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"As long as you come back alive, it's all good." I joined Callaghan Innovation on May 3 and was pleased that a lot of excellent work has already been done to develop and implement a business plan. My initial objectives will be to meet key people inside and outside the agency, listen to diverse points of view, and get up to speed on immediate issues and opportunities. Our mission is to accelerate the commercialization of innovation in New Zealand so my top priority will be to focus and align Callaghan Innovation on achieving that mission. However, creating greater value from advanced manufacturing and services is really a national cause that involves all New Zealanders; not just the employees of Callaghan Innovation. The owners and managers of businesses, financial investors, Maori owned corporations, government departments, research institutions, universities, even high school students making a decision whether to go on to university or not, are all contributing to the innovation wealth and potential of the country. My vision is that "Callaghan Innovation" represents not just an organization, but a national movement towards greater prosperity and quality of life for all New Zealanders, living here or abroad. You have been in many influential senior roles. What has been your most fulfilling to date? Each role has been fulfilling in different ways. A particularly fulfilling aspect of being President of NANA Management Services (NMS) was achieving the company's dual financial and social missions. NMS is half-owned by the Inupiat people of Northwest Alaska so the company not only had to grow and generate a profit like any business but also create employment and career advancement opportunities for its Inupiat shareholders, many of whom still live traditional subsistence lifestyles in remote villages above the Arctic Circle. I was able to introduce initiatives and programs that allowed NMS to hire nearly 400 shareholders. One program, created by NMS' Security Division, involved hiring shareholders to monitor sea mammal populations during off-shore drilling by oil companies. This program had an environmental benefit as well. You are known to many as an "inspirational speaker". What are the main things people ask you to speak about? What is your personal favourite topic to speak about? Most often I am asked to speak about being taken hostage in Yemen, along with 15 other tourists, in December of 1998. I also wrote a book about the kidnapping and my investigation into who took us hostage and why. In recent years I have preferred not to speak on that topic, or only incidentally, just because it happened fifteen years ago so is "ancient history" for me now. I prefer to address current business topics and especially social issues related to business. Recent topics I've enjoyed speaking about are the financial challenges of providing healthcare insurance for low wage employees and the consequences of President Obama's Affordable Care Act for the services industries; creating a safety culture and reducing industrial accidents, especially in an organization where many employees speak little or no English; or the role of business in creating jobs and career advancement for indigenous people. My new favorite topic to speak about is, of course, innovation! And, no, I am rarely nervous about speaking in public. I was on my high school debating team at St Joseph's in Palmerston North and was lead speaker for the University of Canterbury Debating Team so I learned to be comfortable speaking to an audience long before I began my business career. What are some significant life lessons that you have learnt throughout your corporate career? Two life lessons come to mind: One is that I don't have to know the right answer or come up with the right solution; I just need to listen to the people around me because collectively we can usually figure it out. Even when I do have a good idea it's usually even better after other people get involved and develop the idea further. The second is that most problems aren't as bad as you think they are at the time. With the benefit of hindsight you can usually see that there were more options open to you, or the consequences were less devastating, than it seemed at the time. I try to remind myself of that when faced with a difficult situation now – I try to imagine it's five years into the future and ask myself if it will it still be a big deal then? Time provides a wonderful sense WHO IS MARY QUIN: Dr Mary Quin is the inaugural Chief Executive of Callaghan Innovation. She returned to New Zealand to take up the role in May, after 20 years working overseas in senior executive roles in NASDAQ-listed companies such as Eastman Kodak Company and Xerox, where she was VP of Strategy and Business Development for Xerox' US$5.5 billion Production Systems Group. Her most recent role was as President of the 2,800-person US support services company, NANA Management Services LLC in Alaska. Dr Quin graduated from the University of Canterbury with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) with First Class Honours in Physics. She completed a PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University in Illinois and after working in research and development for engineering company Raychem for several years, attended Harvard Business School, where she graduated as a Baker Scholar. After surviving a terrorist kidnapping incident in Yemen in 1998, Mary met her partner Ray Kaufman and moved with him to Alaska in 2001. She researched and published a best-selling book about the kidnapping then launched an organic products retail company, Tuliqi LLC, before joining NMS as its President. www.h e rmagaz in e .co.n z | 9 www.h e rmagaz in e .co.n z