Who Was Smarter Than The Competition?

Media release 3 July 2008
Who Was Smarter Than The Competition?

In a room full of the best corporate brains in Auckland, APN NZ – publishers of the NZ Herald, took out first place in the AMP Capital Variety Corporate Challenge last night at SKYCITY.

Only one point separated first place getters and second equal- Russell McVeagh and KPMG, with Russell McVeagh winning the accounting and legal industry category.

CEO of Variety, Lorraine Taylor says the corporate challenge was a phenomenal success raising close to the $100,000 target set for the event.

“I congratulate all the winners and the participants for their generosity on the night and thank AMP Capital Investors and all our sponsors for supporting Variety,” says Lorraine.

Teams could bid for an industry expert to give them an advantage over the competition with seven experts auctioned off throughout the evening. Bill Ralston’s expertise was in hot demand and he was sold for over $2500 to Mercedes-Benz for the politics round.

BNZ managed to take out the banking and finance sector, with pressure coming on from ABN AMRO and Westpac. ANZ National Finance Group invested in expert panelist Tony Forsyth from Te Whau vineyard and Forsyth Barr bought in sports brain Martin Devlin, but were still no match for BNZ.

Top property and logistics brains belong to Colliers International, with the smartest investment and management acumen - AMP Capital.

Hewlett Packard was highly visible on the night with their latest Mini-Note PCs on every table and their team edging out Cisco Systems to win the technology and trade category.

A lively audience of over 430 participants were engaged by quizmaster John Hawkesby who lead the proceedings and with auctioneer Michael Williams from Barfoot and Thompson, managed to raise over $60,000 in the various auctions throughout the evening.

All proceeds from the inaugural Variety AMP Capital Investors Corporate Challenge go to the Variety Gold Heart Scholarship programme, assisting talented children with special needs to realise their life goals in the areas of art, education, music and sport.

Variety would like to thank sponsors AMP Capital Investors, The Business Herald, Cisco Systems, Staging Connections, SKYCITY Auckland, Pernod Ricard, Spyglass, The Total Event and technology partner Hewlett Packard.

ENDS

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