It’s been in the works for a while, but we can finally confirm that Guy Day has been promoted to Managing Director, stepping into the role from our outgoing MD, Nathan Bryant-Taukiri.
For those of you who don’t know Guy, he was most recently the General Manager of our Auckland office. He’s been with us for six years, working in a number of senior roles since joining the business as an Account Manager in 2016. Guy’s promotion makes him just the third MD in our 18-year history, following in the footsteps of Nate and of course our founder, Josh Comrie. Succession planning and pathways have always been ingrained into the Potentia way, so it’s no surprise to see another member of our whānau progress from Account Manager to Managing Director during their Potentia career!
It hasn’t been a state secret, so many of you will know this already but Nate is stepping down to focus his energy on his impact startup, Rea. Born out of the Potentia network, Rea exists not only to solve talent problems but to reduce inequality in the communities that need it most. In Aotearoa, this starts with Māori and Pasifika people, helping to create paths to better life outcomes through job-ready skills and well paid employment.
Nate, who will remain with us in a non-executive capacity as board chair, commented, “He has already proven himself by acting in the role for a number of months. With Guy as the kaitiaki (custodian) of Potentia, I have confidence that the wellbeing of the wider Potentia whānau and our customers is assured and I’m excited to see how he contributes to our story.”
Guy added, “I think it was in my second year at Potentia when Nate and I started having conversations about leadership and succession, so it’s definitely a change we’ve been working towards for some time. With all the challenges that Covid-19 and 2020 threw at us, it meant I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. It’s all about timing, so with the recent launch of Rea and Nate keen to move in another direction, everything lined up perfectly to hand the reins over. I’m pumped to be the one to take Potentia forward in 2022 and beyond”.