IT entrepreneur seeks 'right-hand' in NZ

Derek Handley is seeking someone to manage investments here that help drive a new foundation. Photo / Paul Estcourt

Kiwi tech entrepreneur Derek Handley is on the hunt for a NZ "right-hand" to manage investments and launch ventures - see his unconventional 'help wanted' ad below:

Kiwi tech entrepreneur Derek Handley is on the hunt for a "right-hand" in New Zealand to manage investments and launch ventures that help drive and fund a new foundation aimed at tackling social issues.

New York-based Handley - behind mobile marketing business The Hyperfactory and, more recently, NZAX-listed target="_blank">Snakk Media - launched a campaign last night asking for New Zealand's "best and brightest" to apply to work with him as a "chief operator" in this country.

"What I decided over summer was that I can't maintain the momentum across the different things I want to do [in NZ] by myself," he said.

This "chief operator" will be responsible for managing investments, identifying entrepreneurial opportunities and also help to set up a charitable foundation, which will direct the proceeds of these ventures toward solving social issues.

"It's a real, genuine hybrid role ... so when you go to work every day you've got a set of responsibilities that no one normally has, which is to make wealth, make money, create entrepreneurial opportunities that help drive or fund or fuel issues that the foundation is tackling as well," he said.

One of the issues this foundation could target early on is lifting youth-engagement and voter-participation in the upcoming election.

Handley said he was transferring around 4 or 5 million Snakk Media shares to serve as the foundation's seed capital. Snakk shares closed yesterday at 8.9c each.

As well as attracting someone for the role, Handley hoped the campaign would drive a conversation about what people did at work and their wider contribution to the world.

"At the moment, you either work for a not-for-profit or you work in business, or you are working in business and you do some volunteering on the side, it's not integrated."

Part of Handley's campaign was also to "rescue" someone from "corporate doomsdom", he said.

"The traditional narrative of very smart people is not to go and work in the non-profit world or solve social problems - it's to get sucked into the machine of, you know, big business and start becoming a cog and then eventually a wheel. Our brightest most passionate and inspired people need to embrace the issues that we have and they need to do more than just go to work. It's just not good enough and it's a waste of talent."

While those interested should visit theshouldertap.com, Handley said family and friends could also nominate others for the role.

Applications close on May 16 and Handley said that he hoped to have a person in place by the end of June.

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