Foundation North participates in Shadow A Leader initiative

As part of Leadership Week, Foundation North’s CEO Jennifer Gill welcomed two Shadow A Leader participants to the Foundation’s HQ on 4 July.

As well as shadowing Jennifer, AUT Business student Claire Mourits and Ayame van Beusekom from Albany Senior High School met with the organisation’s Leadership Group and connected with other staff during the day to experience what it is like to run the country’s largest philanthropic trust.

The aim of Shadow A Leader is to give secondary school students and AUT Business, Economics and Law students the opportunity to follow a business leader for a day and to understand what it takes to succeed in the leader’s profession. Students are identified as having future business leadership potential.

Both young women, who had been nominated by their teachers and Heads of Department, took a huge amount away from the day. "Being fully immersed in the day to day runnings of Foundation North was such a valuable experience. It has opened my eyes to the world of philanthropy, and given me an insight into how business practices can be used to activate social change", said Claire.

Ayame added, "Having insight behind the scenes at Foundation North helped me understand the hard work and collaboration that goes into maintaining a successful business. I will definitely use this knowledge in the future to hopefully run a business of my own."

AUT’s Shadow A Leader is an initiative to support Leadership Week, which takes place in the first week of July each year.