“Carl is an excellent presenter and clearly gets the message across. He pulls no punches and gives great examples”
Tim DeGroot, Director, Baseline Training & Consulting, Brisbane, Australia
About Carl
At just 15 years old, Carl Bates made a business deal that enabled him to buy into his first residential property.
Convincing his father he could make more money from his plumbing company’s used Suzuki vans than selling them for scrap metal, he set about removing and selling every single functioning part from the vans. Months later, even after splitting the profits 50/50 with his Dad, Carl had raised enough funds for his share of a deposit on a house.
This early vision and discipline continued through his university years with Carl juggling his growing property business, renovating houses for long-term rental and studying to be an accountant.
Early in his career he demonstrated his ability to turn around troubled businesses. When he was 22 he was appointed as acting Chief Executive of a national health organisation for 12 months. Carl had also moved into governance at a young age, with his first directorship at 18. He became sought after for his rare ability to guide Boards, see the potential and the possibilities for their growth while ensuring that shareholder value was maximised.
While based in South Africa for 10 years, Carl was a director and strategic advisor for a variety of companies and organisations including directorships in the animal health, food safety and meat processing, retail and manufacturing sectors. He is passionate about the role that high-performance boards play in the success of companies, and ultimately in the economic success of a country.
Carl is the founding partner of Sirdar – an international business focused on guiding, appointing and educating high-performance boards. He also co-created the personal profiling tool Contribution Compass used widely around the world.
He has authored two books on business strategy and governance and has been a guest speaker in 23 countries on 5 continents, and facilitated globally for companies, industry organisations, chambers of commerce, university, and MBA graduates.
In 2016 Carl was named Young Business Person of the Year at the Wellington Regional Business Excellence awards. In 2020 he led an initiative ‘The Lockdown Collection’ which raised $400,000 in donations to the South African arts community and President’s Solidarity Fund formed in response to Covid-19. The Lockdown Collection partners won three awards at the 2021 Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) Awards.
Carl returned to live in New Zealand with his wife Candice and young family at the end of 2020. He continues to lead Sirdar, support the Contribution Compass team, manage the property business and holds directorships in several New Zealand, Australian, and African businesses in the primary industries, food, retail, automotive and manufacturing sectors.
Book Carl for your next event