Susie and Guy Haddleton to fund NZ Opera School talent coming out of Whanganui

Kiwi richlisters Susie and Guy Haddleton, left, announce what will become an annual sponsorship of opera talent at the New Zealand Opera School.

A Kiwi rich-lister couple will fund a new scholarship to help budding talent identified at Whanganui's annual New Zealand Opera School.

Guy Haddleton is a New Zealand entrepreneur who founded and sold business planning software Adaytum to IBM Cognos in 2003 for US$160 million, then went on to become one of the early investors in Xero and also started what is now the billion-dollar software business Anaplan.

He and his wife Susie attended the New Zealand Opera School in Whanganui this month where they announced the Susie and Guy Haddleton Scholarship.

Each year it will give one budding opera singer $25,000, spread over five years, to support their career progression on to the international stage.

It will supplement the Dame Sister Mary Leo Scholarship which also gives a one-off payment of $5000.

"The idea behind it really is to help attract the best talent into New Zealand to attend the Opera School," Guy Haddleton said.

"We were thrilled with what the opera school does and we just wanted to help put it on the national map, if not, the southern hemisphere map."

NZ Opera School students perform from the deck of the Waimarie paddle steamer during the Opera and Aroha on the River concert.

Susie Haddleton is a former opera singer and trained under Dame Sister Mary Leo so combing the two scholarships was fitting.

"I know how hard it is to launch yourself on to the global stage," Susie Haddleton said.

She found the New Zealand Opera School "absolutely outstanding".

The couple said they would be coming down annually from now on and hoped their scholarship would inspire people to come to the opera school.

The school's director, Jonathan Alver, said the Haddletons' generosity would be a huge help to the recipients.

"The most complex thing for a young person is thinking how they are going to sustain themselves overseas," he said.

Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy makes the scholarship presentation to this year's winning student Samson Setu.

"The idea of having money that you are going to get while you're on your overseas training is a wonderful start to making it feel possible."

Alver said it was also a boost knowing someone was following their success.

This year's winner of the two scholarships was Samson Setu.