We’ve all had fears, but the desire to build your dream, to live it and breathe it, is what drives you.
- annette presley
BIOGRAPHY
Started her first company, the IT recruitment firm Stratum, in 1987 at 24. She co-founded several successful telecommunications and information technology companies in New Zealand and Australia, including Call Australia, CallPlus and i4free. The CallPlus organisation includes Slingshot, Orcon and 2talk, and became New Zealand’s third largest telecommunications and broadband provider during her leadership. She was a leader in driving the unbundling of the local loop in New Zealand, which brought pricing down more than 50 percent and created competition. She works hard to encourage the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs, and is an investor and dedicated mentor to Creative HQ’s Lightning Lab XX programme that supports start-up businesses that have at least one female co-founder. She is also a philanthropist and was patron of the charity StepUP which gives business inspiration to teenagers, and has been actively involved in supporting other charities such as Dress for Success, Shine and Kidz First Children’s Hospital in South Auckland. In 2015 Ms Presley established her own charity Elicit – the dream catchers, a camp to inspire teenagers to strive for their dreams, a programme which she has already run in schools for ten years.