Diaspora NZ with David Booth
00:50:00 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
But currently, I would say there's too much mediocrity across many of them, and there isn't that that to be world class and competitive. So there are a couple of things that I would do on the higher education side. [00:50:09] S0: Yeah. Sort of there... You're right. Like, there is different approaches to trying to solve what some people see as equality or or... One way, equality of access, which would say, let's make this accessible to more people, which would say, like, let's broaden, you know, the the platform or or even lower the the floor for what it takes to get in. And I think one of the things that I'm seeing across the board, doesn't matter which industry, doesn't matter who it is, where, like, the the elite New Zealanders think about, like, how we raise the ceiling? How do we [00:50:33] S1: think Totally.
00:50:33 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
[00:50:33] S1: think Totally. [00:50:34] S0: How do we get our most ambitious people? How do we get our highest achieving people and lift the bounds of what's possible? Singapore, for example, is a really good one. And and and to sort of highlight that, the the specific example would be, you know, here are two... You know, one or two or three excellent options locally, but you can also take the equivalent government funding that you would have had if you went through that system. Totally. You can take that to go behind your education at Stanford, Harvard, whatever the, you know, the institution you might be able to get into. What's the mechanism there that if you don't come back within a period of time, you're paying it back as a loan, but if you do come back in a period of time, it's forgiven, or or is it interest free? Or what's the mechanism specifically? [00:51:08] S1: Exactly. So in Singapore right now, if you stay within your home country, it's forgiven as long as you work for a period of time in, like, an eligible job. [00:51:16] S0: Mhmm.
00:51:16 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:51:16] S0: Mhmm. [00:51:16] S1: So the student would go overseas. They would get their education. They'd come back, bring the skills back to New Zealand, and then... And they don't have to necessarily do it straight away. So it doesn't need to be, like, right after they graduate. Maybe you want two years or four years in Silicon Valley or something. They come back and they they get that loan forgiven, or they can get that loan, you know, with a favorable interest rate. So that's that's how you'd structure it. And, obviously, you wanna make sure that it's a net win for taxpayers. Right? You don't wanna be subsidizing high income people to go to top universities at the cost of the great majority of New Zealanders. But the way Singapore structured it is it's a really strong net economic gain because you bring talent back to the country, having leveled them up with global skills, global ambition [00:51:54] S0: Yep.
00:51:54 · David Booth, Jamie Beaton
[00:51:54] S0: Yep. [00:51:55] S1: They come back to build your country stronger. That's very inspiring. And I think most Kiwis, if they spend time abroad, you know, they wanna maintain connection. They wanna bring the fire back to New Zealand, and they wanna make it a better country. Like, that's what most Kiwis want to do. So I would say we shouldn't be that terrified that a Kiwi will go offshore and then run away, you know, forever. Now currently, we frankly do have an issue, I think, with New Zealand and Australia. We are losing a lot of folks to Australia, but I think no one ever survives by trapping their people in their home country and limiting choice. Right? That's always a terrible strategy.
00:52:24 · David Booth
[00:52:24] S0: You're pitching my my my diaspora back to me. You're right. I used to talk about imagine that you you have a large family, and you tell them, oh, I I want you to stay at home. I don't want you to leave the home. I I want you to stay here and and do work here because, god, if if if you go out to the world and learn things, you might stay there. If you love something, you... You've gotta let it go. And we've also, you know, gotta encourage people to go overseas. We're gonna help stay in touch with them when they're over here. You're a perfect example of this, so I'm excited to to be here in New York with you. The personal journey you've been on throughout this, you've acquired business mentors. You've acquired investors among all sorts of very interesting, you know, groups of people, board members. John Key is on the board today. Tell me, I'd love to hear, like, how... Who have been the strongest influences in your professional life? Who who have you sort of intentionally set out to learn from, and and how do you go about building those relationships and benefiting the most from those relationships?
00:53:20 · Jamie Beaton, David Booth
[00:53:20] S1: So the most influential mentor, besides my my mom, would be the late Julian Robertson. So Julian, founder of Tiger Management, a big Kiwi supporter. I met him when I was 18, interviewing for his Robertson scholarship. I then met up with him in New York, and he put me through his Tiger test for hiring, and he ended up hiring me to work at Tiger, investing in Crimson Seed round. And he really encouraged me to dream sky high. I I was ambitious, but he had that resolute conviction that that we could make it happen at Crimson, and he really got behind me, opened up his network to me, but more than anything, showed me what leadership was like. Julian inspired a kind of cult following, competitive but high integrity, high performance culture within Tiger that led to the creation of many of the world's best hedge funds, like Tiger Global or, you know, Viking and things like this that spun out of his [00:54:10] S0: The Tiger Cubs. [00:54:11] S1: Exactly. Tiger Cubs. That's right. And, you know, seeing him in action, even in his eighties, and seeing his competitive spirit, his fire, his passion for life, inspiring. [00:54:20] S0: Mhmm.