Grief, Love, and Leadership: Dame Joan Withers Unfiltered

Dame Joan Withers is one of New Zealand’s most influential business leaders. Whether or not you know the name, you definitely know the companies she has been involved with. 

She is the former Chair of The Warehouse, former CEO of Fairfax NZ and The Radio Network, and director across some of the country’s biggest organisations, including ANZ, TVNZ, Auckland Airport, Mercury, Sky and more.

She also does not do many podcasts, which makes this conversation feel even more special - especially given how open she was about some incredibly personal subjects.

Dame Joan talks candidly about ageing and cosmetic surgery, marriage, attraction, and what it takes to keep a relationship strong for more than five decades.

And in the most devastating part of the episode, Joan opens up about the devastating sudden loss of her only son, Jamie, 4 months earlier, and what grief teaches you that no boardroom ever can.

There is also lots of great business stuff- what being on a board really looks like, why she is leaving ANZ after 13 years, the behind the scenes of the deal that saw Fairfax purchase Trade-Me for $700 million, the toll of being the leading news story for something negative and much more.  

This was the first time we met, and the conversation was not what I expected. I can imagine in her natural habitat of the board room she could be terrifying…but in the studio for this podcast Joan was open, kind, gracious and charming and I loved every minute of our chat.

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Massive thanks to my long-term podcast sponsors, Generate.

If I could ask you to do one big favour, for me and for yourself, it would be to consider getting KiwiSaver advice from Generate, like I did.

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The issuer of the scheme is Generate Investment Management Limited. To see their Product disclosure statement see generatekiwisaver.co.nz/pds Past performance does not guarantee future returns.

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