BMI Conference Speakers

BMI International Conference

2018 

Speaker Profiles

Jeffrey D Morgan

CEO Club Managers Association of America

Alexandria, VA, USA

Topic: "Navigating Change". This session will share areas of change affecting club management professionals with the realization that we live in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous(VUCA) world. Club managers need to be comfortable with navigating change and able to lead club change efforts. Jeff will share a straightforward process for navigating change based on Dr. John Kotter's insights on leading change.

Profile: Prior to joining the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA), Jeff Morgan served as president and chief executive officer of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI), a professional association that provides research, professional development, networking and advocacy for financial communicators of predominantly publicly traded companies in the U.S. and throughout the world. Prior to joining NIRI in 2008, Morgan was chief operating officer of the Futures Industry Association (FIA) and executive vice president of the Institute for Financial Markets (IFM), an affiliate of the FIA. Morgan was also senior vice president for the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents.

A Pennsylvania native, Morgan holds a bachelor's degree in finance from Susquehanna University and a master of science in non-profit management. He serves on the NYSE Individual Investor Advisory Committee. Morgan is a Certified Association Executive and a member and Fellow of the American Society of Association Executives. For the past four years, Morgan was named to the NACD Directorship 100, a list of the most influential people in corporate governance.

For the past three years Jeff has served the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) is the largest professional association for managers of membership clubs with 6,500 members throughout the US and internationally as CEO. CMAA managers operate more than 2,500 country, golf, athletic, city, faculty, military, town and yacht clubs. The objectives of the association are to promote relationships between club management professionals and other similar professions; to encourage the education and advancement of members; and to provide the resources needed for club managers to operate efficiently and successfully. CMAA is headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with 45 professional chapters and more than 45 student chapters and colonies. The Golf Managers Association of New Zealand is a Global Partner of CMAA New Zealand.

---

Dean Murphy

CEO NZ Golf

Auckland NZ

Dean hails from the Manawatu and has been working with New Zealand Golf since 2007. Initially spending two years in the role of Commercial Manager, Dean was appointed as Chief Executive in 2010 after serving as Acting CEO for a year prior to appointment. Prior to joining New Zealand Golf, Dean was employed in Sales and Marketing for Lion Nathan as a graduate and spent 10 years in London working in the tourism industry before returning to New Zealand to take up employment with New Zealand Golf. Dean is a passionate golfer and is most proud of achieving a hole in one on the Par 4 sixth hole at Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club.

Why Dean LOVE's Golf: I LOVE the feeling of turning to pick up your tee after a well struck drive – nothing beats it.

---

David Chag

GM/COO The Country Club

Brookline USA

Born and raised in New England, David Chag has held the position of general manager at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1987. His involvement in the Club Managers Association of America includes serving as president of the New England Club Managers Association. He has served on numerous national committees including education and certification. He also has advised many young assistant managers employed at The Country Club, enabling them to continue in club management and gain their CCM status. Since Mr. Chag's arrival, The Country Club—a premier setting for golf—has hosted the 1988 U.S. Open Championship, the 1995 USGA Women's Amateur Championship, and, most recently, the 1999 Ryder Cup Matches. In addition to his responsibilities as general manager, he has instructed at the University of Houston College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and the University of Massachusetts School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration.

Born and raised in New England, David Chag has held the position of general manager at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, since 1987. His involvement in the Club Managers Association of America includes serving as president of the New England Club Managers Association. He has served on numerous national committees including education and certification. He also has advised many young assistant managers employed at The Country Club, enabling them to continue in club management and gain their CCM status. Since Mr. Chag's arrival, The Country Club—a premier setting for golf—has hosted the 1988 U.S. Open Championship, the 1995 USGA Women's Amateur Championship, and, most recently, the 1999 Ryder Cup Matches. In addition to his responsibilities as general manager, he has instructed at the University of Houston College of Hotel and Restaurant Management and the University of Massachusetts School of Hotel, Restaurant, and Travel Administration.

---

Martin Grunstein

CEO Success Communications

Sydney, Australia

Martin Grunstein studied Psychology and Marketing at University of N.S.W. He spent four years in sales and marketing with Colgate-Palmolive before setting up 'SUCCESS COMMUNICATIONS' in 1985.

Martin's outstanding results with over 500 companies across over 100 industries have made him an in-demand speaker on Outstanding Customer Service.

Martin doesn't hype people up, he teaches techniques and how to apply them to business in the areas of professional attitude to business; understanding the ego of your customer; and how to generate the repeat and referral business that keeps the bottom line healthy.

One of Martin's strengths is his ability to customize his material to the needs and situation of an individual organisation. That is one of the strongest themes in the many "corporate testimonials" that are evidence of the success of his involvement in a conference or meeting. Most importantly, Martin believes that entertainment is the best form of education and in his spare time he has written comedy professionally.

Martin's keynote presentations or workshops for smaller groups, will make you laugh however, it's the results you get from the techniques he delivers that will keep you smiling.

---

Sam Hazeldine

Managing Director

MedRecruit Queenstown NZ

Sam's energy and enthusiasm, combined with his proven and much decorated business experience form a winning combination. He truly epitomizes a speaker who can walk the talk!

Sam is an entrepreneur, acclaimed author, doctor, athlete and international speaker - he is also regarded as one of the brightest young business minds in New Zealand. The Ernst & Young – Young Entrepreneur of the Year and Sir Peter Blake Leader, he is the founder and Managing Director of Australasia's fastest growing recruitment company, MedRecruit, which has featured in the Deloitte Fast 50 as the fastest growing service business in the country.

Sam believes that success lies at the intersection of mindset and action, he is passionate about lifting people's sights so they can see what's possible, and sharing the lessons he has learned to get anyone into that sweet spot, where success becomes inevitable.

Sam is the author of Head First - The Seven Habits of Highly Successful Doctors, and Unfair Fight – Give Your Small Business the Winning Advantage. In 2014 Sam was awarded the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Award.

---

Ngahi Bidois 

Maori Cultural expert

Rotorua NZ

Ngahi lives in Rotorua, New Zealand, which is the Maori Cultural Tourist capital of the world. His full indigenous Maori name is Ngahihi o te ra and means "The Rays of the Sun". A name bestowed on him by Maori elders before he was born. Childhood experiences with tourists from all over the world provided Ngahihi o te ra with an understanding of their cultures.

His personal life goals saw Ngahihi o te ra achieve success by the age of 26, only to find he had turned his back on his own indigenous Maori Culture. While he had worked hard to attain the relevant business knowledge and skills and was employed in the business world, he had lost his identity as an indigenous Maori of New Zealand. He did not know what it meant to be Maori.

Ngahi realigned his personal goals and based them on identity. These personal goals took him into the Education sector where he retrained and qualified before being employed in the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary sectors of Education. His employment in the Education sector has included teaching at the Primary sector in a Maori Total Immersion school, teaching and managing in the secondary sector, developing programmes and lecturing in the tertiary sector before becoming a tertiary senior manager.

These life experiences make Ngahihi o te ra a unique and authoritative speaker. Ngahi says "My passion is developing people. My Professional experiences in the business and education sectors prove to me that it is people that make a difference to profits. If you develop people at all levels of your business, you will improve your profits. One of our well known indigenous Maori proverbs speaks of people being the most important resource in this world.

This is just one of the concepts of ancient wisdom from my indigenous Maori culture which I talk about and could become a modern solution for your personal and professional lives."

---

John Shackleton

Stress and Mindfulness expert

Auckland NZ

John's passion is showing people that, no matter what level they are currently performing at, self-limitation is what holds them back. Sport psychology teaches us about self-belief and how important it is to achieve everything we are capable of. All we need to do to raise our own game is to apply the techniques that sports people use, to our business and personal life.

He is passionate about lifting people's performance and helping them to achieve their goals. His exhilarating masterclasses put sales teams, managers and business owners through their mental paces to help them achieve best performances in their business and personal life. His personal experience and subsequent enlightenment shaped his business life, his sporting life and his speaking career and has helped him achieve great success in all three areas.

His unique background and experience has made him a powerful motivational speaker with a story borne out of life experience not trite text book theory. His humorous but hard-hitting style will have his audiences laughing and crying but more importantly they will find themselves making big changes to their thinking processes and taking greater levels of personal responsibility than ever before in their life.

---

Andrew Sloman

Partner BDO

Auckland NZ

Andrew has over 22 years' experience in both the delivery of external audit and risk advisory services across a broad range of clients and industry sectors. Andrew is based in Auckland but has clients across New Zealand and Australia.

Andrew enjoys working closely with Boards, Audit Committees and Management to assist them in understanding the risk profile of their business, the controls in place to mitigate those risks, and the resources required to ensure that the business risks are managed to a tolerable level.

Andrew is uniquely placed to provide Assurance solutions across all levels of governance, be it risk profiling, risk based internal audit or external audit services. This work is all done with a team of supportive specialists, and is instilled with the integrity and proximity that they pride ourselves on.

---

Norm Thompson

NZ Tourism identity

AUCKLAND NZ 

Norm Thompson has a career spanning over 45 years in the New Zealand tourism industry culminating in him retiring as the deputy CEO of Air New Zealand.

He is currently the Deputy Chairman of ATEED and on a number of tourism related industry boards, including Queenstown airport, Tourism New Zealand and the Young Enterprise Trust board.

Before his current active roles, he was the Chairman of both the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand (until October 31, 2013) and the Air New Zealand Environment Trust (until December 31, 2013)

---

Ryan Brandeburg

Executive Director Golf Tourism NZ Havelock North NZ

Ryan Brandeburg is a PGA member and serves as the Executive Director of Golf Tourism New Zealand and the Golf Consultant to Tourism New Zealand. He was previously the Director of Golf for The Lodge at Kauri Cliffs and The Farm at Cape Kidnappers on the North Island of New Zealand. Both golf courses consistently rank among the top 50 in the world.

Ryan has an extensive background in private and resort operations, and has formerly served in senior management roles at Waldorf Astoria Golf Club in Orlando, Florida, and Naples Grande Golf Club in Naples, Florida. In addition, Ryan is a contributing columnist to international golf publications including Golf Digest Korea and Golf Travel China.

---

Matt Guzik - CCM CCE

General Manager

Tara Iti Golf Club

Auckland Nz

Matt joined the Tara Iti opening team in December 2013 from the United States of America. In it's second year, Tara Iti Golf Club debuted at 29th in Golf Magazine's top 100 courses in the world and ranks 6th in Golf Digest top 100 courses in the world outside the US.

Matt is a Certified Club Manager and Certified Club Executive through the Club Managers Association of America. Matt came to Tara Iti Golf Club with a wealth of experience gained in 35 years of club management in the United States. He has been instrumental in opening and managing several prestigious clubs across the United States, most notably The Stock Farm Club in Hamilton, Montana; the Golf Club at Newcastle in Bellevue, Washington and the Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Arizona. He also oversaw the clubhouse renovation and successful bid and securement of the 2002 Solheim Cup at Interlachen Country Club, Edina Minnesota. Matt is the only club manager to have won CMAA's Idea Fair overall "Idea of the Year" three times at 3 different clubs on 2 different continents. He is a regular guest lecturer at BMI 1 & 2 and has spoken at CMAA's World Conference on "Everything I needed to know about Club Management…I learned by running marathons and participating in triathlons"

---

Eric Rush

Former All Black, NZ Sevens Captain

Supermarket owner whangarei NZ

One of NZ rugby Seven's greatest captains turned solicitor now supermarket owner and an ambassador for Maori Youth.

Eric started first-class rugby with Auckland as an explosive flanker with more pace than most backs. After transferring to North Harbour he got more regular match play and was switched to the backs in 1992. He played 29 games for the All Blacks between 1992 and 1996 (including nine test matches). His playing career included over 200 first class matches in which he scored over 100 tries.

He was one of the world's foremost Sevens rugby players. He represented New Zealand at Sevens for 17 years and captained them to a Gold Medal victory at the 1998 Commonwealth Games at Kuala Lumpur, the World Sevens Series Title for six consecutive years, the Sevens World Cup championship in 2001, and the Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

As well as Rugby Union and Sevens, Eric represented New Zealand at touch rugby, New Zealand U-17 volleyball team, and won a light-heavyweight New Zealand boxing title whilst still at school.

Eric attained the Bachelor of Laws degree, and was admitted to the bar as Barrister, with eight years of corporate legal experience. He is now the Owner/Operator of a Foodstuffs Supermarket.

Career Highlights

• Played 200 First Class games of rugby, scoring 108 first class tries
• Auckland Rugby Representative 1986-1990
• North Harbour Rugby Representative 1991-2000
• NZ Maori All Blacks 1987-1998
• NZ All Black 1992 – 1996 (29 games incl 9 test matches)
• NZ Sevens 1988-2005

RICHARD MEHRTENS