Director calls for more young people on boards
Award-winning Taranaki director Jessie Waite says primary sector governance needs more young people.
Now, as she heads into her fourth decade on boards, she has received the Institute of Directors' (IoD) highest honour of Distinguished Fellow (DistFInstD).
Suckling was appointed to her first board role at the age of 27, holding her own on what was then a newly established Crown entity, the Trade Development Board, where she was appointed by then Minister of Trade and Enterprise, Mike Moore.
At the time, she was CEO of an innovative meat industry joint venture between a New Zealand and German company and was headhunted after being named 'Businesswoman of the Year'.
"The Minister put me in as the meat industry person because I think he wanted a different view other than the traditional leaders of the big commodity businesses, which were huge," Suckling said.
The board consisted of "key export earners and innovative leaders in the industry" - all of them, men. Suckling and Dame Patsy Reddy were among the very few women on New Zealand boards at that time.
Holding first class honours and a masters in biotechnology, Suckling, who was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2015, was not intimidated by the men at the table. Had she been, she wouldn't be here to tell her story.
"Everyone could have been grandfather in terms of age - they were highly networked businessmen, including the heads of the wool, dairy, kiwifruit, and tourism boards," said Suckling, who recalls how they almost had a language of their own.
"I had to have the confidence to contribute and that came about because I believed in what we were doing. I thought about my contribution and how it could make a difference."
Suckling has made contributions to many boards, including chairing NIWA, NZQA, Barker Fruit Processors, AssureQuality, Southpower (now Orion) and Callaghan Innovation. She is also one of the founders of the Oxford Clinic (now Forte Health), and the first independent female director on the New Zealand Dairy Board in its lead-up to the formation of Fonterra.
Passionate about driving growth in SMEs, she chairs Jade Software, Jacobsen's Group, Rubix Project Management and Boulcott Hospital. So, with a longstanding governance career, what is the secret to remaining engaged in this space, especially as a busy mother of four?
"I've always been someone to make things happen. I get up every day and look at what we're trying to do and what we want to achieve," she said.
For Suckling, it was never about sitting on boards per se. But rather, a pure desire to help companies or organisations achieve their goal and bring them to life.
"I stepped into it, and that's sort of how I lived my career really."
Her get-up-and-go attitude is mostly innate and part of her dynamic personality.
When she's excited about an idea, she has a drive to manifest it. But she also cites her mother as a strong influence and, as a child, she was immersed in a world "if you wanted to do something, you could make it happen".
