Page 12 - Southwell School_The Chronicle July 2021
P. 12

                   SOUTHWELL FOUNDATION’S NEW CHAIRMAN
 INTRODUCING RICHARD VAN DEN ENGEL
Where did you grow up and how would you describe your childhood?
Hamilton born and bred! Most of my primary school years were spent in Chartwell, not far from Southwell School. Pretty typical kiwi childhood, I went to local Bankwood Primary School for the first few years, walking myself to school across the park, then Hamilton Christian School for the rest of primary and intermediate biking to and from school (or running as training in cross country term!!). I’m the oldest of four boys, all pretty close in age. So growing up in our house meant lots of 2-on-2 footy, running races and hut building at the local park.
Tell us about your family?
I met my beautiful wife Ilda as a teenager when her family emigrated from South Africa and joined our local church. Ilda and I were high school sweethearts and got married young in the beautiful Southwell chapel. We lived in Wellington at the time, and once we finished studying moved to London for the classic kiwi OE returning to Hamilton a month before our older daughter Abby was born, 9 years ago. Abby is now in Year 4 at Southwell, and Issy our younger daughter in Year 1. Our girls are pretty much opposites (much like Ilda and I!), one of the things
I treasure is watching them tackle life’s challenges in their own unique way. Time is flying by too fast – I left home at age 17, and I often think that with Abby almost turning 9 we are half way through our time with her at home. I treasure the moments we have together – in our house sitting down together every night for dinner as a family is really important. We take the time to ask each other how our day was, what we enjoyed and what was challenging.
Please describe your career path thus far?
I’m an architect turned accountant turned car dealer! When I left school I was good at math, but loved design (albeit not particularly good at it) so felt like architecture was a discipline that would blend passion and talent. Having completed a bachelor of architectural studies
(3 years) I worked as a draftsperson for a couple of
years before I worked out this wasn’t the career for me. Architecture is still a passion for me, but it wasn’t to be my 9-5. I phoned my Dad and announced that I wanted to join the family business (Ebbett Group) to which he said “I don’t need any architects”. It was tongue and cheek, but he suggested that if I was really keen on a long term career in business, I’d get value from studying accounting and law while I was still young. With some reluctance I went back to uni and restudied. Once completed, we realised we weren’t quite ready to move back to Hamilton and planned our OE. Deloitte were recruiting in NZ for graduate roles in London at the time, and I was lucky enough to join their grad programme. In the end I spent 7 years with Deloitte, half in London (mostly in the upstream oil and gas sector), a couple of years in Auckland and then a year in HK (in the L&D team). I finally joined the family business leading our Audi/Volkswagen dealership in Hamilton until 3 years ago, when I took over our Toyota business, and finally moved into a head office role late last year.
You are a purposeful and energetic person. What fires your energy and ability to be successful?
I’ve always been creative – I love solving problems and building something new. I’m inspired not by what is, but what is possible. Most of all though I’m passionate about
 





















































































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