
Blog #2 for Data Ventures — The First Board Meeting
by Pip Bennett
Wednesday was a day of many firsts for me:
- my first board meeting as an intern for Data Ventures,
- the first time meeting some of the staff from Stats NZ and
- the first time I’d experienced an aggressive Wellington taxi driver.
Needless to say it was also a day full of learning; with the first lesson off a 7am flight being to use more tact when asking a taxi driver to slow down.
One of the advantages of being a board intern for Data Ventures is the access to connect and network with staff within Stats NZ. The board meeting didn’t start until the afternoon so Hollie organised morning tea with the team from Te Tohu Rautaki Angitu Māori — the team that uses data to improve outcomes for Māori within Stats NZ. Jacinta, James and Paul all had hugely varied backgrounds, strengths and areas of expertise; from education through research, governance and tertiary institutions. I found them all fascinating. The mahi (work) that they are doing seemed to me to be creating a scaffold for future governance of data in a way that aligns with Māori principles and would benefit New Zealand as we move forward into a more data centred economy. And, they all seemed friendly and passionate about what they were doing. In hindsight, I can see how the process of being involved with a government department from my unique perspective is somewhat challenging to my, not entirely conscious, biases about government departments.
I asked to speak to the board members that I had not had conversations with before the meeting. It was interesting to speak with successful and intelligent people who had vastly different backgrounds, varying degrees of opinions on the same subjects and a common interest in the success of Data Ventures. I guess this is part of the art of compiling a good board.
Speaking with the individual members really helped me to understand what a governance board does, what role I could play and gave me an understanding of who the other members were. All of these things helped me feel comfortable going into the first meeting.The main takeaways for me were that the board was not concerned with the day to day running of Data Ventures but with the ‘why’. It is our job to understand the principles that the business was formed around and to make sure that those are kept as the guiding foundations of what is done on day to day and in formation of long term strategies. As one member said, we are looking to find/create the balance between pushing Drew and creating a supportive leadership in order to have commitments reached and potential realised.
The meeting itself was a huge learning experience. My first learning curve was that I should have printed out the agenda and associated documents that I had reviewed over email. The meeting started on time and was quite fast paced as we went through the items outlined in the agenda, (that I was trying unsuccessfully to bring up on my laptop). Liz made sure to open the meeting by welcoming me and expressing the concerns of stakeholders that I was to be looked after and provided with a safe environment to learn.
In the first 10 minutes of the meeting I had to stop the conversation to have points clarified. Since Data Ventures had been running for a number of months already, and the board members all work in the same broader industry, there were some business, initiatives and even acronyms that I had no clue about. It was a bit intimidating to ask people to explain what they were talking about — however everyone was very supportive and even started to explain things later on without me having to ask.
We discussed what was working, what was planned and how members could leverage their networks to support initiatives. We also discussed what wasn’t working and why, as well as reviewing goals set by the board.
One decision that highlighted for me was the Data Ventures team had a venture that would likely generate revenue in the following month, but in doing so would meander away from the founding principles of creating joint ventures. Collectively the decision was made that at this point in the creation of the business it was important to set a precedent of building from the core principles of Data Ventures.
Towards the end of the meeting we discussed how to actively include Te Ao Māori (Māori principles, worldview, wellbeing/benefit) into the life of Data Ventures. This was of special interest to me; how do we navigate forward into a space that is not particularly well legislated (in any part of the world) due to it’s recency of development through advanced technology. The outcome of this was to actively recruit a board member who can represent this part in Data Ventures.
It was a great way to end my first meeting; by being part of a complex conversation that considered how to effectively move forward in the context of a business operating inside of a wider society. We finished with actions to take, goals to strive for and questions to ponder.
Personally I finished the day with a delightful ride to the airport talking to my taxi driver, a recent NZ citizen, who was as passionate as myself about the strength and potential of our country. It was a great day — I can’t wait to see what you have install for me next month Pōneke (Wellington)!

