Award nominee keeps up momentum

ROBERT CHARLES

Rewarding career: New Plymouth business woman Elaine Gill is a finalist in the 2010 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award.

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From secondary school teacher to businesswoman extraordinaire, New Plymouth's Elaine Gill has a career headed in only one direction.

After nearly four decades working for various community groups, chairing TSB Bank and the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust and serving as a councillor for the New Plymouth District Council for three terms, Mrs Gill, 63, has been named as one of five finalists for the 2010 Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award.

It is the third time the award has been held in New Zealand and honours women in business who display determination, vision, corporate responsibility, financial success and creativity.

Mrs Gill was nominated by New Plymouth mayor Peter Tennent but says although she is a finalist she hasn't managed to make people sit up and take notice, like nominee Lisa Lewis.

"Let's just say she has bigger assets than me but she didn't make it as a finalist," Mrs Gill says of the self-promoting exotic dancer and prostitute.

But while the Hamilton stripper didn't make the shortlist Mrs Gill did, joining Carmel Fisher, manager and director of Fisher Funds; Cathy Quinn, a partner in law firm Minter Ellison Rudd Watts; Jenny Yule, founder and manager of in-home childcare provider Porse and Rachel Taulelei, managing director and founder of seafood supply firm Yellow Brick Road.

"It's great," she says of her awards status. "It's fantastic for the province. The last two winners have been based in Auckland."

Last week Mrs Gill flew to Auckland to be interviewed by the judges. "I assume the interview is to sort the sheep from the goats," she says.

The winner will go to France to attend the 2010 International Business Women's Forum at Veuve Clicquot in Reims.

The winner will be announced on March 25 and will join past winners Julie Christie and Annah Stretton.

Often described by those who know her as an amazing woman full of drive, Mrs Gill says it is her inability to sit still which has aided her in her career.

"I just do it," she says of her various positions. "I have a very low boredom threshold and sitting on my bum for too long drives me around the bend and despite my great age, I have very high energy levels."

Originally from Newcastle, England, Mrs Gill emigrated to New Zealand 40 years ago. A qualified secondary school teacher, she decided to retrain as a lawyer.

"I couldn't get a job because in those days it (a woman in law) was almost unheard of," Mrs Gill says.

Instead she was hired as the chief executive of Tourism Taranaki, where she stayed for 12 years. "It was a fascinating time.

"You learn as you go and if you do things, you learn, and I have been helped a lot along the way."

Two of her more prominent positions have been as chairwoman of TSB Bank and of the Taranaki Arts Festival Trust which manages Womad, the Taranaki Festival of the Arts and the Taranaki Rhododendron and Garden Festival.

"I took over as chairwoman of the arts festival trust at an interesting time," she says.

It was essentially a group of interested parties running the trust when Mrs Gill took on the position and since then the events have grown and together have an economic impact on Taranaki in the tens of millions of dollars.

"It needed to be running more like a business and I was there to bring about those changes," she says of her appointment.

In fact, Taft wasn't the only place that would experience a significant increase in revenue and structure. Mrs Gill has also been instrumental in the TSB Bank, which has had an increase in profits every year of her tenure.

"It's the longest-running community-based bank, which is still solvent which is both a credit to the staff and the board."

She says while other businesses floundered during the economic recession, TSB Bank still managed to go from strength to strength. "It's very exciting. It has just been a huge success."

Among her high-profile roles are smaller community-based projects which Mrs Gill considers just as important including her role as chairwoman of Taranaki Employment Support, a community project which does $500,000 worth of business a year.

And although some might say Mrs Gill has already achieved a significant amount during her career - she has not finished yet.

"I still have loads to do. I will never say 'that's it'. There are always opportunities that you can grasp at and grow."

- © Fairfax NZ News