“Faster than a speeding bullet, more accurate than a scud missile, will boldly go where no reasonable man should go, 500+ connections on Linked-In, 3,000+ Facebook friends... is there one man who has contributed more to business development in New Zealand?”
This man is Andy Hamilton, CEO of The ICEHOUSE and the 2009 Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards Individual Award winner. The quotation is from Phil McCaw, Director, MOVAC and Trade Me investor, who describes Hamilton as hugely influential in leading the formation of the business incubation and angel investment sectors in New Zealand.
Andy Hamilton has headed The ICEHOUSE since 2001 and has a history of involvement in entrepreneurial organisations and start-ups including Spark, Angel Association New Zealand, ANZATEC, Incubators New Zealand, Inventure and ICE Angels. The ICEHOUSE is a business growth centre that includes business growth programmes for SMEs, a business incubator for start-ups and New Zealand’s largest group of Angel investors. It is a collaborative partnership between The University of Auckland Business School, The Boston Consulting Group, Telecom and Gen-i, BNZ, Ernst & Young, HP, Microsoft and Minter Ellison Rudd Watts lawyers.
The Vero Excellence in Business Support Awards were founded by business support specialist, Sarah Trotman of Fast50 company Bizzone, and sponsored by Vero, the National Business Review and BDO Spicers. The awards are a key event of the Bizzone Business Expo – New Zealand’s largest event for business - with the Supreme Award presented to Ministry of Economic Development - Insolvency & Trustee Service by Prime Minister Hon John Key at a Black Tie Gala Dinner held on 28 May in Auckland.
Andy Hamilton defines success in his role at The ICEHOUSE as a series of “moments”. These moments include: “Working alongside some of New Zealand’s most brilliant business brains, being part of people taking a risk to get New Zealand back in the top half of the OECD, seeing my team respond in a dynamic way to our huge programme of activity and knowing our focus on our objective never falters, combined with our consistent customer satisfaction results of 85-90% for 7 years straight, being number 1 in the 2009 NZTE Incubator Awards rankings, welcoming three new 20-somethings into our ICE Accelerator this January and seeing the determined optimism in the eyes of our owner managers in the face of media doom.”
One of many The ICEHOUSE has helped is Carmine Masiello, CEO, eBUS Limited, ICE Accelerator graduate and 2008 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. “Andy's role has been essential in turning our business from a local project into a fast growth and international challenge,” she said. “His quick thinking, intuition, energy and enthusiasm, and above all, motivational ability are an invaluable asset for any company that has the privilege of going through the ICEHOUSE experience.”
“Andy is a passionate New Zealander who has spent the last seven years at the ICEHOUSE really contributing to the growth of our entrepreneurial economy on many fronts,” Stephen Tindall, Founder of The Warehouse and The Tindall Foundation said.
Excellence in business is more important than anything else Roger Bell, Chief Executive of Vero Insurance, the Foundation Sponsor of the awards, said. “The point of these awards is that the winners don’t end up just being excellent on one aspect of business – it goes right across the business – across leadership , strategy, people, processes and the results from all of those things. So it’s not just narrowly defined.”
BDO Spicers’ National Chair Judith Stanway said the Vero awards recognise businesses that are striving, and succeeding. “In doing so they give businesses great role models to aspire to follow,” she said. “In the current environment, when so many aspects of our working lives are uncertain, it’s important to do a good job and to do it right first time,” she said. “No one has the capacity or time to have to go back and re-do things at present: striving for excellence is therefore beneficial to the bottom line, not just the top one.”
“Excellence delivered to a well targeted audience equals guaranteed success!” said NBR’s Todd Scott, sponsor. “Whether it’s excellence in editorial content and commentary or excellence in advertising creative, in today’s economic environment nothing short of excellence is acceptable when so many people have a stake in the outcome.”
Awards‘ organiser Bizzone has grown to become one of New Zealand’s Fast50 high growth companies and global franchise plans are currently being implemented in Australia. Bizzone has recently created an Online Business Expo and Community being populated from its database of over 35,000 business owners which will go live in mid-August 2009.
Click here for photos of The ICEHOUSE team.
ENDS
For information on winners and photos please see www.excellenceinbusinesssupport.co.nz
Please contact Jane Parlane for more information or for interview opportunities with Sarah Trotman. Tel 09 5201148 or Mobile: 021 912 631. Email: janeparlane@xtra.co.nz