Taranaki business advisor takes out IoD Emerging Director Award
The timing could not be better, says Loren Anderson, winner of the Emerging Director Award from the Institute of Directors (IoD) Taranaki Branch.
As a business advisor for New Plymouth accounting and business performance specialists Velocite, Anderson loves seeing her clients prosper and being part of that journey.
She also sits on a number of boards and was thinking of hitting pause, and reassessing where she wanted to focus her time with community roles.
“This is really good timing,” she said. “It feels like the past 10 years of hard work have paid off. I’m finding my place. I love sitting on advisory boards. I find it really rewarding. It’s an opportunity to continue to grow my skills but also give back.”
The Anderson name is well known in the Taranaki farming community, her family arriving as early settlers in the 1800s.
And she has expanded the family name into business communities with her passion for helping people navigate change, build growth strategies and coach owners.
“I absolutely love it,” she said. “It’s my skillset and strengths in a nutshell, and that’s helping business owners. I get to do it every day.
“I love seeing business owners achieve what they want to achieve and being part of that journey. Predominantly, I undertake a lot of strategic planning and business planning sessions, mentoring and being a sounding board.
“I have formed a high-trust relationship with these people. I know these owners really well, they have become friends. It’s a real privilege that they trust me to help them with their businesses.”
And it’s all thanks to a chance meeting about five years ago with Velocite director and owner Grant McQuoid, who created the role for her when she was about to head to Australia to look for work.
“He has been a mentor of mine for probably the past 10 years, going back to my first real job out of uni at the Chamber of Commerce,” she said.
Anderson has been active in community boards in the region since her return to Taranaki 10 years ago after spending time in the UK and studying in Wellington. She has been involved in Innovation and R&D Lead Group (Taranaki 2050), as a Business Excellence Awards judge, mentoring at Startup Weekend, mentoring in the Taranaki Futures Accelerator Programme and as a Taranaki Young Professionals executive committee member.
“Last year I was appointed a trustee of the Taranaki Foundation, a not-for-profit charity where people give us endowments that we invest and then pay them as dividends out into community causes. It’s philanthropic people investing for the region.
“I see myself going down a governance route. I’m trying to find a balance between all of these things I do at the moment, balancing my role at Velocite, with family and all my governance roles.”
As a recipient of the IoD Award, Anderson receives $2,000 towards IoD governance development courses, a year’s complimentary membership of the Institute, and mentoring from an experienced director. She will receive mentoring, and have an observer role, on the Board of the Western Institute of Technology. Her prize is sponsored by Powerco.
IoD Taranaki Branch manager Rachel Church said Anderson had impressed the award judges with her “service orientation and the breadth of experiences she has pursued, along with her broad awareness of key governance risks and opportunities”.
For more information contact:
Mark Russell (He/Him)
Communications Manager
Ph: 027 297 0178
mark.russell@iod.org.nz