Geoff’s early career was spent as the Assistant Government Reception Officer in the Distinguished Visitors Branch of Internal Affairs. He then became the Personal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, the Rt Honourable James Bolger; a position he held for ten years.
After leaving politics Geoff returned to university completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing at the International School of Business, Victoria University, while embarking on a successful career in advertising and public relations.
Geoff’s academic study led him to develop a specific interest in branding, and in turn led to him publish the first worldwide paper on Brand Architecture (University of Bradford, 1999). Geoff went on to be a guest lecturer at the International Business School at MBA level lecturing in his specialist subject – branding.
In 2001, Geoff formed BrandCom Ltd and in 2003 moved to Queenstown where BrandCom flourished, becoming a 2005 Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 Company.
In 2005, BrandCom with Geoff at the helm, became the driving force behind the Motatapu mountain bike and off-road marathon.
In its first year the Motatapu Icebreaker established itself as New Zealand’s premium off road event becoming the largest off road mountain bike event and the third largest marathon in New Zealand. More importantly Motatapu was established as a premium brand and the event has grown every subsequent year. In 2009 the Motatapu event attracted over 3,000 competitors. Geoff still sits on the Board.
BrandCom’s experience with high growth companies continued in 2007 when Geoff became the interim CEO of Blueseventy Ltd (swimming) for a seven-month period. blueseventy is the world’s largest triathlon wetsuit company, Geoff led the company into the highly competitive world of performance swimwear, which resulted in the 20-year old company achieving a 100% growth for the year. blueseventy actually started the ‘swim suit wars’ with Geoff getting the first high performance suit approved for use in the pool by the world’s governing body.
In 2007, Geoff developed the original business model for TaxRefunds.co.nz Ltd. The company was launched in September 2008 and went on to process one million tax refund applications in its first seven months of operation; in the process it became one of the few business success stories of 2008. Geoff is the Director of Strategy, driving the marketing and managing the IT and management teams and sits on the Board.
In September 2009, after being involved in the business planning and fundraising stages for two years, Geoff was appointed as the Managing Director and interim CEO of Mt Cook Alpine Salmon Ltd to drive the massive expansion plans of the company forward and to establish the international brand.
Other recent projects that BrandCom and Geoff have been involved with which go beyond include; Red Witch Analog Ltd see here for the full story, and when Jan Hellreigel wanted to re-launch her career after a 10 hiatus BrandCom helped her establish her own record label. www.blinddaterecords.co.nz
Geoff executive produced her album ‘All Grown Up’ to critical acclaim.
Geoff also wrote the lyrics for one of Jan’s most beautiful and important songs ‘Under the Stars’.