Photo: Vibeke Friis
Above: Clockwise - Lisa with Søren Jensen (Lisa’s uncle) and Rebecca Sheppard on a weekend cruise on Hong Kong harbour; with George her horse Opposite page: Clockwise - From left, Jacquai Patchett, Mel Neilson, Lisa Friis and Ang Kondo at Huka Falls during their road trip; Lisa and her daughter Charlotte having a laugh; Bella playing fetch at Tahunanui Beach
Photo: Vibeke Friis
Six months after moving back, she bought a home and started looking for something she could ‘sink her teeth into’. “I didn’t want to work in finance; I wanted something I could believe in, build up and be proud of.” That’s when Lisa came across Plantae Certified Organic Skincare which wanted to expand into the overseas market. She invested, joined the board and after six months stepped in as CEO for the company until the brand was sold to new owners. In the meantime living in Nelson Tasman enabled the family to embrace its fondness for animals, adding George, a thoroughbred horse, Bella, a border collie/blue heeler dog and latterly a new border collie/husky/staffy puppy Codie for Charlotte to the mix. A call from a friend, former WildTomato manager Laura Loghry, proved the opening for yet another career change.
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“WildTomato is such a quality product and there is nothing else to match it in the Top of the South. “Laura was taking on a new challenge herself and looking for someone to fill her role. She asked me if I’d be interested. I’m not one to say ‘no’ to an opportunity especially if it is a challenge so I talked with Laura and WildTomato owner Jack Martin and became really excited about it. Now here I am as CEO.”
New challenges
New to the magazine industry, Lisa sees some irony in her being dyslexic and working in the print/media industry, but also knows that although spelling is a challenge dyslexics are visual thinkers, which is great graphically and subscribes to the ‘get on with it’ business ethos and is fast becoming familiar with the magazine and its social media/marketing off-shoot WildMedia. “Luckily I’m part of an excellent team with an experienced editor and a proofreader. “WildTomato is such a quality product and there is nothing else to match it in the Top of the South. I’d previously flicked through it regularly so when I came on board I was already a big fan. I love its quality, the feel of the magazine and its uniqueness.” While it’s early days and too early in the job to complete the vision of where the company will go, Lisa’s already working on several ideas for both WildTomato and WildMedia. “The magazine is already very successful, well read and a quality product so initially I’m familiarising myself with it and its demographic and then we’ll start looking at how we can improve on that. And the WildMedia offering is exciting and is such a great opportunity. I’m always out to conquer the world! A single parent for over four years now, she’s determined to empower daughter Charlotte Peacock (15), a year 11 student at Nelson College for Girls, in the same way she was by her parents. “Charlotte’s my best friend and my child; she has amazing empathy and is fun to be with. We work well together and she genuinely likes me as a friend and her mum.”