Thank you to our Guest Speakers

During recent lessons in the BIS Department, we have been fortunate to have guest speakers to share their knowledge and expertise with our students.

Our Year 10 Commerce students listened to Alyce Graf of Forsyth Barr, Nelson and learnt the power of time and compound interest. Student feedback included, ‘I learnt about a bull and bear market’, ‘although it goes up and down, over a long timeline, the value of the share market has climbed significantly’. Alyce has presented to our students in previous years, and she is a great female role model for the finance industry. Her presentation is always engaging and appreciated.

Tom Maling, a former student of Waimea College talked to the Level 2 Accounting class about his career after leaving college in 2007. He has a passion for economics and dreamt of owning his own business. After leaving school he went to university and studied to become a chartered accountant. His first job was with KPMG in Auckland, then he worked for a honey company, and successfully helped grow their business. He is now a joint owner and director of Brown Associates here in Richmond, his dream came true.

Andrew Drummond, another former student of Waimea College talked to our Level 1 Commerce, Level 2 and 3 Economics students about his career since leaving college in 2015. After leaving school he worked as a tradesman for two years and picked up lots of skills. He then decided to study Commerce and Finance at Victoria University and is now a senior trader of a different kind, working on the trading floor of Jarden in Auckland. He told us that it’s not like the movie Wolf of Wall Street, the financial markets are heavily regulated. He said that despite the long hours, his job is definitely exciting, and he still manages to pursue his other passion, golf.

Our Level 1 Commerce had the benefit of having Matt Tyrie and his colleague Aaron Aynsley talk to them about the importance of their IRD number as they move into employment and the importance of paying our taxes to help the government of the day fund its spending. He also talked about our reciprocal tax treaty agreements with our trading partners overseas and as an example – the tax implications if you earn income as a digital content creator. 

It's fair to say that all guest speakers have provided the opportunity for our students to listen to and engage with REAL people in the REAL world. Many thanks to them for giving up their time.

As a final note, it’s interesting to see that careers in finance and insurance are now ranked as top of those that get paid more than they used to. See the article link:

The jobs in New Zealand that get paid more than they used to | Newshub