Welcome to 15 Questions! Each month, we will ask a different member of the Springboard Trust team or wider community about their work, heroes, education and secret hobbies. We hope you enjoy it!
Dale Bailey: Springboard Trust CEO
On February 24, Springboard Trust welcomes Dale Bailey as its new CEO. With a storied history across education, evaluation and GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives and museums), he brings a wealth of experience and insight to our work.
To get ourselves (and you all) acquainted with Dale, we got his answers on hard-hitting questions about his hobbies and heroes.
1. Hello Dale! Where are you right now?
I’m on the beach in the Coromandel, at Pauanui! My partner’s sister has a beach house here, so I am taking a few days off before I start at Springboard.
2. What are you looking forward to most next week?
Learning about Springboard – meeting the people, getting to know the team and understanding what drives you all. That’s the most important thing I think.
3. How did you first hear about Springboard Trust?
I’ve got some friends who have intersected with SBT before. Some worked here, some have been on the corporate side of things and worked with the team.
They were very positive about Springboard and what it was doing and recommended it highly – which leads us here!
4. What’s the most exciting thing about working at Springboard?
Coming back to work in education. As a part of that, the idea of connecting the corporate world with education – it’s pretty unique, that cross-fertilisation of ideas is really exciting.
5. And the most daunting?
I think it’s getting back into full time work after a few months off! And having such a distributed team across the country, getting to know them over a distance. I want to work quite hard at that.
6. Before Springboard Trust, what was the most interesting thing you did for work?
That would have to be working at Te Papa, where I oversaw national collections. It was a pretty awesome responsibility, and one of the highlights was negotiating with the Chinese for the Terracotta Warrior exhibition to come to NZ.
I got to travel to China six times, meet so many people and understand their systems a lot better. I loved it there, and loved working through how to create such a large scale exhibition.
7. Who is someone you look up to?
I am a great, long-time fan of Ernest Shackleton the Antarctic explorer.
8. Why?
He saved everybody in his party when it went to custard on an expedition, camping on ice and leading men on a 700 nautical mile journey through hurricane conditions to save them. The sense of personal leadership that he brings is so inspiring.
9. What’s a piece of history you want more people to know about?
The Treaty of Waitangi. I have worked over the last year with the Waitangi Treaty Grounds, and am always surprised by how little people know about these complex relationships, and how amazing the treaty is as a modern guiding document.
10. Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
One of my bosses once said “where you smell smoke, go towards the fire”. Don’t try and ignore things, it’s important to take them on.
“Where you smell smoke, go towards the fire”
11. How would you describe your leadership style?
Very collaborative and outcome focused. I like empowering people to get on with their job and making their job easier.
12. Favourite thing about NZ education?
The strength of public education in New Zealand. The fact that we have one of the world’s best systems, and that it started very early on in NZ’s history with a great level of investment in it, which has continued to this day – it’s a real standout strength.
13. What’s your secret hobby?
I’m a great collector of Crown Lynn, usually through TradeMe and secondhand shops. Any time I travel, I’m looking out for more. I really like NZ-made things, and Crown Lynn is just incredible.
14. Favourite news source?
I am actually quite a fan of the Daily Mail online app – it’s hysterical.
15. What is the question we should have asked you?
“Can you tell me about your grandsons?”
