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- Portfolio Insights Issue 001: Leonie Freeman | Leading with Integrity
Portfolio Insights Issue 001: Leonie Freeman | Leading with Integrity
Inspire | Improve | Olympics
Georgie Fenwicke
August 29, 2024
Greetings. Kia Ora. Hola. Gidday. Ni Hao. Bonjour. Konnichiwa. Buongiorno. Aloha.
This is the first issue of The Portfolio - a newsletter for you, the Industrial Property Leaders of today and tomorrow. This week, we’re joined by Leonie Freeman, CEO of the Property Council of New Zealand.
Leonie Freeman | Leading with Integrity
Leonie has a wealth of experience in the Property sector and shares her insights on leadership, starting out in Property and her actions to create real change in Housing affordability in New Zealand.
Get Inspired
Explore Leonie’s insights in less than a couple of minutes
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Leonie’s first two jobs were on her uncle’s farm and helping her parents to garden at the school they taught at in Sumner, Christchurch.
Leonie has done a lot since then. Her roles have included building what is now realestate.co.nz, shaping up an existing business in Interactive Property Management, lecturing at Auckland University, and getting clear on KPIs as GM Asset Development at Housing NZ - an area she continues to focus on today.
She is currently the CEO at Property Council New Zealand and Director of Goodman Property NZ.
Find a mentor and work with them over time - you can learn a lot about purpose and integrity if you find the right person to mentor and guide you. For Leonie, this was Peter Cook, a valuer in Christchurch, who taught her that people are your greatest asset.
Leadership is about keeping going even if a number of people think you’re crazy - Leonie took a wider view of the property sector and identified what could be better, starting Realenz in 1996. Today, this is called realestate.co.nz. Back then, people thought this was a crazy idea.
Find something you’re passionate about and commit to it - we need to work together to solve affordability in the housing industry to make it more accessible for all New Zealanders.
Watch the full interview
Good to Great - The Tale of the Men’s Rowing 8
Who hasn’t been enjoying the Olympics and Paralympics recently?
New Zealand’s record medal haul is nothing short of fantastic!
The story of the New Zealand Men’s Rowing 8 at Tokyo 2020 2021 lives on and is a brilliant tale of the right team, winning races.
There are so many lessons from technology, coaching, teamwork and leadership to be learnt from Tony O’Connor - Maths Teacher and Head of Rowing at Christ’s College. Give it a watch below -