Michael Barry (pictured middle) has joined the growing number of Lindisfarne Old Boys who are innovators and entrepreneurs in the business world. Michael realised fairly early on that corporate business with its in-house politics was not going to suit him and this has given him the incentive to be part of a new venture with Andrew Harris, another Lindisfarne Old Boy.

Like many Lindisfarne Old Boys, Michael headed off to the University of Otago when he left school. “This was one of the best decisions of my life”, he recalls. “I had no idea what I wanted to do ‘when I was older’ but the thought of running my own business in the sports management field always appealed so I ended up completing a B. Com. in Business Management. I also took papers in Accounting, Sports Management, Psychology and Tourism/Events Management as these seemed to have potential for the future. On reflection, there is not much I would have changed as this mixture of learning gave me a solid and broad base from which to begin my working career.”

With a bit of help from Andy Harris, Michael got a job after university working in the customer service call centre at ANZ in Melbourne. Every piece of experience has its benefits as Michael found out from this job: “I didn’t know it at the time but this seven month stint on the phones taught me some very valuable communication skills, many of which I have developed further in more recent roles.” This was the point at which Michael realised that the corporate world was not his destiny and a move back to Auckland took him into the sales and business development side of an oil and gas company where he managed sales staff and worked with senior management to implement some large international projects.

A bit of persuasion from his prospective wife resulted in a move to London and a job with a fast growing financial services consultancy. Michael describes his role with the company: “This was also a sales based role that saw me travel to all corners of the UK, meeting with company directors and talking about all sorts of interesting and innovative projects - plenty of blue sky thinking. I found that these conversations and situations - many of which were challenging - were an invaluable learning experience.” Even with a heavy work schedule, Michael still found time to travel around the UK and Europe and watch a lot of football in London pubs!

After two years in London, Michael made the decision to return to Auckland where he established his education technology business with Lindisfarne Old Boy and great mate, Andrew Harris. They had always shared the desire to start their own business and create something from scratch so for five years they explored possibilities, several of which failed. They then came up with the concept of “Enroller” which saves schools hours of time processing applications and enrolments from around the world while making it much easier for families from overseas to apply to New Zealand schools. Michael rates his job satisfaction highly: “The fact that we are now solving a genuine problem for our customers is pretty cool...they love us for it. Being completely accountable for the success (or failure) of Enroller gets us out of bed every day with a smile on our faces. There’s no-one else telling us what to do, when to do it and how it should look so it’s important that we are 100% committed. There’s something quite scary but exciting about doing what we are doing which is really motivating!”

Michael credits Lindisfarne with giving him many of the skills he needed to succeed: “Lindisfarne drove us to be the best young men we could be, always presenting opportunities for us to be taken out of our comfort zones. Although they weren’t my favourite subjects, Economics and Accounting have been very valuable for me since leaving school as they are the cornerstones of any business - you need to understand the world of money. I was also given opportunities to get involved in speech and drama and public speaking. I would strongly recommend that all current students give it a go, no matter how scary or nerve-racking it is! You’ll thank yourself as soon as you get to university.”

Michael remembers sport as playing a large role in school life and teaching him some valuable life lessons such as team work and empathy and he still plays social sport and enjoys following all New Zealand sport. He and a group of friends have season tickets for the New Zealand Warriors and have high hopes for their team at the start of every season.

Highlights to date for Michael have been, “getting married, having a great group of friends, making a success of our time in London, getting down to a single figure golf handicap and more recently having a growing network of customers in a business I helped to create from the ground up.”

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Article added: Wednesday 06 November 2019