Each year, a school student and an AUT business or law student spends one day with a business manager or chief executive of a local company to gain insights on effective leadership.
This year’s event on July 6 began with a breakfast at AUT for all leaders and their students, where AUT alumni Adriana Christie, (co-owner Pallet Kingdom) delivered the keynote address.
This year’s students have taken part in a variety of business activities including media engagements, executive and board meetings, client discussions, brainstorms, networking functions and presentations. The day has also given students a rare insight into the realities of being a leader – such as striking the right balance between work and life.
Tony Falkenstein, chief executive of Just Water International, says he is delighted to host two of this year’s students.
“If a young person has not been brought up in a business household, they see the business world like a foreign country. The AUT ‘Shadow a Leader’ programme allows them to experience the business world, from the top, for a day, and they tend to find it is not so frightening, and often is a day that shapes their life forever”.
Anton Vera from AUT’s Business School spent the day with shadowing Falkenstein.
Vera hopes the Shadow a Leader programme will allow him to kick-start his career by getting his foor in the door of some of New Zealand’s biggest companies.
“The AUT initiative will put me face to face with veterans of the business industry and will present countless networking opportunities for future employment.”
Idealog co-founder Vincent Heeringa was shadowed by Morgan MacFadyen? and Stellar Davis, and, from Twitter, it looks like it was rewarding:
I think my brain is going to explode – in a good way ? #AUTSAL @AUTuni @idealogmag
— Morgan MacFadyen (@morganmacfad) July 6, 2016
Shadow a Leader is the AUT Business Faculty’s own Leadership Week initiative. Each team consists of a business leader, one secondary school student, and one AUT Faculty of Business and Law Student.
