Our Stories: Kirsten O'Rourke

Written by Emma Bell. Posted in Our Stories.

Kirsten bw GIMPWhen many of us think about the work of a commercial litigation lawyer, we conjure up images of courtrooms and people firmly declaring ‘objection’, but as Kirsten O’Rourke explains, there is a lot more to it:

“There’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes of a case, even if you don’t go to trial; but a trial is the culmination of all your hard work, and it gets tested very thoroughly.”

Our Stories: Rachel Carrell

Written by Tracy Goodall. Posted in Our Stories.

Rachel Carrell bw smallDescribing Rachel Carrell as a high achiever is like saying that the All Blacks are a pretty decent rugby team. An Oxford Rhodes scholar, former CEO of the world’s largest online doctor service and now an award-winning and feted entrepreneur making frequent headlines in the UK press thanks to her online nanny sharing service, Rachel’s credentials make for formidable reading.

And that’s before we add in the fact that she was named a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader 2014, no mean achievement in itself.

So how did an ex-Southland Girls High School student from Invercargill achieve such success? It certainly wasn’t an overnight process, but rather a series of well-chosen and strategic choices and more than a pinch of good old-fashioned hard work.

Our Stories: Deborah McTaggart

Written by Linda Rose. Posted in Our Stories.

Deborah McTaggart bw smallDeborah has a CV many would envy: as a producer with over 20 years’ experience in international films, she has worked with Sir David Attenborough filming in the Galapagos archipelago; co-ordinated Ben Affleck’s visits to Sudan and Darfur for UNHCR and joined director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) filming Malala Yousafzai.

It was that previous work in documentaries - including long-haul flights, changing time zones and working long days – which gave her a real understanding of the effects of jet lag, stress and burnout. Now she is a qualified nutritionist helping others to discover the foods and lifestyle necessary to build health and resilience for sport, work and travel.