Tim Leslie - Chief Executive Officer
Marlborough Chamber of Commerce CEO Tim Leslie is proud of the fact that his business education has been "In the school of life," he says, with an infectious grin and a belly laugh befitting that of a true blue "country boy."

With his no-nonsense, cut-to-the-chase attitude to commerce, Tim says the answer to successful business and a robust economy is quite simple. "I have a real aversion to bureaucracy trying to tell us how to run business, imposing the extra cost of compliance on us all the time. Instead it should be trying to make it as simple as possible to do business, create wealth and employ people."

Most of his forebears were farmers, and as such contributed much to the development of Marlborough and its economy. Raised on a farm in the Maxwell Pass, Tim also spent his working life closely related to the land and the business of making a living from it. His formal education began in Marlborough and ended with a stint at Telford Agricultural Institute in 1980. After a series of jobs in the rural sector Tim spent five years managing Presbyterian Support's work in Marlborough whilst also being an active member of the local branch of the National Party and on the Young Farmers Club national committee.

There followed an interesting few years in Wellington as part of the national policy team of Federated Farmers. Finally in 2005, tired of commuting and even more tired of being exposed to the vagaries of bureaucracy on a daily basis Tim took the "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the fire" approach and returned to home base taking the Chamber of Commerce job.

His days are now focussed on advocating on behalf the business community and trying to negate the effects of central government policy, "Which tends to be about why they can't rather than about how they can."

Fi Ward - Administrator/Event Coordinator 
Fi Ward is the Chamber's Administrator and Events Coordinator and is your point of contact. She joined the Marlborough Chamber in 2007 after 3 years in the retail sector here in Blenheim.

Originally from Manchester, Fi was employed by a company that worked closely with UK Chambers providing assistance to those looking to start their own business and offering those businesses already in operation on going support, networking events, training opportunities.

Fi has also had previous experience in event coordination for businesses. Her role within the Marlborough Chamber of Commerce is the organisation of networking events, compilation of Chamber magazine, maintenance of the Chamber website and general administrative support.