As one of New Zealand’s most successful and respected entrepreneurs, Diane Foreman is hopeful for the future of women.
“We’ve come so far and there is just so much more to go. It’s exciting,” she enthuses. “We have a fantastic new generation of women who know their own minds and where they’re headed. I think it’s really positive.”
Diane started out in business as a teenager, selling eggs and contracting out friends on babysitting rosters. She went on to build many businesses, including Emerald Group, which led to her being named NZ Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009 and then invited back to be a judge in the global competition for the next five years. These days, she’s a rich-lister with a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business. But her success means she is also dedicated to helping others.
“If you’ve been lucky enough to be successful, then you give back some of those skills – for me, it’s business skills. I know lots of women my age who have sold businesses and are always hunting around for young people to mentor or small businesses they can invest in because nobody just wants to walk away from the game.”
When it comes to women who have shaped the nation, the mum-of-four and grandmother-of-five can’t go past journalist Sandra Coney and women’s health advocate Phillida Bunkle, who in the ’80s uncovered the “unfortunate experiment” at National Women’s Hospital.
“They were the first people who shone a light on women’s lives being put at risk for a medical experiment. That shaped our country. It shaped women here because all of a sudden people were standing up and saying women aren’t second-class citizens, and their health is really important.”
Diane, 62, also admires Dame Kiri Te Kanawa for “putting New Zealand on the map” and the Topp Twins, who “made it okay to laugh at ourselves”.
Personally, the entrepreneur, who became a first-time mum at 18, says she’s most proud of being “part of the team that brought private radiotherapy to New Zealand”, explaining, “Prior to that, women with breast cancer weren’t often seen in time. They were being sent to Australia without support, going through one of the most awful things a woman can go through.
“We were the first people to start a private radiotherapy clinic and it made breast cancer treatment more equitable.”
Her relationship with the Weekly, she says, goes back to her childhood, when her nana used to walk to the shops every Monday to get her copy.
“We’d come home and read the Pixie Pages together,” she recalls. “When I was seven, my family moved to Australia, and every single week my grandmother would cut out the Pixie Pages and post them to me. What business gets to 90? That’s fantastic.”
