MARCH 10 2018 LISTENER‘W
hatever you think
you have, or are
good at, or can
offer, give some of
it away freely and
often” was one of
the key messages
of entrepreneur and philanthropist Derek
Handley’s 2013 autobiography, Heart to
Start.
Now, at 40, Handley is about to return
to New Zealand after 15 years away,
mostly in the US, and he wants to influ-
ence Aucklanders into taking community
leadership roles and to strengthen the
sense of community in New Zealand’s
biggest city.
He and Auckland community develop-
ment organisation Splice are partnering
in running weekend leadership courses,
based on a UK model, for Aucklanders of
all ages and backgrounds. A study com-
missioned by Handley’s Aera Foundation
shows that only 3% of Aucklanders feel
they have very strong connections with
their community and that two-thirds of
Aucklanders wish those connections were
stronger: among people aged 18-24, the
figure is almost 80%.
Half of Aucklanders (two-thirds of the
younger group) believe they could be
living a fuller life.
Handley says “active citizenship” can
play a large part in fulfilling this desire
for more meaning and contribution to
society, and the courses he and Splice are
offering are a start in this process.
He has a track record in start-ups. Even
before the iPhone went on sale in 2007,
Handley had noted the success of Apple’siPod and anticipated the widespread
adoption of mobile digital technology. In
Heart to Start, he recounts how he and his
brother Geoff travelled to the US to pitch
an idea for mobile phone advertising to
Saatchi & Saatchi boss Kevin Roberts. The
flip chart they prepared for that meeting
included a girl with a device in her back
jeans pocket that they presciently labelled
iPhone.Their agency The Hyperfactory went on
to land contracts with some of the world’s
biggest companies, including Toyota,
Johnson & Johnson and Motorola. They
sold the company in 2009 to Meredith
Corporation – Handley has never
disclosed the sale price but told Idealog
magazine in 2010 that it was “a lot more
than” $10 million. In 2011, Handley was
named in the Silicon Alley 100 most influ-
ential technology people in New York.
After the sale of The Hyperfactory, he
and Sir Richard Branson co-founded The B
Team, a non-profit organisation of global
leaders advancing better ways of doing
business for people and the planet.
So even though he’s walked the Kiwi
talk on the world stage, it was only on
the last day of February, at the AucklandTown Hall, that Handley affirmed alle-
giance to the Queen and became a New
Zealand citizen.
He was born in Hong Kong in 1978. His
father, John, is a Scotsman; his mother,
Latifa, is of Chinese, Indian and Malay
ethnicity, but after China’s crackdown on
protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989,
the family decided to move to New Zea-
land before the 1997 handover of Hong
Kong to Chinese control.
One of three boys, Derek ran small
money-making (and money-losing)
ventures from an early age. He did well
at school and at university and had co-
founded The Hyperfactory by his early
twenties.
He travelled the world from home bases
in both New Zealand and the US on a
British passport, thanks to his father’s citi-
zenship, and he had permanent residence
here; his Kiwi wife, Maya, and their now
five-year-old son, Finn, were both NewHOME TO ROOST
The nomadic New Zealander who’s set his sights on
space travel is no longer an alien. photograph by SIMON YOUNG
CLARE
DE LORE
Two-thirds of Aucklanders
wish their connections
with their community
were stronger.
Derek Handley in Auckland in 2018, left, and 2011.NEWSPIX