The Star: January 20, 2022
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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Star</strong> Thursday <strong>January</strong> <strong>20</strong> <strong>20</strong>22<br />
14<br />
OUR PEOPLE – EKANT VEER<br />
<strong>Star</strong>gazing professor and his<br />
Ekant Veer arrived in<br />
New Zealand from<br />
the United Kingdom<br />
midway through the<br />
fifth form and, inspired<br />
by his late grandfather’s<br />
ground-breaking<br />
education, he has built<br />
a formidable reputation<br />
among lecturers at<br />
Canterbury University.<br />
<strong>The</strong> professor, keen<br />
astrophotographer and<br />
hiker documents his<br />
sometimes controversial<br />
career to Chris Barclay<br />
Your family are from the<br />
north of India near the border<br />
with Nepal, but your first<br />
sporting passion is football, not<br />
cricket. Please explain . . .<br />
I was born in Liverpool and<br />
left reasonably quickly so I<br />
don’t retain the Scouse accent. I<br />
mainly grew up in the south of<br />
the United Kingdom but I still<br />
staunchly support Liverpool.<br />
When did your parents<br />
emigrate to Merseyside from<br />
Uttar Pradesh?<br />
Satvir (dad) and Archana<br />
moved to the UK in the mid to<br />
late 70s. When I was about 15 we<br />
moved to New Zealand.<br />
How did the family end up in<br />
New Zealand?<br />
Dad worked for the NHS<br />
(National Health Service) and<br />
he saw this opportunity to head<br />
up Waikato Hospital’s mental<br />
health unit. He said to me<br />
and my brothers (Vikrant and<br />
Nishant): ‘How about moving<br />
to New Zealand?’ We thought:<br />
‘It’s an amazing island paradise’.<br />
We landed and ended up in<br />
Hamilton. We thought: ‘This<br />
is not what we thought New<br />
Zealand was’.<br />
We’ll be charitable and<br />
offer you a chance to placate<br />
residents of the Waikato’s<br />
much-maligned centrepiece . . .<br />
I have a lot of love for<br />
Hamilton, I met my wife<br />
(Unicia) there, I fell in love<br />
with rugby there. I work with<br />
STAR TEACHER: Ekant Veer combines an interest in astrophotography with his awardwinning<br />
lecturing at Canterbury University.<br />
PHOTO: CANTERBURY UNIVERSITY<br />
(Crusaders chief executive) Colin<br />
(Mansbridge) and the team<br />
regularly on their marketing,<br />
and I still let them know I’m a<br />
Chiefs fan.<br />
Before the Covid-19<br />
pandemic did you ever visit<br />
your ancestral home?<br />
Many times. Most of my<br />
family are still in India. My dad<br />
is number 11 from 12 kids.<br />
You took your daughters to<br />
India in <strong>20</strong>19, it was quite a<br />
poignant journey to the village<br />
named Alam . . .<br />
My grandfather (Pita-ji) was<br />
the first person in my family to<br />
learn how to read and write. He<br />
used the sacrifice the family put<br />
into paying for his education to<br />
become a teacher. His family<br />
were subsistence farmers and<br />
his older brothers didn’t want<br />
him to have the same life and<br />
committed to paying for his<br />
education. One day he wanted to<br />
be like his brothers, so he picked<br />
potatoes in the field rather than<br />
do his homework. <strong>The</strong>y kicked<br />
INSPIRATION: Ekant Veer’s<br />
grandfather Pita-ji, the<br />
first member of his family<br />
to learn how to read and<br />
write, eventually became a<br />
teacher.<br />
the s**t out of him and said:<br />
‘Our job is to pick potatoes, your<br />
job is to study’. He went on to<br />
university and when he had a<br />
family he set up a school for girls<br />
(and his daughters). It was good<br />
for my girls to go back and see<br />
where they could have ended up<br />
… a very different world.<br />
Your grandfather died in his<br />
80s when you were 14, but in a<br />
way his legacy lives on in your<br />
teaching at UC doesn’t it . . .<br />
I’m trying to give back. I can’t<br />
see any greater way to give than<br />
see other people be elevated by<br />
their experience at university.<br />
I’m not so arrogant to say that<br />
I’m transforming these people’s<br />
lives but it’s a cool way to give<br />
back rather than make money<br />
off people, make an extra 10<br />
per cent shareholder value for a<br />
millionaire.<br />
That represents a change<br />
of mindset from when you<br />
graduated from Waikato<br />
University with a Bachelor<br />
of Management Studies in<br />
marketing and information<br />
studies doesn’t it?<br />
I spent a couple of years<br />
in corporate marketing for a<br />
direct mail, effectively junk<br />
mail, company in Auckland. I<br />
was in the consumer insights<br />
area … understanding which<br />
suburbs consumers would be<br />
more receptive (to a product)<br />
and where the biggest return<br />
on investment would be. A lot<br />
of that is consumer psychology,<br />
what drives these people? What<br />
makes people tick? That was<br />
fascinating to me but doing<br />
it for profit wasn’t. At 24 I<br />
couldn’t see myself doing it for<br />
40 years, or even climbing the<br />
ladder.<br />
So you returned to campus in<br />
Auckland to study for a PhD in<br />
marketing?<br />
<strong>The</strong> focus was can we use<br />
marketing and advertising to<br />
encourage young people living in<br />
poverty to make healthy eating<br />
and exercise choices? I spent a<br />
lot of time in low decile schools<br />
in Manurewa to see whether<br />
advertising can make a change<br />
in diet and exercise behaviours.<br />
Long story short, no, not really.<br />
You can’t just advertise healthy<br />
living.<br />
Was it difficult to transition<br />
to teaching?<br />
Auckland (university) was<br />
good for me because it wanted<br />
to create great academics. You<br />
have to be good at your research,<br />
but you also have to teach<br />
while you’re doing it. I was an<br />
assistant lecturer when doing<br />
my PhD. I always enjoyed that<br />
engagement and the teaching<br />
side. My first lecturing job was<br />
at the University of Bath (UK)<br />
from <strong>20</strong>06-<strong>20</strong>09. I joined UC’s<br />
Department of Management in<br />
<strong>20</strong>10.<br />
Do you have a goal when<br />
lecturing in this sphere of<br />
influence?<br />
All of this is hopefully for<br />
societal and human betterment<br />
as opposed to a financial gain,<br />
exploitation. Marketing is<br />
usually given a bad rap: ‘You’re<br />
just there to make money off<br />
people’. Most of my research<br />
throughout my career has been:<br />
‘How do we benefit society in<br />
some way?’<br />
“Without doubt, it was<br />
the capital gain that<br />
sold us...<br />
..but it was more than that. <strong>The</strong> value of what we could get here<br />
- three bedrooms, a double garage, so I could have my workshop,<br />
and a small garden to keep Diane, my wife, happy...well, we just knew<br />
it was the one.”<br />
<strong>The</strong>re are many reasons why Woodcroft Estate could be the right choice for you.<br />
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BRUCE WALLACE - RETIRED BUSINESSMAN<br />
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