Doing business with...

By CIO New Zealand staff | Tuesday, April 14 2009

Craig Richardson, CEO, Jade

Name: Craig Richardson

Company: Jade

Position: CEO

Age: 37

Where do you live? Christchurch

Are you married? Kids? Married to Victoria, with two budding Crusaders: Will, four, Reilly one; and a little Silver Fern, Charlotte, three.

Where did you go to school? Undergraduate degree in Hobart and postgraduate studies in Sydney.

How long have you been working in ICT? I have been privileged to work in senior executive roles for some of the world’s best known companies including Coca-Cola, Vodafone and BHP in Australasia and Europe. In all of these roles I have had responsibility for IT or led significant technology design, development and deployment programmes. I have also managed IT subsidiaries with a global footprint. I started as CEO of Jade in March after three years as the New Zealand chief financial officer of ASX listed Coca-Cola Amatil.

What are your interests outside work and ICT? Cycling, basketball, supporting the Aniridia Foundation, the Motor Neurone Disease Association and more recently, the adventures of Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy.

What’s the best thing about working with IT executives? Their unyielding belief they can solve our customers’ most difficult problems (and they do).

What is the worst? Expanding the IT agenda beyond technical innovation to embrace design thinking and collaborative innovation models.

For customers, are you the technical authority on products or an approachable ‘big picture’ person? Ultimately I get paid to design and articulate the ‘big picture’ for Jade, which is fundamentally about deep customer insights, understanding the most important trends emerging and determining the changes to encourage at Jade. My day job as 'Chief Enthusiasm Officer' however, is to keep some of the finest technical minds in the industry energised and to ensure they have the resources necessary to exceed our customers’ expectations. I have the easiest job in the business.

If you could invent any IT product for clients, what would it be? That big idea is between me and a smooth, jazz guitar playing, South American genius named Roger Jarquin, Jade’s head of technology. What I will say is you could never build the product on our competitors’ platforms.

What is the stupidest question CIOs ask you? Where is New Zealand?

What is your favourite networking situation? Situations where people are comfortable being real and authentic.

Do you prefer to work with people you know or relish the challenge of the new? Both. Working with inspirational staff and customers who you know intimately to achieve common objectives is very rewarding. There are however, many opportunities to make things new. There is not enough around that’s new.

What are you passionate about? I hope everything I turn my hand to, but most importantly my family and our Jade people.

What are you afraid of? Not much today. Thankfully he left the White House in early 2009.

I’d like to offer you a bribe… what couldn’t you resist? A double shot of Hummingbird coffee and tickets to the Bledisloe Cup.

What will you do when you retire? Jade chairman the Honourable Ruth Richardson once shared her definition of what constitutes a fulfilling career. From memory it was that one should make a contribution to business, a contribution to our country and a contribution to the future. I think retirement is your time to make sure you tick all those boxes. Of course some downtime on Matarangi Beach can help identify and clarify any gaps.