Jon Calder

Jon Calder
Chief Executive Officer
Qualifications : MBA, PGDipMS, University of Waikato.
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Jon is an experienced leader with a proven record in leading change, through organisational transformation and process redesign. Jon’s passion lies in designing strategy and building organisation-wide capability to execute and deliver a superior level of performance and profitability. His success has been demonstrated through a track record of growing brands and creating sustainable performance improvement to realise value.
As Chief Executive of Tompkins Wake, Jon leads the firm, combining our near 100 years of history with some of New Zealand’s most talented legal practitioners and since 2016, has guided the firm through its growth to become a leading New Zealand law firm, with Tompkins Wake being named New Zealand Mid-size Law Firm of the Year in 2019 and again in 2020.
In 2018, Jon was named Chief Executive of the Year at the Westpac Waikato Business Awards recognising his leadership and achievement with the Judges commenting that “Jon is courageously confident yet humble, grounded and always looking for ways to improve. He has found his own authentic leadership style.”
2019 saw Jon named Managing Partner (Chief Executive) of the Year (<100 Lawyers) at the New Zealand Law Awards and he won the award again in 2020 becomining the first law firm leader to win the award two years consecutively.
Prior to joining Tompkins Wake, Jon held senior leadership roles with a number of iconic New Zealand organisations including Air New Zealand and Infratil.
An experienced and confident communicator, Jon has a proven ability to engage and connect with stakeholders at all levels including experience in international business and government level forums.
Other Credentials
- Managing Partner (Chief Executive) of the Year (<100 lawyers), 2020 NZ Law Awards
- Managing Partner (Chief Executive) of the Year (<100 lawyers), 2019 NZ Law Awards
- Leadership in Law Firms, Harvard Law School, Harvard University, 2018
- Chief Executive of the Year, Westpac Waikato Business Awards, 2018
- Foundation Board member, Agenda Waikato
- Member and Alumnus, Te Hono Movement
- Te Hono Bootcamp IV, Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford, 2015
- Member, New Zealand Institute of Directors
Jon has been involved in New Zealand Government led Business Delegations including:
- 2013 NZ Agribusiness Delegation to Russia (http://bit.ly/2s23jtV)
- 2012 NZ Business Delegation to India with Minister of Primary Industries David Carter (http://bit.ly/2qqT2WJ) (https://bit.ly/2EFvusI)
Jon has been a keynote speaker and presented in forums including:
- 2019 LAWFEST, MC and Panel Speaker, Changing the mould: Lessons from innovative firms
- 2018 EMA Managers and Team Leaders Conference (Opening speaker)
- 2015 EURASCO AGM, Rennes, France
- 2015 NZ Marketing to the Rural Sector Conference
- 2014 New Zealand - India Business Forum
- 2013 WINTEC Graduation (Keynote Speaker)
- 2012 China Modern Agricultural Summit, Yangling, China (https://bit.ly/2JiGICo)
- 2012 University of Waikato Management School Graduation (Keynote Speaker)
- 2012 NZ Applied Business Education Conference (Keynote Speaker)
- 2008 Cargo Customs Brokers and Freight Forwarders Conference
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