Yoram Benit, Tait Communications

Yoram Benit, Tait Communications

Tait Communications is a provider of critical communications for public safety, emergency services utilities & enterprises. Yoram became CEO in 2021 and has grown the company from 450 people to over 1300. Plans include a new state of the art manufacturing facility & a Centre of Excellence with over 10 labs. Yoram says the key to the growth is having a strong business case for every R&D project or acquisition and making sure you have the right people. www.taitcommunications.com [http://www.taitcommunications.com/]

Ratu Mataira, OpenStar Technologies

OpenStar is nuclear fusion company. In this podcast Ratu talks about the pathway of building the business: the science, the people, the funding. The core technology is a levitated dipole containing a plasma at temperatures of millions of degrees, which OpenStar demonstrated recently. Now OpenStar plans larger machines and temperatures of millions of degrees to make medical isotopes and electricity. This requires a team of very smart and very driven people. www.openstar.tech [http://www.openstar.tech/]

Sigurd Magnusson, Silverstripe

Silverstripe partners with governments and enterprises to create the digital infrastructure that underpins everyday life in Aotearoa and beyond. Sigurd shares its journey from small startup to a mature company of 70 people whose open-source CMS powers over 200 NZ government websites. Their work is aiding digital transformation internationally too, as in South Africa where they delivered a single digital front door to government services in just 10 weeks. www.silverstripe.com [http://www.silverstripe.com/]

Quentin Griffiths, Lutra

Lutra's purpose is to protect the environment and the people within in through excellence in management of water and wastewater. Its team are engineers, modelers, data management specialists, content producers, and project managers and its clients are in New Zealand, Australia and other countries. Quentin talks about coming into the CEO role – learning to shift quickly across different areas and the importance of purpose and focus. www.lutra.com [http://www.lutra.com/]

Hamish Findlay, Aspeq

Aspeq is in the business of providing secure exams and assessments for regulators. It started in the aviation sector: assessing pilots and aircraft engineers in New Zealand. Now it is in 25 countries with test centres, software to book & run exams and a secure browser that allows access only to agreed resources. Aspeq now has 50 people and many more contractors. Hamish talks about his role in expanding the business with clients in all time zones and a long sales cycle. www.aspeq.com [http://www.aspeq.com/]