LEADERSHIP The Chair, Prize-giving Speech
Nau mai, haere mai E te manuhiri tu ¯ a¯rangi, Haere mai mo ¯ te¯nei hui, Mo ¯ te¯nei kaupapa o ¯ te ra¯
Ko Hugh to ¯ ku ingoa No ¯ ingarangi ahau
Engari, i neke ahau ki Aotearoa i te tau kotahi mano iwa rau waru tekau Na¯ia te mihi atu ki te mana whenua, Nga¯i Tu ¯ a¯huriri No ¯ reira, te¯na¯ koutou, te¯na¯ koutou, Te¯na¯ koutou katoa. I must admit it feels strange to be giving this address in October. It seems like our equivalent of Ballantynes already selling Christmas decorations. There is though, method in this decision to encourage the biggest turnout of our senior cohort before the challenges and disruption of study leave and exams. On that, the Board wishes the students well. Last year’s prize-giving was scaled back due to Covid-19 and so seeing, as I do from here, a full house, whilst slightly nerve-wracking, is great, and I warmly welcome you all. Some of you with a keen sense of history and tradition may also have noticed another subtle change to the processional aspect of this event as only Jeremy Johnson, the Deputy Chair, and I are on stage today. This is not because our colleagues are disinterested but rather that the current Board does not wish to sit in front of the staff who, alongside the acknowledgment of the performance of our students, should be the centre of attention, as it is they and not the Board that day in and day out supports your boys’ endeavours at College in a multitude of different ways. It would also be true to say that some Board members have been more philosophically resistant
than others in wearing a tie for this event. Without intending there to be any link whatsoever between that statement and the next, I want to acknowledge that this is Trevor Burt’s last prize-giving as a member of the Board. Trevor has been the senior governance professional on our board over the last nine years and we are better off for his governance acuity, pragmatism and plain common sense. He has a sixth sense when it comes to summing up a discussion at Board meetings to focus us when we need that focus and clarity on our strategic role in governing College. I want to thank you Trevor for your contribution around our table and your generous philanthropy, and I wish you and your family well for the future. During the course of the year, David Surveyor also stepped down. David brought serious commercial and financial acumen to the Board, especially in the context of the sustainability of our financial model. Thank you, David.
We recently conducted a recruitment process and I am pleased that Oliver Hickman and Murray Harrington were appointed at the last Board meeting. They join Jeremy Johnson, Gillian Simpson, Bishop Peter Carrell, Tim Kerr, Mark Cox, and Richard Rookes. The Board members all give generously of their time and that is much appreciated. I want to thank them all, and note that many of them are here sitting upstairs in the mezzanine, where ties are optional. The governance of College has evolved materially from the not so recent past to ensure we have access to the skills and competencies necessary to support Garth and his team in implementing the current iteration of our strategy, so that Christ’s College remains at the forefront in its delivery of a rich mix of co-curricular and academic programmes that offer so much to the students here. We have a number of strategic priorities that we discuss at our meetings. At this time of year, the one that exercises us most is
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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