David Blackley and Priority One planning Dragon's Den-type organisation for Bay

David Blackley has led an action-packed life. Photo/File

David Blackley, who founded the Summerhill A1 Youth Academy to promote youth leadership skills, is in discussion with Priority One about funding a Dragons Den-type organisation to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship.

Mr Blackley and his wife, Cloie, got the academy underway in 2010 as a charitable trust, and now wish to provide funding to a wider range of local people with demonstrable innovative and entrepreneurial skills.

Details of the concept are still being worked out with Priority One, but Mr Blackley said they hoped to be in a position to make a detailed announcement by early next month.

"Tauranga's racing ahead, and it would be good to be able to support creative people with original ideas," he said. "There's nothing quite like this in New Zealand."

The amount to be contributed to the project had not been disclosed, but was understood to be significant. It would be dispersed in the form of interest-free loans, with interest repayable after a term still to be decided. How many people could be funded, and over what period, would be established on a case-by-case basis.

The concept would involve identifying and encouraging people to pitch their ideas to a Dragon's Den-type group of mentors drawn from the Bay of Plenty's business and entrepreneurial community. Mr Blackley said it would be open to people of all ages, provided they had created something innovative that had potential to become successful.

Mr Blackley said that, although the funding would originate from its charitable trust, it would be administered separately from the A1 Youth Academy, with Priority One managing the process.

Priority One chief executive Nigel Tutt said the organisation welcomed the opportunity to harness the Blackleys' willingness to contribute to the community.

"We're very keen to work with David on it and get a good thing underway," Mr Tutt said.

"We're taking a bit of time to figure out how we would organise it, which areas we would pitch it in, and who we would get involved as the group of mentors who could add value. We're still working out the mechanics of how it would work. We just want to make sure it's done in the best way."

The Blackleys have owned and farmed Summerhill for almost 60 years, as well as developing and recovering forestry on the site. They developed the Summerhill Recreational Farm which is open to the public, with more than 10,000 people using it every year for forest walks and mountain biking.

They have gifted the farm to the nation to retain some green space and prevent further development of the area.

Mr Blackley, now 87, has a background in farming and has led an action-packed life, as related in his 2004 autobiography Born for Adventure. He has been an avid sailor and flyer, celebrates his birthday with a parachute jump, and has an innovative streak of his own, with several successful patented inventions.

For their recent 60th wedding anniversary, the couple's four daughters took them to Treetops in Rotorua's redwood forest.

"They told us we were the oldest couple they'd ever had on the zipline," said Cloie Blackley.

Summerhill A1 Youth Academy

-Offers: adventure-based life skills training across nine Sundays and one weekend, from 12 February through to June.

-Cost: $200, with $100 returned on successful completion of the course.