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JANUARY <strong>2024</strong> WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 5 Straight teeth – and good luck Viv Posselt was in Cambridge last month when entrepreneur Diane Foreman told her story. Diane Foreman’s start in life was less than auspicious. She was the unwanted child of a teenaged mother who rejected her not once, but twice. She was told all young women needed was straight teeth and an ability to type, and by her late teens, was herself an impoverished single mum. With such odds stacked against her, there was little to suggest she would become one of New Zealand’s most successful business leaders. Diane was, however, a determined young woman with a thirst for knowledge … one who with gritty self-discipline and a fair dollop of good luck went on to lead an extraordinary life. She told her story to the final Cambridge U3A gathering for 2023. Now in her early 60s and married to broadcaster Paul Henry, she remains wedded to the entrepreneurial world. She has run businesses across multiple sectors, is involved in recruitment and runs a large residential and commercial real estate portfolio. She serves on private company boards, dividing her time between New Zealand and London where she consults to international businesses; has built and on-sold successful ventures, run massive teams and amassed significant wealth of her own. In 2009, she was named New Zealand’s Entrepreneur of the Year and has since become a judge based in Monte Carlo for the World Entrepreneur of the Year. She has taken titles that include the New Zealand Manufacturer of the Year, and New Zealand Franchisor of the Year. How she got from then to now smacks of feisty ambition meeting with good tutelage. Diane was adopted into a working-class family who placed little value in books. “I was told that education for girls was unnecessary and all you needed was straight teeth and an ability to type,” she said. Against her will, she left school at 15 then worked as a shorthand typist and developed her other ‘must have’, a good telephone voice. By age 18, the first of three seismic events occurred – she upgraded to a job as secretary to the secretary of New Zealand businessman, Sir Robert Kerridge. It was a lowly role, but as she attended board meetings and typed up minutes, she absorbed by osmosis the ideas of the top businessmen of the day. By her early 20s, Diane was mum to two children, one of them adopted, with no marriage. To make ends meet, she worked her day job, typed university students’ theses at weekends and rented out rooms in her home. “I know what poverty looks like, what it's like to not have enough to pay the power bill. I shared baths with the children, turned lights off three days a week. We were dirt poor.” She and an equally poor friend purchased a purple skirt and black blouse that became a shared ensemble for important outings like dates or interviews. New Zealand entrepreneur Diane Foreman, left, was introduced at the Cambridge U3A meeting by her CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 former step mother-in-law, Yvonne Foreman. Photo: Viv Posselt At Bayleys, we believe relationships are what businesses are built on and how they succeed. We understand that to maximise the return on your property you need: Professional property management A business partner that understands your views and goals Contact the Bayleys <strong>Waikato</strong> Commercial Property Management team today. Jan Cooney Head Commercial Property Management - <strong>Waikato</strong>, Bay of Plenty and Taranaki 027 408 9339 jan.cooney@bayleys.co.nz David Cashmore Director, Bayleys Commercial - <strong>Waikato</strong> 021 943 305 david.cashmore@bayleys.co.nz Gert Maritz Senior Facilities Manager - <strong>Waikato</strong>, Bay of Plenty & Taranaki 027 230 2514 gert.maritz@bayleys.co.nz Rasa Gecaite-Vienazindis Commercial Property Manager - <strong>Waikato</strong> 021 077 7873 rasa.gecaite@bayleys.co.nz SUCCESS REALTY LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008 ALTOGETHER BETTER Residential / Commercial / Rural / Property Services