Allen focused on a plan
John Allen is planning to stick around.
WellingtonNZ may have had four chief executives in less than six years, and Allen numerous high-profile roles in the city, but he says his new job is a keeper.
The latest boss of the region’s tourism and economic agency has a long-term plan.
‘‘My view is that in these sorts of roles, you need to be [there] about five or six years, and so that’s what I would expect,’’ he says.
Allen became WellingtonNZ’s latest chief executive when he officially took up the role on June 1. The organisation’s history may have been a little checkered, but Allen is excited about its future in leading the region through the challenges of a post-Covid economy.
He won’t be short of contacts to help achieve that, after leading roles at New Zealand Post, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Racing Industry Transition Authority (formerly the New Zealand Racing Board).
With New Zealand’s borders likely to be closed for some time, and one of the core roles of the agency being to attract international visitors, Allen said it now has to shift its focus to the domestic market.
‘‘It is challenging, but the good news for Wellington is we’ve got lots of local talent, so we’re not always going to have to be dependent on international talent,’’ Allen said.
‘‘We’ve got the orchestras here, we’ve got a whole heap of very talented musicians here, we’ve got artists . . . and we’ve been working with them and with other organisations around town to put events back in the city.’’
After a few years of finding its feet, WellingtonNZ had now narrowed its focus and was poised to do well, he said.
In his first few weeks in the role, Allen had seen a ‘‘young and deeply passionate team’’ change direction to target the local market.
‘‘I think a lot of economic development agencies struggle because they’re not clear about where they’re going to add value, because ‘economic development’ is a pretty broad concept.
‘‘You can play in lots of different spaces, so you’ve got to be quite specific about where you want to play, and you’ve got to be quite deliberate about what the impacts are that you want to have.’’
Allen saw the new role as a great opportunity. ‘‘I’ve lived in Wellington since I was 18.
‘‘I came here for university
and I’ve just been incredibly fortunate with the sorts of jobs that this city’s been able to provide me, the environment that the city’s provided to live in, the access to the wider outdoors that we all take for granted, the incredible creativity, the arts scene that we have in this place.
‘‘This role gives me a chance, with a great team of people, and with lots of partners, to actually ensure that future generations of people coming to this city are going to have a similar experience, and that we will continue to attract the sort of talent that we need to enable that future.’’
Wellington had a great mix of local talent, and facilities to host them in, Allen said.
‘‘If you start bringing all of those folk together, you can create something truly amazing, and we are going to see the benefits of that over the next period.’’
‘‘A lot of economic development agencies struggle because they’re not clear about where they’re going to add value.’’ John Allen