Sir Ray Avery inspires Wintec staff

The future lies in innovation, and Kiwis are perfectly suited to take advantage of that, says New Zealander of the Year Sir Ray Avery.

That’s because New Zealanders are brave and meet challenges head on, said Avery, the keynote speaker at Wintec’s staff development day,  Inspire 2012.

Avery,  born to poverty in post-war Britain, is now proud to call himself a Kiwi.

Why?  New Zealanders are brave, Avery says.  We meet challenges face on.  Our strength is our unique take on the world. A lack of constraint and abundance of space renders us fearless. Impossible is not in our vocab.

“Where else in the world can you change the road rules in a weekend?” says Avery.

For a man with a schedule that would make PM John Key hyperventilate, Avery was nevertheless keen to address Wintec staff.

“I’d like to leave an echo. I hope, by taking a day out of my 5785 left, to inspire at least one member of this audience, I have achieved that.”

Avery is a successful pharmaceutical scientist, a founding member of the Auckland University School of Medicine, Department of Clinical Pharmacology and former technical director of Douglas Pharmaceuticals. Over the past 30 years, he has made a major contribution in the development of New Zealand’s pharmaceutical industry.

Voted New Zealander of the year (2010) and awarded a Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (2011), Avery has also been voted New Zealand’s most trusted person.

Accolades aside, what is really fascinating about Avery is his humanity.

A child of a broken marriage, Avery spent his formative years in orphanages before  escaping at 14 to live under a bridge in London.

To keep warm he would go to the library and read, and says he worked through the Encyclopaedia Britannica three times.

Dyslexic, short-sighted, and  with glue ear from ill health, Avery was considered stupid by teachers at school.

Until he met teacher Jack Wise.  According to Avery, for everyone, there is always “that one teacher” who inspires.

Wise, who also ran a home for wayward boys, gave Avery two options. End up in borstal or enrol at an Agricultural Research College, which, he says, ‘’was  like borstal with grass”.

With handicapped senses, Avery had developed keen observation. Observation, he says, is the key to innovation.

“Love and money is what we all seek, but it is bravery we need.  We need the courage to turn a problem around to an advantage.”

Read about Avery’s journey and work in his autobiography Rebel with a Cause.