By Carolyn Body

Once Tracy Benge committed to a career change, she didn’t look back. Benge started her working life with a scholarship from PwC and moved up to high-flying finance roles. Her big-name employers included Barclays Global Investors and AMP. She was an expert in business process reengineering and project-managed the joining of the JP Morgan and Chase systems in London.

But memories of Benge’s childhood – watching her father bring home wines from exotic locations when he returned from business trips – started an itch she just had to scratch. “When I was growing up in the ‘80s, New Zealand’s wine industry hadn’t really taken off and wine was always brought out on special occasions. I always was fascinated,” she says.

Lightbulb moment

It was while Benge was working in London with JP Morgan that she had a “lightbulb moment” to return to NZ to study grape growing and wine making. Benge, who is now the development manager of the NZ Winegrowers Research Centre, initially returned to AMP in Auckland while studying but then took a four-year career break to start her family. Mum to three closely aged boys, Benge says the time she took off with her family, while sometimes isolating, allowed her to step back and reflect on what she really wanted.

“Had I not taken my career break, I may have just ended up carrying on in … the banking and finance world, because of course that’s where the money was and that’s where my career was,” she says.

“I ended up taking a job that helped support my dream of one day combining my business skills with the wine industry. I’m quite thankful for that now.

Building experience

Her first job was quite low-level and also low-paid. “I went from investment banking, earning a fortune, to a job where I was literally taking the money bags down to the bank,” she says. “The irony wasn’t lost on my husband. He thought that was absolutely hilarious that one day a week I’d go and do the banking for work. To take that giant leap and say I’m never going back to banking again … was initially hard.”

Once she had her foot in the door though, Benge kept building her wine experience with each job she took. “It was really quite a long plan in the making with some big decisions along the way,” she says.

Wine goal

Once she had her foot in the door though, Benge kept building her wine experience with each job she took. “It was really quite a long plan in the making with some big decisions along the way,” she says.

Benge is now based in the world-renowned sauvignon blanc region of Marlborough. There she’s putting the finishing touches to plans for NZ’s first wine research centre and research winery, both of which will be financially self-sustaining in the longer term. Initial funding includes NZ$12.5 million from the New Zealand government and NZ$825,000 from the local council.

“I ended up taking a job that helped support my dream of one day combining my business skills with the wine industry. I’m quite thankful for that now.

Benge says the project has allowed her to draw on the business skills she has accumulated over the past 20 years. “It’s been strategic planning, it’s been budgeting and cash flow forecasting, it’s been looking at business processes and operating models – the whole brief. It’s effectively setting up a business with external funding,” she says.

It is hoped moving NZ’s wine research into a single hub will help the nation’s fifth-biggest export industry attract international researchers and collaborators. The goal is to grow the sector’s value from NZ$1.7 billion to NZ$2 billion by 2020.

“There’s never a dull moment” says Benge. “I’m really looking forward to it; I just love this industry.”

Carolyn Boyd is a business journalist with 20 years’ experience and an MBA.