Greg Smith
Centre Director
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What do you love about your job?
I value the opportunity to influence the educational journeys of our students. I believe education enables hope and futures. It is extremely rewarding to see students work through our programmes, springboard into the world and make significant impacts.
What is your experience in the industry?
My life has been totally immersed in sport and physical activity. It is the bases of my earliest memories as a child. Post-secondary school, I studied education while pursuing a professional sport career. As I finished my sporting career, I completed postgraduate business study and found a role within the industry that allowed me to combine both my sport and study experience. I was employed by the Chiefs Super Rugby franchise in a role that helped the athletes cope with professional sport life and start progress on aspects of life outside of rugby. Around the same time, I also fulfilled a similar role for High Performance Sport New Zealand and worked within the Olympic sport programme. I moved from the athlete support space and into education and professional rugby coaching. I became involved with World Rugby, New Zealand Rugby, Samoa Rugby, several New Zealand provinces, and Japanese clubs and universities. After a period, I decided it was time to ground myself in a role that enabled me to be home more for my three daughters and began the role with Wintec.
What are your qualifications and educational background?
- Diploma Teaching
- Bachelor of Education
- Postgraduate Diploma Business Management Studies
What is your greatest achievement?
Two things:
- Being the father of my three daughters.
- The time I spent playing rugby for Fiji.
