"If you are trapped in the poverty cycle, where there’s a will, there’s a way out."
That is the message from Melissa Soh-Newstead, herself proof of that mantra, having grown up in poverty in Malaysia, where life was "very, very tough".
It is somewhat ironic , having come from a background where there was nothing much to eat and no social welfare system, that Ms Soh-Newstead is now general counsel and company secretary of Silver Fern Farms, one of New Zealand’s largest food companies.
A self-confessed foodie, one of her passions was cooking, particularly for others. From the days where one small chicken had to be shared among a family of nine children, plus their parents, she could now afford to buy quality meat.
For those living in poverty, Ms Soh-Newstead believed there was a choice.
"If you have a good role model in your life and you have the drive and determination, you can break from it. Once you make it, you don’t forget who you are, where you came from. You always have to remain humble and kind."
In her case, her mother Cheng Chor Lee was her role model.
"She basically taught us the need for a good work ethic, to study well and choose a career well. She worked really hard to put food on the table for us."
As the youngest, Ms Soh-Newstead felt incredibly lucky she did not have to face what her elder siblings faced, all having to work part-time and bring money into the family.
When it came to her elite women lawyer recognition, Ms Soh-Newstead said she was "really, really chuffed" but she still had feelings of imposter syndrome at times.
"I still have that. I still find it a little bit awkward when I go to social occasions surrounded by lawyers, I still feel this imposter syndrome, ‘am I good enough to be part of an elite group of lawyers?’
"It’s when you’re brought up poor, people didn’t take notice of you. You really needed to fight hard ... you didn’t go to the right school, know the right people. You don’t have everything handed to you on a silver platter.
"It’s incredibly hard but that’s not a bad thing ... because you don’t take things for granted."
One of her brothers inspired Ms Soh-Newstead to choose law as a career. A top pupil, he saw a career in law as a way out of poverty and attained a scholarship to read law.
Her mother "worked her butt off" to help pay for his studies. After graduating, he went into private practice, became a partner "and never looked back".
Tearfully, Ms Soh-Newstead said she was so grateful to her mother, her brother and her family for working and saving money to give her a chance to study law in England.
Poverty was not the only challenge. When she started her legal career in 1995 after completing a law degree at the University of Buckingham, there were not many Asian female lawyers.
"But all these challenges made me stronger. You need to have that drive, ambition and willingness to work hard. I faced a lot of adversity throughout my career, being Asian and female. It’s not easy."
She spent seven years working in the Middle East, an even harsher environment for women, but she believed that adversity was important in life.
"You learn from it and you’re a better person."
Ms Soh-Newstead thanked her Kiwi husband Tom Newstead who had been "a rock" to her throughout her career and put his own career on hold to allow his wife’s to flourish.
"Without him, I wouldn’t be able to work and be successful."
She was head of the commercial arm of the Qatar Financial Centre and her husband was an at-home father to the couple’s two young children. While many of those in the Middle East employed the likes of a driver, nanny and gardner, they preferred to " keep it really Kiwi".
"We did a lot of things ourselves ... we didn’t want the kids to be brought up by a nanny," she said.
Their son and daughter never forgot their own roots.
"They know I was brought up in poverty and never take money for granted. They know they’ve got to work hard and have a good work ethic to be successful in life," she said.
Her son, in particular, was keen to move to Dunedin and attend Otago Boys’ High School, having "idolised" All Black Richie McCaw, who was a product of the school.
Ms Soh-Newstead did not want her children to go to private schools — "that’s not me" — saying she just wanted them all to have a normal Kiwi life.
Her son is now in Melbourne taking a gap year before returning to the University of Otago while her daughter is studying engineering in Christchurch.
In 2017, Ms Soh-Newstead took a sabbatical from law and began studying for an MBA at the University of Otago, saying she wanted to be "more than a lawyer" and the degree was a good way to make her more commercially minded.
Studying on-campus, rather than online, she cycled to the university every day and had an "incredible time" there. It was great to mingle with a bunch of "awesome people" from all walks of life, different age-groups and from different countries — "it felt like the Middle East again" — all with different ideas.
It also gave her time away from law and to have a refresh and reflect on what she had done over the previous 20 years and what she wanted to do. She realised she missed law and she returned to the legal profession, but on a more management side.
The MBA helped her become a good in-house lawyer — "you have to be commercially minded and look beyond legal" — and enhanced her leadership skills.
Her role at Silver Fern Farms was more than just legal. She led the legal team and was also involved in compliance, as well as being privacy officer — "a broad remit", she said.
It was a very small but very efficient legal team which included a diverse group of people. She was a strong believer in diverse opinions and views and she recruited for talent and whether it was the right fit for the team.
It was an "incredibly challenging" time for farmers with a raft of regulations coming in and that was where Silver Fern Farms could add value, by supporting its farmers, she said.
It produced a niche, premium product and she was "incredibly proud" to be part of a global business.
She paid credit to her team members, both past and present, who had all worked so hard and was achieving in a very lean team compared to many other in-house legal teams.
"I recruit the right people because they are able to rise to the challenge," she said.
Having built the team from the ground up since joining Silver Fern Farms four and a-half years ago, she was "immensely proud" of what the team had achieved to date.
Privacy was one of the most challenging regulations to follow around the world. Doing business in 55 countries or more, the company had to be very aware of all the various regulations.
She was also very proud Silver Fern Farms was the only red meat company to have been awarded the New Zealand Privacy Trust Mark certification for its privacy reporting tool. That was the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner’s formal recognition for excellence.
Ms Soh-Newstead loved Dunedin, saying the city was small and quirky. People were very grounded and down-to-earth. It had good cafes and everything was within a short distance.
She and her husband also had a property at Tarras and with her job allowing flexibility around location she reckoned she had the "best of both worlds".
She knew many of the farmers in the Tarras community and regularly cooked for them. It had even been suggested she should apply to be a contestant on Masterchef.
During her studies, she had worked in various Asian restaurants and she could cook "just about anything" — just don’t ask her to bake. Science was not her strong point and baking was a precise science. She quipped her husband had at least a 50% weight gain since he married her.
- Anne McLeod, a partner in the corporate and commercial team at Anderson Lloyd, was also named in the Elite Women list for the second year. Ms McLeod was Anderson Lloyd’s first female equity partner.
