He went to work directly from high school as a customer support officer for ICI NZ (now Orica), in their Wellington explosives division, later shifting to the chemicals side of the business.
He went on to spend almost three decades with the company in increasingly responsible sales and marketing roles, focused on the import and export of chemicals, earning an MBA at Massey University along the way.
"They were a wonderful company to work for," said Mr Coker, who held positions in a number of different ICI sites around the country.
One watershed came in 1998. ICI Australia, which by then owned ICI NZ, bought itself out from ICI UK and the company was renamed Orica. The New Zealand headquarters shifted from Wellington to Auckland, and Andrew and his then wife Jill moved north. But while they liked living in Devonport, they were less keen on Auckland and were both travelling a lot for work.
"We decided to have a bit of a change," he said.
In 1992, taking advantage of the low values for horticultural land in the early 1990s, they bought an orchard in Pongakawa, near Te Puke. The couple spent the next few years commuting from the Bay to Auckland and converting the orchard from a mix of apples, pears and kiwifruit to an all kiwifruit operation. The orchard was sold in 2010, just before Psa-V struck the kiwifruit industry.
"We thoroughly enjoyed our years on the orchard and we were very fortunate to get out just before Psa-V hit," he said.
Mr Coker left Orica in 2001 to join the Auckland office of Carter Holt Harvey, as marketing manager for the export paperboard business, exporting and marketing product from the Whakatane, Kinleith and Penrose mills.
Another opportunity came up and he moved to AgriQuality (now AsureQuality), which provided food safety, biosecurity and verification services to the food and primary production sectors. Initially general manager assurance services, he then became general manager sales and marketing.
"I loved it because it had a link to the primary sector," said Mr Coker.
But he was still commuting, spending a week in Auckland and returning for the weekend to the Bay. So he was delighted when the opportunity came up to join Priority One and finally be both working and living in Tauranga.
As well as working to create more senior job options in Tauranga, Mr Coker, who has a 16-year-old son, said another key personal driver was the need to create more post-tertiary job opportunities.
"At the moment, the younger demographic has a double whammy - they have to go away for tertiary education and there aren't enough jobs when they come back.
"The aim is make those post-tertiary opportunities a reality."
Gavin Cherrie, who runs Tauranga company Ecoeffect and is a member of Priority One, has known Mr Coker since they worked together at ICI.
"Andrew's standout quality is that he's a great collaborator," said Mr Cherrie.
"He's always trying to find new ways for people to work together and do things better, and it's always win-win. He just seems to have that ability to work with people."
Early love of flying
Andrew Coker's first great hobby was flying, fuelled by his father, a former World War II pilot, who initially ran the control tower at the old Paraparaumu Airport and was later air traffic controller at Ohakea.
"I got my pilot's licence in the early 1980s, flying Cessnas," said Mr Coker. "I used to fly with my father, who had a real passion for it."
However, after his father became ill and died, and with increased family and work pressures, Mr Coker said he could not keep up the air time needed to be a safe flyer and he let his licence lapse.
These days, his passion is for fitness.
"I love mountain biking, I love running, and I'm a regular climbing up and down Mauao," he said.
And most recently, he has taken up surfing with his 16-year-old son Troy.
"I took it up two years ago and I'm still working up to being a respectable surfer," he said.
"But one of the pleasures of living in Tauranga is that you can pack up and be out on the surf with your son in half an hour."
Andrew Coker
Role - Chief executive, Priority One (since 2008)
Age - 57
First job - Customer support officer
Born - Wellington, New Zealand
Currently reading - Breath by Tim Winton
