University of Otago Business School

17/09/2026

🐧 If you’re still wondering which manu to give your vote to in Forest & Bird’s 2026 Bird of the Year competition, Doctor of Business Administration student Anna Campbell is here to bend your ear hoiho-wards.

❤️🏅 Anna is using her business degree to help get traction around the plight of the yellow-eyed penguin. She says, “A vote for hoiho is really a vote for all seabirds. It’s a vote for a southern issue that still needs its day at the Beehive. This competition is like the Olympics for birds – a gold medal brings headlines, endorsements, fans, and much needed attention from political leaders. If you’ve ever wondered what you can do to help, vote!”

🪶 Read more about Anna’s research below. Voting for the Bird of the Year closes this Sunday, so there’s still plenty of time for you to pick your feathered favourites.

With voting soon to close in the annual Bird of the Year (BOTY) competition, we thought we’d check in with Commerce doctoral student Anna Campbell and find out why she’ll be waving the flag for the hoiho/yellow-eyed penguin.

16/09/2026

🙌🏽 Today we salute Sequoia Short (Ngaati Apakura, Ngaati Maniopoto, Ngāti Rangatira) for all her good mahi in strengthening the bicultural competence and confidence of Te Kura Pakihi Otago Business School.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 Sequoia has just launched the Uruwhenua Ahurea | Cultural Passport – a resource she developed for kaimahi at Te Kura Pakihi to complement the suite of other cultural development tools available to them as staff at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka (things like Te Rito, waiata groups and te reo Māori lessons).

❤️ “I wanted it to be responsive to all of the needs of our kaimahi in a way that allows for them to uphold and engage with tikanga Māori and te reo Māori as well as our obligations to mana whenua. I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to put together. I worked hard to ensure that I’m putting a spotlight on the many things that are really precious to Kāi Tahu. But mainly, it’s for the benefit of our tauira Māori and our kaimahi Māori to ensure a safe work and study space for them.”

👏🏽 Now a Kaiwhakaako | Teaching Fellow in the Department of Management, Sequoia remembers back to when she was a young tauira Māori at Otago, embarking on her studies at a time when institutional bicultural awareness was still a way off. It’s this memory that motivates her. “My whāinga, my goal, my hope, is that our kaimahi will be able to begin their journey using this resource and that our students will be better off for it.”

15/09/2026

14/09/2026

👏🏽 Ngā mihi nui to Otago trio Hayden French (Fijian), George Warren (Muaūpoko), and Tyra Leitupo (Samoan) for winning the Indigenous Case Competition 2026, recently held in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington.

⭐ Not only did these three students beat university teams from Wellington and Auckland, but none of them had competed in a case competition before. The collegial atmosphere of the competition helped, as did their mix of academic backgrounds (George is doing a BCom in Finance, Hayden a BCom in Accounting and Finance, and Tyra an LLB/BA majoring in Pacific Studies).

🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 George says, “Throughout the trip, there were many times when I had to do something new or step out of my comfort zone. Thankfully, there was an instantaneous connection between all the competitors, and the support staff which eased the pressure on the occasion.”

❤️ Tyra says, “Sometimes, as a Pacific student, I feel like I’m the only one in the room. This experience was special because I was surrounded by other Māori and Pacific students, and we could all celebrate brown excellence together. It reminded me that our culture and identity are strengths, and that we belong in these spaces. I’m really proud of what we achieved and thankful for the chance to show the value of Pacific and Māori perspectives in business.”

10/09/2026

⭐ When Diana Pryde became the first New Zealand woman to graduate with Otago’s trailblazing MBA in 1980, she described the degree as “an open sesame to top jobs. It gives an aura of credibility in a male world”.

🙌🏽 Dr David Wright, then head of the MBA programme, commented to a newspaper journalist that Diana was “one of the most professional people in the class. She has innate diplomacy and can handle men extremely well”.

💼🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 Diana says that the two most important things she gained during her MBA were professionalism and learning how to establish relationships in unfamiliar fields. This was particularly crucial in the accounting and banking professions she entered. “I had to front up all the time to groups of men standing around in their suits.”

🎉 It’s now been half a century since Otago launched New Zealand’s first MBA – and, happily, many more Diana Prydes have crossed the graduation floor since then. We look forward to seeing lots of them at the MBA flagship 50th Anniversary celebration in Dunedin this November (details here https://events.otago.ac.nz/otagomba50/).

Read more about Diana Pryde’s story here 🔗https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/newsroom/pioneering-mba-alumna-on-creating-credibility-in-a-mans-world

07/09/2026

👏🏽 Ngā mihi nui to Andrew Perchard, Honorary Research Professor of Management in the Doctor of Business Administration programme. He’s just been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences – a national academy in the UK that champions the role of social sciences in education, government, and business.

🙌🏽 The Academy Fellowship comprises leading social scientists striving to understand and address some of the major challenges facing communities, society, places and economies.

⭐ Andrew says he’s honoured to be a Fellow alongside such a stellar group of social scientists.

06/09/2026

⌛ Harsh Khatwani, Department of Marketing, is really getting the hang of inhabiting three minutes with perfect gusto and concision.

👏🏽 After winning the Division of Commerce heat of the Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition with his presentation ‘When virtual reality meets your dinner plate’, he placed third among doctoral finalists at the University of Otago 3MT Final last week.

He says, “A huge thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey, especially my supervisors, Otago Graduate Research School, colleagues, friends, and most importantly my wife – who has listened to this three-minute presentation far more times than anyone reasonably should 😁.”

🌟 Harsh will now go on to represent Otago in the Matariki Network of Universities 3MT Competition. We wish him (and his wife) all the best.

27/08/2026

👏🏽 Ngā mihi to Rachelle Nichols, winner of the NZIER Women in Economics Scholarship.

🌟 Established by the University of Otago, with generous support from independent, not-for-profit economic consultancy NZ Institute of Economic Research Inc (NZIER), the scholarship comes with a purse of $5,000 (distributed over two years).

🙌🏽 NZIER Chief Executive Jason Shoebridge says, “We are delighted that Rachelle has been selected as the recipient of this scholarship. The aim of the scholarship, funded from NZIER’s Public Good programme, is to provide some recognition and encouragement for women to continue their study of economics and potentially consider a career in economics where women are currently underrepresented. Rachelle is a very worthy recipient of this scholarship, and we wish her well with her studies this year.”

📈 ⚖️ Rachelle, who is completing a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Laws, says she’s always had a passion for business, particularly economics. “I love studying economics alongside law as I feel like this will give me a wider range of options for careers in my future. Economics provides me with the knowledge and experience I need for my future and law provides me with the ability to apply that knowledge and enforce it.”

❤️ As for her future hopes, she says, “I would love to settle down back in Northland eventually and help to work to reduce inequalities where possible and encourage economic growth.”

26/08/2026

👏🏽 Ngā mihi nui to Startup Dunedin, which has just been crowned the Entrepreneur Support Organisation of the Year at the Global Entrepreneurship Network New Zealand (GEN NZ) Awards.

🌟 Dave Moskovitz, Chair of GEN New Zealand, says, “Dunedin does an excellent job of combining academic excellence with entrepreneurial spirit. Grace and the team at Startup Dunedin use these superpowers to launch new businesses and careers that are impactful locally, nationally, and globally. And all of this on the smell of an oily rag, in true Dunedin style. I was really proud they won the Entrepreneur Support Organisation of the Year Award, because they totally deserved it.”

🫱🏽‍🫲🏽 Startup Dunedin Acting General Manager Grace Esterman (pictured with one of the GEN NZ Awards judges, Aaron Scott) says, “This is so much more than an award for Startup Dunedin. It’s for our ecosystem – the University, the Polytechnic, the Dunedin City Council, the groups we connect and collaborate with and, of course, the founders. We’re thrilled that our thriving ecosystem is now nationally recognised.”

📢 Other GEN NZ shout-outs: the Bachelor of Entrepreneurship degree at the Otago Business School was a finalist for the Academic Initiative of the Year Award, and Startup Dunedin’s Audacious programme was a finalist in the Youth Programme of the Year category.

25/08/2026

🤩 Meet Heniti Buick (Ngāti Raukawa) – an all-round powerhouse and thoroughly impressive human. Heniti completed her Master of Business Administration while she was CEO of Te Puna Oranga (a kaupapa Māori organisation providing services in her community), an elected Ōtaki Ward Councillor, and a mum of four.

❤️ Her secret weapon? “Luckily the programme was often late nights and my husband’s super supportive of whatever learning I’ve got myself into. He’s used to it. He’s the opposite, so he’s like, ‘You do you, I’ll do the kids’.”

Heniti relished her MBA. “I loved every paper – economics, finance, strategy, even artificial intelligence – it's an eye opener.”

🫶🏽 She plans to make great use of her degree in her Ōtaki community. “It's hard work trying to change a system not built for you, designed for you or by you. But we only need to understand the Pākehā world to move as Māori within it. The MBA provides the tools to understand that world.”

Read more about Heniti below 👇🏽

When Heniti Buick began at the University of Otago – Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka at 17, she did not have a “grand career plan”.