now supreme Women of Influence award winner Helen Robinson, is unreservedly confident in the future of women in New Zealand.
The founder of social enterprise Organic Initiative was crowned the supreme winner at this year’s Women of Influence Awards and also won the board and management category.
She says seeing the achievements of young women today, including her two daughters, make her believe New Zealand is in good hands, so long as they keep gaining confidence in their ability to succeed.
‘‘Those young women are incredibly inspirational to me. They help me to realise that what I do sets the tone and the pathways for the younger generation coming through. Hopefully, by hearing my pretty mad career to date, that can in turn inspire wonderful young women.’’
For the 51-year-old, much of her ‘‘mad’’ career has been about going big, or going home.
Born in Christchurch, she went on to run New Zealand’s largest IBM and Hewlett Packard reseller by the late 1980s.
She stuck with the technology theme until 2007, when she finished her two-year reign as Microsoft NZ’s chief executive.
Between then and now, she has been growing her governance portfolio and is currently a director of Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development.
Just in the past week, she has had four different offers to sit on organisation boards.
Her latest business endeavour – Organic Initiative, or ‘‘Oi’’ – is a company she set up with business partner Bridget Healy, to produce affordable, organic cotton feminine hygiene products.
The aim is to help minimise plastic waste and improve women’s health around the world by eliminating harmful chemicals and materials used in sanitary products.
It has been a year since Oi entered supermarkets, and now they are found in Pak ‘n Save and New World stores nationwide.
For every box of product sold, another is donated to a socially disadvantaged woman supported by fashion designer Annah Stretton’s programme.
The next goal is to launch Oi overseas.
‘‘We just have to continue to encourage, but also to hold to account, the values by which we live and hold our children and their children,’’ said Robinson.
Young women are incredibly inspirational to me. Helen Robinson