Angela Wallace, Export New Zealand Bay of Plenty executive officer
--------
What was your first job and what did you learn from it?
My first professional role was as a case manager for the domestic purposes benefit in central Auckland. It gave me an insight into other people's lives and taught me
you can't judge people. Things aren't usually as black and white as we might think at first glance.
What is the most rewarding/enjoyable aspect of your job?
I especially enjoy the people I interact with. They tend to have a positive, worldly and philanthropic view of work and life in general.
I also appreciate and enjoy being able to travel to Asia frequently.
If you could do any other job for a day, what would it be?
I would help choose the songs for the next SingStar album.
What do you do to help balance work and life?
My role requires me to be out and about a lot, so when it comes to my own time I am unabashedly a homebody. My partner Steve - with a little help from me - has been renovating our home in the weekends for the last three years. This is hard work, but great fun because we get excited over all the little things.
For the last five years we have looked after two foster kids at the weekends - boys now aged 11 and 14. We met them through an organisation called Homes of Hope which cares for children whose families are unable to care for them - often for the very worst reasons. These boys have touched our lives so deeply and those of our friends and family. Our relationship with them feels like it matters in the big scheme of things.
What are the challenges of working with such a diverse group as "exporters" and how do you address these?
I have never thought of the diversity of exporters as a challenge. When you get people together who are, in their own way, taking on the world, there is more unity than diversity.
