Glen Sowry

Glen was one of the inaugural winners of a BLAKE Award in 2005, and became a Trustee in 2009. Glen was selected for Sir Peter Blake’s 1985/86 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race campaign onboard Lion New Zealand. Subsequently, Glen sailed onboard the victorious Steinlager 2, helmed the back up boat for the New Zealand Challenge for the America’s Cup in 1991/92 and was then selected as a watch captain by Grant Dalton for the 1993/94 Whitbread onboard New Zealand Endeavour.

During these campaigns Glen took the initiative to write a number of columns for newspapers and magazines. This led to co-authoring two best selling books on the Whitbread.

Since making the transition from professional sailing to business, Glen managed public affairs for Telecom, TVNZ and Air New Zealand. In all of these roles he has shown an outstanding ability to build teams and contribute to the success of each organisation.

Glen served on the Yachting New Zealand High Performance Committee and was an Olympic Selector for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. He was also a member of the 2000 New Zealand Olympic Sailing Team.

He became a BLAKE Leader in 2005, and since winning the award, Glen transitioned into senior general management operational and commercial roles at Air New Zealand and was the CEO at Housing New Zealand and was recently appointed as the CEO of NZX listed retirement village operator Metlifecare.

Glen joined the BLAKE Awards Selection Panel in 2012.