Here at Strive we are all about empowering business owners and individuals - people who are up to something in life - to achieve what they are striving for sooner and more easily. Being in business doesn't have to be hard.  Achieving what you set out to in life doesn't have to be a struggle.  But it does take something  - sometimes everything - courage, optimism, effort, people, inspiration, resources, timing and more.

Our Strive Special Evening sees 6 amazing entrepreneurs - all powerhouse women - share what's had them keep striving and how they've produced amazing results over time.

Join us for this special event on Tuesday evening, March 15, 2016.

VIP (NZD $77.00)

VIP private area, includes drinks and canapés on arrival, paparazzi photos by M2 Women, meet and mingle, VIP seating at front of venue, post event networking with speakers and drinks. Business card door prizes throughout the night. Post event 1 hour live webinar Q&A with speaker Dame DC Cordova.

General Admission (NZD $37.00)

Beverage on arrival and nibbles, general seating and networking session with other guests pre-event and during event. Business card door prizes throughout the night.

Meet and hear six powerhouse business owners and entrepreneurs from all industries and backgrounds share their insights from startup to ongoing success, the how to’s of overcoming challenges and creating success in any enterprise.

Our key note speaker is none other than Dame DC Cordova.  

Her story in itself is full of life and business lessons to take all who attend to the next level of inspiration and action.  Whilst you may not have heard of DC, she is an incredible entrepreneur, philanthropist and human being based out of the U.S., who has dedicated her life to her sole purpose of “uplift humanity’s consciousness through socially-responsible businesses” to end poverty, hunger and preserve our environment worldwide. Hearing DC Cordova speak is inspiring and a rare, rare gem of an opportunity.

As the CEO of Excellerated Business Schools and Money & You, a global organization that has over 100,000 graduates from all over the world, her work and life has had an incredible and positive impact on the world. As mentor to many of the world’s change makers, leading transformation on the planet – it is impossible not to learn key strategies for success from this inspirational person. She is also a partner with Nobel Laurete and billionaire Huang Ming – bringing solar energy to the world.  Dame DC is flying in from the U.S. to appear as our special guest for the evening and she is not to be missed.

DC is joined by our entrepreneur panelists including:

 Christine Fernyhough

Well-known across New Zealand, Christine has been a farmer, teacher, business woman and educator, co-founding with Alan Duff the hugely successful ‘Books in Homes’  and then ‘Gifted Kids’ Programmes.  A regular speaker throughout New Zealand, speaking up for the farming community and on the value of education and the Creative Thinking Project, Christine’s been a leader for years.  Her philanthropic efforts with the Salvation Army and others are well known across New Zealand and continue in full steam today. She’s also a successful author with the books such as ‘The Road to Castle Hill: A High Country Love Story’; and children’s books ‘Ben and Mark, Boys of the High Country’ to name just a couple.

Christine has been awarded an Officer of New Zealand Order of Merit and The Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and the community among many other awards and fellowships. An extraordinary human being, its an honour to be with Christine.

Liz Mitchell

A renown creative force and designer in New Zealand, Liz Mitchell has had a stellar career in the creative industries.  Fusing timeless glamour with a strong modern edge, Liz Mitchell is one of New Zealand’s leading couture and ready to wear designers.  

In 2005, Liz was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to the fashion industry. Her garments are on display at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, and have been worn Academy Award ceremonies by Oscar winners Richard Taylor and Tania Rodgers of Weta Workshop, and Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”), even by Royals like Zara Phillips and other entertainers. Even politicians such as Helen Clark, New Zealand’s former Prime Minister and now head of the United Nations Relief Fund is also dressed by Liz Mitchell for special occasions.  Liz has seen all aspects of being in business and will share her incredible and creative experiences directly with those attending.

Megan Jaffe

Megan runs one of the most successful property and real estate businesses in the world.  Starting as a sales person in 2004 and growing to owner, Megan’s philosophy is simple - human connectedness and unsurpassed service are the essential cornerstones of any business including hers.  Taking a leaf out of Aristotle’s philosophy Megan believes “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” and she has built a culture based on mutual trust, friendship, support for our colleagues and client as well as a collective professionalism to support that view. 

Based on those values she has grown her business to now 4 offices – Remuera Road and Upland Road Remuera, as well as Orakei and Mt Eden, with some 30% market share, achieved the enormous status of #1 Ray White Office Worldwide 2015 and 100+ team members all committed to excellence. No easy feat and something any business owner would aspire to, Megan will share her beliefs and experience on what it takes to build a great business filled with extraordinary people no matter the industry, direct from her personal experiences during our evening together.

Stephanie Harris

Acting for investors and developers with commercial property portfolios in both the private and public sector for nearly 20 years, Stephanie has invaluable expertise and experience in undertaking large and complex property transactions and developments. With a large number of high profile businesses, both SMEs and larger corporates as clients, Stephanie’s focus is on grasping her client’s business needs and aspirations first, then meeting their legal requirements and getting the detail done. Stephanie has also made it to a key pinnacle in a lawyer’s career, as she is also Managing Partner of successful law firm Glaister Ennor, Barristers & Solictors.

 Stephanie is also Trustee for the Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust which annually funds a number of awards aimed at providing women with financial assistance for retraining and for undergraduate and postgraduate study.  The Kate Edger Educational Charitable Trust is named in recognition of New Zealander Kate Milligan Edger (1857-1935) the first woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in the British Empire – perfect inspiration for our evening together.  Stephanie will share about her experiences growing a legal business and her non-profit role.

And Strive Founder & MC, Ryll Burgin-Doyle

Now the Group CEO of a $100M Construction business, Ryll has been growing small and large companies of every type on 2 continents for the past 24 years. Her experience includes: being responsible for the marketing of up to 120 companies at a time; establishing and selling her first company - a Strategic Planning firm - at just 27 years of age; becoming a published author; living and working in the US as a key brand strategist for huge multinational companies in the dot com, financial services, biotech and manufacturing sectors; acting as VP of Organisational Change and developing systems that increased sales and profits by 300%; and more. Ryll has worked with every kind of business imaginable including building her own franchise network of 65 firms and co-creating and launching a sustainably farmed milk generating some $2.2M worth of free publicity in the process.

In 2002 she launched her personal passion ‘stepUP Foundation’, a non-profit that educated and excited teens about the possibilities for their futures in business and in life. Approx. 42% of the teens were disadvantaged or at risk - some 19,000 teens across Australia, New Zealand and the UK benefited.  Its this model that has inspired Ryll to create ‘Strive’ to inspire anyone up to something in life and business, particularly aspiring female entrepreneurs on how to achieve their dreams in reality.  On the night she’ll share more about that as well as the common threads that run through successful enterprises and start ups.