Podcast appearances and mentions of louise aitken

Imagine if we electrified the country and ditched fossil fuels?  It is a compelling vision of a world where Aotearoa New Zealand stands apart as an example that other counntries could then follow with major positive impact for the planet.  And it is possible with the right policy settings in place. Mike Casey from Rewiring Aotearoa and I discuss this and a whole lot more in this wide ranging conversation - from his early days in Wellington to his entrepreneurial journey and how to get through the hard times, planting a 9,000+ cherry tree farm in Otago and then making it all electric with no fossil fuel vehicles, lessons along the way - we really cover a lot in this conversation.   The Rewiring Aotearoa movement is producing quality research and information on moving from fossil fuels for the benefit of the climate and to save people money at the same time - it has been fun to be part of that journey as the lawyer who helped get it set up and registered as a charity and am still involved today providing legal support.  So it was great to sit down with Mike to hear his stories. Shoutout to former guest on Seeds podcast Louise Aitken who first introduced us!  Her interview is here. Rewiring Aotearoa website: https://www.rewiring.nz/  Some of the publications we mentioned are here:  Investing in Tomorrow https://www.rewiring.nz/tomorrow  Electric Homes report https://www.rewiring.nz/electric-homes-report  "Rewiring Aotearoa represents everyday New Zealanders in the energy transition and is working to build an electrified future where every Kiwi saves money on energy bills, reduces their carbon emissions and has the resilience to keep their lights on and homes warm. Let's make New Zealand more electric!" Conversation with Dr Jay Matenga mentioned in this: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0ysxkxCszFsOhEQqAS0Zu4   

Welcoming Nicola Nation, CEO of The Ākina Foundation, to Purposely, where she shares her personal and career journey as a consultant specialising in procurement across corporate and public sectors and more recently non-profit leadership. The word Ākina means to encourage or urge onwards in the Māori language, and the foundation is a ‘for purpose' consultancy that works with social enterprises, businesses, philanthropic organisations, as well as with the Government. Their mission is to enable positive social and environmental outcomes through bespoke services, including strategy development and implementation, as well as finding ways to help organisations build capability around purpose and engage stakeholders in purpose. Nicola joined the foundation in 2018, initially in a general management role before stepping up to the CEO position three years later. Born in New Zealand's capital city Wellington, Nicola describes being a ‘sickly child' as the result of a blood condition that she would eventually resolve through a successful operation. She took her time to find her voice and strength, but when she did, she found she had a powerful voice and the confidence to question adults and traditional ways of doing things. Nicola recounts a time when she wrote to her priest, advocating that girls should be allowed to be Altar Girls rather than being restricted to less ‘glamorous roles. Despite being unsuccessful with her plea, Nicola remained undeterred and has maintained her approach to question and campaign for positive change. Growing up in a happy household, Nicola describes her parents as ‘blue-collar workers' who valued hard work and instilled those values in her from a young age. Nicola loved school and learning, embracing everything school had to offer, from special activities to leadership roles as a student representative. Continuing to university, she studied commerce at Victoria University and secured a graduate role at Deloitte. She made the bold decision to negotiate a delayed start and spent a year exploring Western Europe in London before returning. Nicola spent three formative years at Deloitte before returning to London in a new role with Westpac, inspired by the 9/11 terrorist tragedy in New York. The role centered on building the UK's capability to deal with a similar tragedy, a ‘large project with a massive or even unlimited budget'. Living in London, Nicola, now married, had to be convinced by her Kiwi husband to return to New Zealand. Her first role back home she describes as ‘an epic failure', an operations role for a start-up lacking cash and miles away from her consultant roles for large multinational corporations and unlimited budgets. It was a harsh experience for Nicola, prompting her to return to her procurement-focused role for a large company. Reflecting on her career, she was keen to explore roles with a clearer focus on purpose and making a positive difference to people and the planet. That's when the role at The Ākina Foundation came up, and her consulting skills made her the ideal person to help deliver their work, eventually succeeding outgoing CEO Louise Aitken. In her first role as CEO, Nicola received some good advice from the charity's trustees, urging her to make the job her own. Nicola has proven to be a real asset to the foundation and the organisations they serve, particularly around ‘procurement practices to do good and its role in helping to bring about meaningful change. As more and more organisations focus on delivering purpose, organisations like Ākina Foundation and purpose-focused leaders like Nicola become more and more sought after and valued. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mark-longbottom2/message

Drugs Uncut is back! In this episode we are joined by Scottish Drugs Forum's Louise Aitken and Chris Messenger and discuss employment and training and the Addiction Worker Training Project. The project has recently seen changes and has received its first funding from The Scottish Government in response to the recommendations of The Drug Deaths Task Force which will double its capacity.

Nicola has recently been appointed as CEO of the Ākina Foundation so in this interview we find out all about the work they are doing in the area of impact.  They have done a lot and continue provide many resources for those interested in the intersection of purpose, profit and business.  We also hear about her life story and journeys across the world and in other roles.  If you enjoy this then check out some of the hundreds of other interviews in the back catalogue.   Website: https://www.akina.org.nz Earlier interview with former CEO Louise Aitken in November 2018 - interesting to hear how terminology has moved on since that recording too: https://seeds.libsyn.com/louise-aitken-on-akina-social-enterprise-and-being-a-twin     

In this week’s episode, Simon Pound talks to Louise Aitken, CEO of the Ākina Foundation, about how they're helping social enterprises grow.For the last three years the Ākina Foundation has been delivering a programme in partnership with the government, called The Impact Initiative, focussed on the future of New Zealand’s social enterprises. Ākina runs a range of programmes to help more businesses make money and positive change, to help grow companies’ capability, support them in things like finance and other nuts and bolts of doing business well, and create and demonstrate impact in what they do.The Ākina Foundation is an impact consultancy and impact investor, and to talk about what that means, CEO Louise Aitken joined Business is Boring this week for a chat.Business is Boring is presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

"Believe in yourself and fight". That is what Louise Aitken-Walker did and she conquered. Louise was the first woman to win a National Rally outright, survived a horrific crash in Portugal and became the first, ever British driver to win a world title – FIA Ladies World Rally Champion. It was a brilliant and inspiring interview - especially if you're a woman in Motorsport! Listen up and enjoy x

Louise is a strong advocate for social responsibility and impact, driven to make meaningful change through positive impact being put at the heart of the economy. With many pivots during the time of Covid - 19, Lou has been focused on the foundations of developing an Impact Economy that small businesses, corporates, governments and organisations can contribute to in a meaningful way. Knowing that this is fast becoming a licence to operate, businesses need to move towards this across all facets of their organisation.

Streamed live on April 6, 2020 --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/robett/message

Shamubeel is one of New Zealand's leading economists so this interview provides a fascinating insight into COVID-19 from an economic impact perspective.  But we end up talking about a whole lot more than that - like what the crisis is revealing about us as humans and what it is that we might build the future on.  Hint, it involves resilience, cooperation, learning from each other and taking care of the most vulnerable.   The video of this is here: https://youtu.be/Oipz7gIMo4E I really enjoyed this interview and am sure you will as well.   Website: http://www.sense.partners/shamubeel-eaqub The other episode on articulating values: https://theseeds.nz/dare-to-lead-book-review/ Community Finance which we mention: https://www.communityfinance.co.nz Ākina which we mention: https://www.akina.org.nz  and interview with Louise Aitken https://seeds.libsyn.com/louise-aitken-on-akina-social-enterprise-and-being-a-twin For more stories visit www.theseeds.nz 

On this episode we talk about the Big C and talk with two fierce warriors who are fighting an awesome fight against it, Gay-Louise Aitken and Jo Lee. Fighting Breast Cancer and Lymphoma respectively, these two brave and wonderful women tell us of their journey's, their experience of chemotherapy, of Maggies, coping techniques, and coming out the other side. If you're looking for inspiration on reasons not to sweat the small stuff, embrace life and the importance of sisterhood, then you'll want to tune in to this very powerful episode. Huge thanks to Jo & Gay for sharing so openly.https://www.maggiescentres.org/If you have any questions or feedback please email us at info@weareegg.co.uk, and we’d love you to follow us on Instagram: @eggcommunityWebsite: https://eggedinburgh.com/https://eggglasgow.com/

This breakout session at the Philanthropy Summit 2019 deals with a very topical issue: The future of business in the "human economy" - but what is meant by that term and how does it all fit with social enterprise?  In this session we got to hear from three leading experts each offering a unique perspective and insight on the state of play in Aotearoa, New Zealand.  First is Louise Aitken the CEO of the Ākina Foundation, Christna Bellis from Thankyoupayroll and Shay Wright from Te Whare Hukahuka. Check out their bios and info below. Video of this session https://youtu.be/Nuv684xeTJg Index: 1:43 - Louise Aitken 13:14 - Christina Bellis 24:50 - Shay Wright 40:47 - Ends Louise Aitken: http://akina.org.nz/team-member/louise-aitken/ Earlier interview with Louise: https://seeds.libsyn.com/louise-aitken-on-akina-social-enterprise-and-being-a-twin Impact Report as audiobook and report is a link in this too: http://seeds.libsyn.com/structuring-for-impact-audiobook For more on Ākina Foundation: www.akina.org.nz Christina Bellis and Thankyou Payroll: https://thankyoupayroll.co.nz/about/ Shay Wright: https://www.shaywright.co.nz Te Whare Hukahuka: https://www.twh.co.nz   For more interviews - this is the 104th episode - check out www.theseeds.nz     

This is an audiobook of the report "Structuring for Impact: Evolving Legal Structures for Business in New Zealand" that was released 17 April 2019 (index of key sections is below).  I am really proud to have been involved as one of the co-authors and wanted to provide a different platform for it be accessible on here for those who might listen but not want to read the whole thing.  Grateful assistance on this was received from my wife Ellie Moe, who read out the quotes from those who were interviewed.  And many thanks for the collaboration with many to pull the report together, a massive team effort but in particular thanks Jane, Jackson, Louise, Ed, Amber and Phillippa.   The report can be downloaded here. https://www.theimpactinitiative.org.nz/reports/structuring-for-impact Index: Foreword: 1:51 Executive Summary: 4:47 Disadvantages of legal structures: 8:49 Part One: 1.1 Introduction: 13:56 1.2 Conceptual Framework 19:15 Part Two: How Social Enterprise is unduly affected: 28:37 2.1 Mission 30:01 2.2 Funding 1:19:22  2.3 Innovation 1:53:06 Part Three: Solutions 1:58:50 Conclusion: 2:23:56 For the audio of Louise Aitken introducing the report listen here http://seeds.libsyn.com/louise-aitken-on-structuring-for-impact-a-new-research-report-on For an article I wrote for Spinoff on the report check here https://thespinoff.co.nz/business/18-04-2019/ghost-enterprises-how-the-government-penalises-companies-who-do-good/ For more podcasts visit www.theseeds.nz 

Louise is the CEO of the Ākina Foundation and she spoke this morning in Wellington at the launch of the major new report: "Structuring for Impact: Evolving Legal Structures for Business in New Zealand".  I really enjoyed the process of helping to co-author this report with a group of amazing people who are mentioned in this podcast.  Please have a read of the report and help us share it to your networks too - it is about what the ingredients are to help empower business of the future here in Aotearoa New Zealand! You can access it here - please also consider sharing the link so it can spread wider! https://www.theimpactinitiative.org.nz/reports/structuring-for-impact For more stories visit www.theseeds.nz  Article on report: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/04/17/539070/social-enterprises-frustrated-by-nz-law    

This bonus episode is all about impact and social enterprise in New Zealand.  It was recorded on Friday 12 April 2019 as a live panel discussion at Te Papa.   It was moderated by Steven Moe with Louise Aitken, CEO of Ākina Foundation, Professor Dana Brakman Reiser from Brooklyn Law School, Holly Norton co-founder and Chief Community Officer of Collaborate, Kay Maree Dunn, co-founder and CEO of Āhau and Andrew Phillips from Charities Services.   The full audio from the conference will be released in a separate episode.  For other stories visit www.theseeds.nz    Session 8: Social Enterprise We live in a time when old and new paradigms of thinking are colliding.  One example is the idea that charities are the primary way of “doing good” in our society, whereas business is about generating private profits.  Social enterprise presents a new conception which seeks to combine both profit (traditional domain of business) and having positive impact (traditional domain of charity) through sustainable businesses.  In this panel we will hear about the current state of social enterprise in New Zealand, how founders choose to become charities vs social enterprises, Māori perspectives on Social Enterprise, different legal structures used overseas andthe limitations for social enterprises wanting charitable status.

Louise Aitken is the CEO of Ākina Foundation which is growing social enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand. In this interview (the longest so far!) we talk about her childhood, what it was like growing up with her twin sister Natalie, moving to Brazil age 17 and how that shaped her identity, taking care of her father who passed away from cancer in her 20s, her career working in London, how she made the decision to return to New Zealand and her work in CSR and other areas since returning.  We then go into lots of detail about social enterprise in New Zealand - both its history here, what the shape of it may be and what the future could hold.   For more on Ākina Foundation check out here: http://akina.org.nz https://www.facebook.com/akinafoundation/  

Louise Aitken of the Akina Foundation discusses what social enterprises need to know to deliver significant impact, she shares her views on how the government can most appropriately support the sector, as well as suggesting the core ingredients at the heart of any good enterprise.