A leader among CEOs

Burke started off as a tractor driver 30 years ago at Gisborne-based LeaderBrand and rose through the ranks to become CEO of the company for the past 10 years. Now the sons of Murray McPhail, who set up the company, have decided they will run the family business themselves.

Burke did quite well at accountancy school in Gisborne so decided he'd give office work a go. But soon he realised that he wanted to work outside and almost immediately headed off overseas to try his luck in the UK. Luck he struck in meeting a UK girl who later became his wife and through a set of circumstances they stayed in NZ and had a family.

"My initial plan was to go back to the UK but to do this I needed a job and a mate suggested that I might get one at LeaderBrand, which I did - driving a tractor - and in the end, I just stayed with the company and moved up through the ranks. About 14 years ago, owner Murray McPhail decided to step away from the business for a while to do other things and he offered me the CEO role," he told Rural News.

The transition from being one of the team to the boss and leader was a steep learning curve for Burke. He says he had to learn a few hard truths about the changes he needed to make himself in the new role, but once that occurred, he says they made some cool progress and do some great things. This included building a new greenhouse, buying out competitors and setting up a salad factory.

"It was really exciting," he says.

But while all the material things may look exciting, Burke says for him the times he remembers most were the hard times. Times, he says, when there were floods, disasters, product recalls or whatever.

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"Times when my back was up against the wall and people were looking to me for leadership to deal with a crisis and then to put them at ease," he says.

Developing his own leadership skills and building relationships both within and outside the business was another highlight of his tenure as CEO, says Burke. He says a lot of hi time was spent corralling people to work in the same direction, whether they agreed with it or not, was a big part of the job.

His interest in leadership came to the fore when he attended an advanced executive leadership and management course at the prestigious University of Oxford in England - a three-week course for some of the world's top executives.

Future Plans

"I don't have a lot of plans right at the moment," says Richard Burke, as the 53-year-old ponders his next career move.

He still has ties in Gisborne where his elderly parents still live, but both his children are overseas. Son Fergus is playing professional rugby for the English club Saracens. He says leaving Gisborne could be an option an adds that in the course of his time at LeaderBrand he's spent a lot of time travelling anyway.

He says he knew that at some stage he would have to leave LeaderBrand and a succession plan to build capability in the company is in place. He says in the last six or so years he's enjoyed watching staff grow and develop and says helping others to do that in future in another capacity may be an option. Burke says change is a bit daunting and scary but many people have come to him with options.

"I do love the industry and think it's very interesting, diverse and changing and I think there is almost a revolution coming in the form of new technology and other things to make it competitive and that still really excites me. But I am really interested in leadership positions, and I'll look at options and just wait for the right role to come up," he says.