INTERVIEW
Photo Ana Galloway
“It’s wonderful to be able to deal with nice people who don’t have any other business objectives than to do good.”
Spreading the good word on good works A Nelson charitable foundation may be too humble. New head and former corporate high-flyer Wei Siew Leong relishes the chance to give something back to the community by joining those who give back. Maike van der Heide explains.
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orking in the fast-paced metropolis of Hong Kong, firmly ensconced in a world of high-flying corporates, Wei Siew Leong found true satisfaction in a rare chance to give back to the community. So it was serendipitous when, many years later, she found herself in the business of doing just that. As the new executive officer of the Nelson Bays Community Foundation, Wei Siew, backed by a volunteer board, helps people to donate, or give in their will, sums of money to invest for the benefit of a charity or organisation of their choice. Since taking up the job in early February, Wei Siew, a business development, marketing and communications specialist, is relishing the change from corporate pressure to grassroots community involvement where working together is the norm. “In the corporate world we talk about collaborating but with 20
commercial tensions it’s quite difficult to be truly collaborative. Here, there are no boundaries and I really like that. I love the collaborative nature, the generous nature of this job. It’s wonderful to be able to deal with nice people who don’t have any other business objectives than to do good. I really like that.” Wei Siew made the sea-change from a decade of Wellington city life, where she was latterly director of client strategy at law firm Kensington Swan, to join her partner Johnathan in Nelson. The youngest of her three children, aged 24, 21 and 14, moved with her.
Multicultural ancestry Originally from Tauranga, Wei Siew was born to a Malaysian Chinese father and Kiwi mother and spent 10 years of her childhood in Malaysia. She returned to Tauranga in time for high school, then gave in to the travel ‘itch’ and ended up in Melbourne, where she met her husband-to-be (now ex), who was from Hong Kong. The couple moved to his home city. Wei Siew spent the next 14 years building up professional expertise in marketing communications and marketing development for international law firms. “That was interesting, but the great thing about working for larger firms, and maybe the ones I chose, is that they had