Tui Te Hau
Programme Manager | BA, Rongomaiwahine, Te Arawa, Tuwharetoa
E: tui.tehau@creativehq.co.nz
P:
About Tui
Early in her career, Tui had a singular ambition – to represent New Zealand in an international market.
In 2000, she got her chance as the New Zealand Trade Commissioner based in Melbourne. She spent the next three years working with New Zealand exporters and Australian buyers, agents, distributors and officials across a range of sectors including agriculture, plastics and hardware, chemicals and apparel.
“Trade New Zealand had been absent from Victoria for many years, so my first task was to set up the office and develop the strategic relationships that the post would need to deliver meaningful intelligence, information and connections for New Zealand exporters”.
At the leading edge of what it takes to grow a sustainable high growth businessMelbourne was a busy working post and most of Tui’s time was spent undertaking market research for New Zealand firms and networking like a mad woman.
The greatest lesson Tui learnt offshore was the value of relationships “I had no absolutely no contacts and had to really put myself out there. It made me appreciate the intimate and highly connected New Zealand business scene”.
However, Tui maintains that it’s one thing to get a connection but quite another to keep it. “I worked very hard to keep my networks warm not only in-market but back in New Zealand as well. I double checked every email back to home base as I had seen the negative consequences for colleagues who lost the trust and confidence onshore. It can get very lonely”.
Returning to New Zealand, Tui was able to apply her insights and learning’s in her role as Export Education Manager, running export capability workshops through-out the country.
Tui's incubation career began as chair of the Fashion HQ advisory group, leading into her role as Incubator Manager at Fashion HQ and later Creative HQ.
As Programme Manager, Tui is helping shape the systems underpinning Creative HQ to enable the incubator to scale to 29 + ventures over the coming year. And as the current crop of Creative HQ ventures mature, she is looking forward to helping them get export ready and into their first and subsequent markets.
"Creative HQ is at the leading edge of what it takes to grow a sustainable high growth business. I am constantly blown away by the ventures we work with and my Creative HQ colleagues"
Tui was appointed to the Maori Trade Marks Advisory Committee for the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand in 2004 and the Territorial Forces Employer Support Council (TFESC) in October 2011.
A busy mum to son Te Rino aka Batman, she can often be found at the zoo, can name every Ben 10 Alien character by sight, loves gardening shows but laments that her own is full of weeds, is partial to ginger kisses and really should work out more than she does.
