Jiabao (Boa) Zhao
Theresa Gattung
A prominent New Zealand business leader, Theresa Gattung shattered glass ceilings as the first female CEO of a major New Zealand company, co-founded MyFoodBag and chaired high-profile organisations.
Chair of Global Women, Co-Founder of My Food Bag, ex-CEO of Telecom
Rotorua, New Zealand
Hamilton
Theresa Gattung is one of New Zealand’s most well-known and successful business leaders.
She was the first woman to be appointed CEO of a large New Zealand public company (Telecom), is the co-founder of MyFoodBag, and was the first chair of Wool Partners International.
Having chaired many high-profile businesses and charities, Theresa was recognised for her services to business and philanthropy in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List. And in 2018, she received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Women of Influence Awards.
Raised in Rotorua in the 1970s, from a young age Theresa was keen to work hard and get ahead. She was also motivated to change the lack of female representation she saw in the leadership and governance sector.
“I’ve been a feminist my whole life. I have three younger sisters and my dad was a big supporter of women’s rights, and very interested in business. I’ve always felt naturally inclined to support other women to succeed,” she says.
After high school, in 1980 Theresa began a Bachelor of Management Studies at Waikato Management School, with a double major in economics and marketing.
“I loved business and I said to myself, “I’m going to run a large company by the time I’m 40.”
Theresa recalls her university days fondly. “It was fantastic, the whole experience. There were around six other women in my class at the time. I enjoyed my interactions with my classmates and with the lecturers, and the 499 [Report of an Investigation paper] was a real highlight.”
She also took some elective papers in Japanese and women’s studies. “At the time, it was unheard of to study business alongside women’s studies. It’s still rare now, but more so back then.”
Study what you’re interested in – and if you don’t know what you’re interested in, a broad-based business degree is a good start.
Theresa Gattung
After graduating from Waikato in 1984, Theresa headed for Wellington to do a law degree. She got a marketing job at TVNZ, and after 18 months was promoted to manager. “I realised pretty quickly I didn’t want to give up that job to practise law, but I finished the degree anyway.”
In 1994, Theresa joined Telecom as General Manager of Marketing. This was followed by a three-year stint as Group General Manager of Services, reporting directly to the CEO.
“The only thing that mattered in big publicly listed companies was the bottom line … If you took a role as a senior executive in those companies, those were the rules you played by. And I desperately wanted to make it to the very top.”
The key turning point came in 1999 when Theresa was appointed as Telecom’s new CEO at the age of 37 – making history as the first female to head an NZX publicly listed company, and the youngest CEO they’d ever had.
Over the next seven years, she oversaw Telecom’s evolution from a typical telco to New Zealand’s number one IT provider, with billions of dollars in annual turnover.
In 2007, Theresa’s success in business was celebrated by the University of Waikato when she received a Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2008, she was appointed as Chair of Wool Partners International, which marked the beginning of her career in governance.
A lot has happened in Theresa’s life since then, including writing her memoir, Bird on a Wire: The Inside Story from a Straight Talking CEO.
L-R: Nadia Lim, Theresa Gattung and Cecilia Robinson
In 2013, she co-founded My Food Bag with Cecilia Robinson and Nadia Lim in 2013.
“My Food Bag was the start of an amazing journey for me. The power of entrepreneurial projects to integrate the commercial world with social outcomes fascinates me.”
While she’s recognised as a trailblazer for women in leadership, Theresa has also helped to bring about platforms for supporting women leaders and entrepreneurs.
Theresa is the Chair of Global Women and the New Zealand Country Lead for SheEO, a global initiative that supports women-led ventures in taking their products to the world.
Theresa says there are a lot more career options for aspiring women leaders these days.
“I always say that life is very long, what you were doing in your 20s you probably won’t be doing in your 40s, so don’t worry too much about getting it ‘right’ when you’re young.”
Her advice to others contemplating university? “Study what you’re interested in – and if you don’t know what you’re interested in, a broad-based business degree is a good start.”
