Stan Gregec takes up his role as chamber chief executive this month. Photo / John Borren
Stan Gregec's new role as the chief executive of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce marks a return to a business community he first got to know when he moved to the city two decades ago to open the Government's export trade office.
He was born in the Austrian city of Graz to parents who had escaped - and eloped - across the border from a small village in communist Yugoslavia in the 1950s. The family emigrated to New Zealand when he was 1.
An export-focused business career has taken him to the Pacific and Australia, while a life-long love of history led him to more recently take six months off to travel throughout the Balkans exploring his family roots.
Mr Gregec's family first settled in Wanganui, where he was educated through to intermediate school before a move to Auckland where he got his first work experience after school helping his father, who had set up a business building kitchens.
After getting a Master of Arts with first-class honours in history from the University of Auckland, he turned down the option of going into academia in favour of "real world" experience, and got his first job as an import licensing officer at the Department of Trade and Industry in the final years of New Zealand's restrictive import duty regime.
"Those were the over-regulated days," he said.
"Anyone that wanted to import anything needed to get a rubber stamp."
He then moved to the Australian High Commission in Wellington as its marketing officer, helping Australian companies get a toehold in New Zealand in the wake of the signing of the Closer Economic Relations agreement.
Mr Gregec returned to the New Zealand trade sector after two years, joining the Market Development Board, an agency created in the 1980s to help the export sector.
The board was eventually merged with the Department of Trade and Industry, becoming first TradeNZ, and eventually NZ Trade and Enterprise.
After a secondment as a parliamentary private secretary to ministers Ralph Maxwell and Philip Burdon, he was posted as trade commissioner for the Pacific, based in Suva, from 1991 to 1995.
"I had a great time, responsible for a big chunk of trade in the Pacific," he said.
When his posting ended, the department was beginning to open up regional offices to help New Zealand exporters.
By then, married to Helen Woods with two young sons, he decided to move to Tauranga to open the first NZTE office in the city.
"Tauranga seemed like a great place to bring up kids, which is what brought us here," he said.
"That was my introduction to the Tauranga business community, particularly those in the export sector, and I got to work pretty closely with them all."
After four years, he set up his own consultancy business, Market Drive, providing international marketing support for Bay of Plenty businesses.
He also became intrigued with the opportunities offered by the development of the internet.
"I became fascinated by the potential of online marketing," said Mr Gregec, who built up a reputation that led to him securing a job in 2001 as internet development manager for the University of Auckland Business School. He commuted to Auckland until late 2005 when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He quickly refocused his priorities and his time on his family in Tauranga and took a job as general manager of successful local manufacturer Atlantis Bathroom Style, which specialised in turnkey shower systems.
Tauranga seemed like a great place to bring up kids, which is what brought us here.
"It was hands-on experience running a business with lots of challenges, including weathering the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis," said Mr Gregec.
His wife died in 2009.
Helen Woods was a well-loved teacher at Otumoetai College, whose funeral service there was attended by several hundred mourners.
She is memorialised with a plaque in the college grounds.
"It was a difficult time," said Mr Gregec, who stepped down to a support role at Atlantis to focus on his sons, then took up a regional business adviser role with the chamber in 2011.
By 2012, he and his new partner, Ali Pomstra, decided it was time to have a break and explore new horizons and the couple moved to Fremantle, Western Australia, for a little over two years.
"We thought it was an amazing place with an incredible vibe," said Mr Gregec.
He did business training and got involved with the local chamber, while his partner took a job running a local business.
However, after a couple of years, he decided it was time to reconnect with his Croatian roots.
"I had been to Croatia and Slovenia, but I'd never really looked around properly," he said. (See story on page a11)
The couple returned to New Zealand at the end of last year, staying temporarily in Taupo until tenants moved out of their house in Tauranga in March, when they moved back to the city and he applied for the chamber job.
He takes up his new role later this month.
Stan Gregec sees the chamber as being a key champion of business confidence and growth.
"I saw the opportunity to add my own experience, skills and networks to the already strong platform the chamber has in this region," he said.
"I feel privileged to be leading a team that serves and represents every type of business, across every sector."
Stephen Kale, owner of Kale Print, who has known Mr Gregec for many years and has worked with him on several projects, described him as a straight shooter. "He's always very professional, and has very good and fresh ideas for marketing programmes," he said. "He knows what he wants and how to explain what he wants."
Kay Rogers, managing director of the retail travel company the Mount Group, said Mr Gregec would bring an armoury of export experience and business skills. "It's tough to be in business and Stan recognises what needs to be done to maximise the assistance the chamber can provide," she said.
"I think he'll provide a strong voice on behalf of business and the community. He's a great guy and he has the ability to lead a strong team, which is fundamental to the chamber growing the membership and returning value back to its members."
Stan Gregec and his partner Ali Pomstra spent six months last year travelling throughout the Balkans, visiting many countries including Romania, Bulgaria and Slovenia.
They spent the longest period in the "unbelievably beautiful" Croatian town of Rovinj, in Istria, not far from the border with Italy.
"To me, the Balkans was just eye-opening," said Mr Gregec, who learned a Croatian dialect as a child and has since undertaken formal training in the language.
"It wasn't like the old communist era. All of these countries are modernising very quickly."
As part of his preparation, Mr Gregec started a Facebook blog on the Balkans, which now has some 30,000 followers.
The blog aims to find common ground among the various countries that have emerged since the splintering of the former Yugoslavia in the late 1980s.
He is a history buff whose hobbies include writing personal histories, cycling and walking/rambling.
He is also a competitive Scrabble player and has been an active member of Toastmasters, a nonprofit educational organisation, for more than 20 years.
He has two adult sons, Petar, 25, who lives in Melbourne and works in the insurance industry, and Tim, 22, who is completing a postgraduate degree at Victoria University of Wellington.
Role - chief executive, Tauranga Chamber of Commerce.
Born - Graz, Austria.
Age - 56.
First job - import licensing officer.
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