Family first for Renaissance’s Bronwyn Sinclair

Chief distribution officer opted for technology instead of FMCG

By Hamish Barwick, Auckland | Monday, 17 May 2010
Summer is Bronwyn Sinclair’s favourite time of year. The Renaissance chief distribution officer likes nothing more than packing up the family and escaping to the Coromandel for time out with her husband and daughters.

“I’ve got two daughters aged five and eight, so my life outside of work is focused around doing things with them. Last year we bought a little caravan in the Coromandel, so any weekends we can get away, we like to go there and enjoy the outdoors.”

Sinclair is also looking forward to exploring the South Island. “I would love to see Blenheim and [take] the Transalpine Express which goes across the South Island. Once my girls are old enough we’ll hire a campervan and go for a big drive.”

Her IT career, most of which has been spent at Renaissance, has also been a long and rewarding journey.

Although she has been in the sector for more than 15 years, she originally planned to go into the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry.

“I saw myself working in brand management for one of the supermarket brands. My degree was in business and marketing and FMCG looked like an industry where there was lots happening. One of my part-time jobs when I was studying was at a supermarket, which I enjoyed.”

However, Sinclair made the switch to IT when she joined High Performance Distributors in 1994.

“They were, at the time, a Hewlett Packard distributor and I joined them for some work experience. The company later decided they wanted to give me a full-time role.”

Her first role at Renaissance was as marketing assistant, which she secured in 1995. During her time there, she has worked in product management and in various areas of the distributor’s Apple business.

“In terms of Renaissance, there have always been opportunities to try something new. I am someone who needs to be trying new things and seeing the outcome of that.”

Sinclair moved to Auckland from Wellington when she was eight and now considers herself a local.

“I do support the Blues [in domestic rugby] but the Hurricanes are a second favourite. When I first got involved with Apple, they had a sponsorship deal with the Hurricanes. That validated having them as my runner-up team.”

She says her most memorable role while at Renaissance has been as Apple division marketing manager.

“In the early days we were doing all of Apple’s marketing activity in New Zealand, which included events and branding. It was a good opportunity to get involved in lots of different activities alongside Apple.”

She says this involved meeting a number of interesting people.

Under Renaissance’s new structure, Sinclair is now chief distribution officer, a role she moved into earlier this year.

“In the time I’ve worked at Renaissance it is like having worked for three or four different companies, because there have been a number of different structures.