Murray Thom, was the keynote speaker for the evening. A serial entrepreneur, Murray’s boutique music company, Thom Music, has enjoyed great success and two of his productions: ‘Together’ and ‘Miracle’ have both featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. The 'Together' 10 CD Collection was named as Oprah’s 'Favourite Thing of the Year” and another show featured ‘Miracle’, a collaboration with Celine Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. Murray was named one of New Zealand’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the decade by NZ Business magazine. Murray is also a past Trustee of the “Play it Strange’ trust and was a presenter to the recent RYLA course.
Brian McMath provided an update on the ROCON Charitable Foundation which has been very successful in its fund raising, governance and investments and currently has accumulated funds in excess of $1.1m. Two recent new initiatives involve our long association with the NZ Neurological Foundation and in association with the June Gray Charitable Trust the Trust has set up a $10,000 Research Scholarship. First recipients are two Otago University Professors who will are going to build a skin/skull/brain model that will measure impact forces to the head and brain. There are increasing reports linking mild traumatic brain injuries to early onset dementia. Often these minor traumatic injuries have no clinical symptoms and are difficult to diagnose, hence no minimum thresholds have been established. It is hoped that the research will provide international collaboration opportunities as it is a novel but globally relevant topic.
To complete a busy evening, Richard Solomon introduced 10 of the 16 Club sponsored participants in the most recent RYLA course who then individually presented their comments on the impact the course had made on them.
Murray Thom, was the keynote speaker for the evening. A serial entrepreneur, Murray’s boutique music company, Thom Music, has enjoyed great success and two of his productions: ‘Together’ and ‘Miracle’ have both featured on the Oprah Winfrey show. The 'Together' 10 CD Collection was named as Oprah’s 'Favourite Thing of the Year” and another show featured ‘Miracle’, a collaboration with Celine Dion and photographer Anne Geddes. Murray was named one of New Zealand’s Top 10 Entrepreneurs of the decade by NZ Business magazine. Murray is also a past Trustee of the “Play it Strange’ trust and was a presenter to the recent RYLA course.
Brian McMath provided an update on the ROCON Charitable Foundation which has been very successful in its fund raising, governance and investments and currently has accumulated funds in excess of $1.1m. Two recent new initiatives involve our long association with the NZ Neurological Foundation and in association with the June Gray Charitable Trust the Trust has set up a $10,000 Research Scholarship. First recipients are two Otago University Professors who will are going to build a skin/skull/brain model that will measure impact forces to the head and brain. There are increasing reports linking mild traumatic brain injuries to early onset dementia. Often these minor traumatic injuries have no clinical symptoms and are difficult to diagnose, hence no minimum thresholds have been established. It is hoped that the research will provide international collaboration opportunities as it is a novel but globally relevant topic.