The Organisational Culture Summit attracts a fantastic mix of inspirational speakers and successful case study speakers. Speakers at the 2025 are currently being confirmed – bios and photos of those speakers already confirmed can be found below:
Gilbert Enoka has a long history of success as a mental skills coach with New Zealand’s corporate and sporting elite. He is internationally renowned for his 23-year history with the All Blacks, first as their mental skills coach and then as All Blacks Manager – Leadership.
He has been with the All Blacks for over 300 tests and during that time the team has won back-to-back Rugby World Cups, a very close runner up in 2023, one Laureus Award (for the best team in the world), 21 consecutive Bledisloe Cups, three Grand Slams, eight Tri Nations and Nine Rugby Championships.
Gilbert has worked as a mental skills coach for the All Blacks, Canterbury Crusaders, the Silver Ferns and the Black Caps and strongly believes that players who are mentally prepared will perform better on the day. Gilbert is currently consulting with Chelsea Football club in the UK.
He has also worked as a highly skilled practitioner, working on performance enhancement for over thirty years with top CEO’s, businesses, and sporting elite.
Gilbert is philosophical in his approach to his own life and thrives on working with people who are in pursuit of excellence, consistency, and sustained performance over time.
Cecilia Robinson is an award winning visionary who has founded three hugely successful businesses – Au Pair Link, My Food Bag and Tend.
Current work
After a personal experience of utilising a virtual consultation with international medical specialists, Cecilia saw a possibility for a big change in New Zealand’s healthcare system. In 2019 Cecilia and James brought together some of New Zealand’s most incredible technology and health talent to revolutionise healthcare. They subsequently became founders and Co-CEO’s of Tend Health.
In 2019, Cecilia joined Pie Funds Management Limited as a Director. Cecilia’s role is not only around the performance of the business but on the people and marketing strategy that will underpin their next significant growth chapter ahead.
Cecilia was honoured to become a Board Trustee on the Kings Trust (formerly Prince’s Trust International) in 2018. The Trusts mission is to activate young New Zealanders as the designers, authors, dreamers, and creators of a more equitable, sustainable and prosperous future.
Entrepreneurship
Cecilia and her husband James Robinson founded Au Pair Link and under their ownership it became an award-winning business, enjoying appearances in the Deloitte Fast 50 (ranked 12th in 2012), Kenexa Best Workplaces (ranked 6th best workplace in 2013) and winning several awards in the HER Business Woman Awards including ‘Best new business’ and ‘Best SME’. James and Cecilia sold the business in late 2014.
Cecilia founded My Food Bag in 2013 alongside well-known MasterChef Winner, Nadia Lim and Businesswoman, Theresa Gattung as well as her husband James Robinson and Nadia Lim’s husband, Carlos Bagrie. My Food Bag became one of the most talked about and fastest growing companies in New Zealand. Cecilia and James continue to be involved in My Food Bag as Directors.
Touted as a serial entrepreneur and one of New Zealand’s most successful businesswomen, Cecilia founded Tend in 2020, which has experienced exponential growth, with almost 500 team members, and 25 clinics and growing!
Awards
Cecilia has been acknowledged for her success as a multi award winning businesswoman – including the 2017 supreme award at the Westpac Women of Influence Awards, the Business Enterprise Award and in October of 2020, Cecilia was inducted into The New Zealand Hall of Fame for Women Entrepreneurs. Cecilia is currently a finalist for the revered title of Innovator of the Year for the NZ Kiwibank awards, recognising her dedication to making New Zealand a better place for all, and redefining health care delivery.
Craig is the former Xero Managing Director for New Zealand and the Pacific Islands, and a champion for wellbeing in business.
Growing up in Tauranga on a Kiwifruit orchard with his Mum and two sisters, Craig found school challenging but held onto a dream of becoming an All Black. He went on to have a very successful career in professional rugby for eight years, being selected for the Crusaders during one of their most successful periods and going on to play internationally in France, England and Wales. During this time Craig struggled with the effects of imposter syndrome living in an extremely high pressure environment. Craig’s contract was terminated due to illness and upon returning to New Zealand, Craig continued to struggle with his mental health.
Upon receiving a role at a supportive family owned business in New Zealand, Craig was able to thrive and ultimately receive the help he needed to improve his wellbeing.
Alongside his wife and four children, Craig moved to the United Kingdom where he began his career at Xero, working through the company leading Xero’s entrance into Europe, the Middle East and South Africa. Returning to New Zealand in 2017, where Craig was Managing Director for Xero New Zealand and Pacific Islands before finishing this role in 2022. Craig was a key member of the senior executive team at Xero responsible for driving relationships with government, financial institutions, enterprise and promoting the small business economy. His work has created a huge impact on mental health in businesses around Aotearoa with a focus on wellbeing support for small business.
Currently, Craig is the General Manager of Export Customers at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise where he shares his authentic leadership and culture building expertise.
Craig has been recognised for his work around mental health in business and has been awarded the Walk the Talk Award at Diversity Works, was a semi-finalist for New Zealander of the Year and was voted The Most Inspiring Individual in Tech at the Hi-Tech Awards.
The work he achieved during his time at Xero has emphasised the importance of looking after employees’ mental health and included championing the introduction of wellbeing leave, flexible working practices, and the development of an inclusive and diverse workplace.
Craig has been hugely influential in putting the spotlight on the stresses small businesses face, including setting up a programme offering mental health support to 5000 small business owners, their employees and families via access to anonymous counselling through its Employment Assistant Programme.
Alongside being a role model and leader in wellness, Craig actively encourages a diverse workplace where team members are free to share their ideas and concerns. Most importantly to him though, he is a husband and Dad to four.
Feisty, funny and fabulous. Lisa O’Neill is an absolute beam of light that will electrify your life.
With the rare ability to deliver powerful messages through side-splitting humour, Lisa is highly sought after as a keynote speaker, facilitator and MC across Australia and New Zealand.
After more than a decade on stage, Lisa is consistently top-rated in conference and workshop evaluations. Participants love her straight-talking, refreshing wisdom and infectious laughter. They respond to her call to live big lives and to become the best version of themselves.
Lisa is the author of five books, ‘Look Gorgeous Be Happy’, ‘Juggling in High Heels’, ’The Lickable Third’, ‘100 Questions to Self Awareness’ and ‘Everything You Want’.
Michael is a Corporate Anthropologist, which means he has a degree in understanding human cultures and shares this knowledge with organisations to enable them to align company culture as a strategic asset.
He has over 40 years of experience and has overseen over 300 culture transformation projects, which has taught him what works and what doesn’t when it comes to changing or improving culture.
His work has been hailed by the world’s leading expert in organisational culture, the late Professor Edgar Schein of M.I.T Sloan School of Management. Professor Schein described Michaels’s approach to organisational culture as providing ” the missing link” that organisations have overlooked to truly understand what culture is and how to align culture as a strategic asset.
Michael is the author of ten books on Company Culture, Leading Culture, Aligning culture as a strategic asset, and the role of values in driving organisational performance and employee engagement.
Some of Michael’s clients and results;
Jess is an international speaker, coach and author of six personal development books specialising in mindset, performance and women in leadership. She is also a well known Imposter Syndrome expert with a background in Senior Human Resources roles and a decade working in leadership development.
Jess is a highly acclaimed event speaker and proud member of the rainbow community. Featured on TV3, BBC, RNZ, Dominion Post, Stuff and NZ Business Magazine, she is described as inspiring, articulate and relatable by audiences. Jess has a passion for sharing her knowledge and motivating others with her words and a drive to level the playing field in the gender diversity space.
A brush with burnout in her corporate career led Jess across the world to train with Buddhist monks and nuns. A decade later, after coming out, writing six books and running her own successful business she shares what she knows about mind-set, resilience and self-belief to empower people to unlock their potential.
Jess helps busy high achievers go from burnout to brilliance, to cultivate a mindset of peak performance, lead with confidence, fuel their tanks to ensure they are a sustainable resource and can achieve their potential to have influence and impact.
Meredith’s deep knowledge of people and culture has made her a highly sought-after speaker, mentor and strategist. She has led culture at the Executive and Board level for more than 15 years, in large teams globally and in ASX10 organisations.
As CEO of The People Game, Meredith works with leaders and organisations to shift culture. Using her first-hand experience of leading teams and culture through rapid growth, acquisitions, downturns, turnarounds and transformations in the corporate world, she can make culture work for you.
Meredith develops leaders through Mentoring, Masterclasses and Retreats.
Angus is the former GM of Leadership and Capability at NZ’s largest company, Fonterra, where he led the development of leadership, management and functional capability and deployment through the learning ecosystem across the global Co-operative of 22,000 employees. He has extraordinary energy with an insatiable motivation to be of service, create meaning and leave a lasting impact. He commits to those who step into discomfort, act vulnerably and authentically, and go wherever it takes to notice, learn and be their change.
2 years ago, Angus launched his leadership practice, with its focus on transforming leaders who are serious about learning to live with purpose, kindness and joy. And 6 months ago Angus began his partnership with PlanetK2 – the world leaders in human performance. He leads their entry into the NZ and soon to be Australian markets.