In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 67, our guest is Amelia Linzey, Group CEO of Engineering firm Beca.

Amelia Linzey has broken the mould in more ways than most of us. Firstly, if we think of large-scale infrastructure engineering as a ‘mans world’, then she has truly broken that particular glass ceiling. But her other main attribute is stickability. In an environment where change is rapid and people move jobs with regularity and ease, she’s been with the same company for thirty years.

She grew up on Auckland’s North Shore, studied geography, and after a brief stint in Council planning, she joined the engineering firm that has been her home ever since.

She’s a highly qualified and well regarded planner and social impact specialist. And she worked “on the tools” gradually leading larger projects for over 25 years, before the CEO suite came calling.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee Podcast Amelia speaks about that wonderful career that shows no sign of slowing down just yet. She is open about the challenges she’s faced and the broader range of opportunities for young engineers today.

But it is the scale of the work that Beca does that grabs our attention. From an electrical transmission project in New South Wales, to massive integrated resort and office precinct in Singapore, climate resilience work in the Pacific and a giant water infrastructure project in Melbourne, the work is large scale infrastructure with big budgets and big pressures.

But she seems to handle it all in her very brisk stride.

As you might imagine, Amelia Linzey has a unique perspective on New Zealand’s infrastructure deficit and she speaks with Bruce Cotterill about how we might go about gradually correcting the underinvestment of the past. It’s a massive advantage that we have the knowledge right here in this country, with people who know a lot about building hospitals, water infrastructure, electricity generation and tourism venues.

This is a great discussion that captures many variables. It’s a story of a working mum with an outstanding career, and a commentary on infrastructure construction for today and the future.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 67 with Bruce Cotterill and Amelia Linzey

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We’re half way through the year and “dry July” is underway. So what better time to talk about health, nutrition and diet?

In Leaders Getting Coffee episode 66, our guest is Professor Caryn Zinn, Professor of Nutrition at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).

Her story starts in South Africa, where she was born, and her early University studies were conducted in Cape Town. Upon graduation, she moved to New Zealand for what she thought would be a period of time. But it was to become her life.

Her first job here was as a public health dietician in Whangarei, but academia called and a Master’s degree focusing on Sports Nutrition and a PhD centred on weight loss followed.

A chance engagement in 2014, challenged her conventional nutrition paradigm, and she developed her own nutrition philosophy in light of the emerging science on insulin resistance and metabolic health. Her journey endured multiple challenges from the change resistant establishment, but her conviction ensured that she prevailed. She is now regarded as one of the most recognised leaders in therapeutic carbohydrate reduction, both in New Zealand and abroad.

Professor Zinn speaks openly about the challenges of leading pioneering change in a sector that often prefers the comfortable route. But her story is compelling and like any scientist who “follows the evidence” her approach is now well accepted.

During the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Caryn Zinn speaks to Bruce Cotterill about how a team effort led to the publication of not one, but five books resulting from their research, including the highly regarded “What the Fat?” Her writing has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers around the world to the low-carb, healthy-fat way of eating.

There is plenty of discussion about what’s right and wrong with our diets, how we can be better, and how to get help if we need it. There’s also an interesting discussion about how supplements can support our lifestyles and some common sense advice around alcohol consumption.

But most of all, this is a story about a high achiever who dared to believe that another way was possible, and in fact better, and who committed herself to changing attitudes and outcomes in a world challenged by change.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 66 with Bruce Cotterill and Professor Caryn Zinn

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In episode 65 of the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, our guest is the veteran Political Journalist Barry Soper.

Barry Soper is our most seasoned, and arguably most respected political correspondent. He’s covered the premierships of twelve Prime Ministers, all of them very different, across five decades.

It’s a story worthy of a book, and his newly released political memoir entitled “One Last Question, Prime Minister” doesn’t disappoint.

But his life could have been so different. When he pulled out of Police College in his late teens, his mother had a job lined up for him, as a tractor salesman. But an accidental conversation with a correspondent from the local paper, changed his trajectory and his fortunes and a lifetime in journalism was born.

He went on to work with many of the provincial newspapers across the country, and after an OE full of stories that only a man of his experience can tell, he returned to a broadcasting career that continues to this day.

On the Leaders Getting Coffee podcast, Barry talks to Bruce Cotterill about all twelve of those Prime Ministers. His role has enabled him to get to know them all well, he’s travelled with them, and seen them up close in electoral victory and defeat.

He shares those experiences openly, and with a sense of humour that only the best story tellers can deliver. You might expect him to have strong and well informed views on some of our best and worst Prime Ministers. You might not expect him to be so open in sharing those views.

As this election year gathers steam, this is an opportunity to hear from a man who has been as close to the political action as it’s possible to be. It’s a insightful analysis of the progress this country has made over the last fifty years, and the people who have led us.

The book again. “One Last Question, Prime Minister” by Barry Soper.

Leaders Getting Coffee – Episode 65 with Bruce Cotterill and Barry Soper, Newstalk ZB’s Senior Political Correspondent.

Download it here.

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