AI Leadership Residency

What it is

AI executive education, designed differently. A two-day in-person residential for senior leaders, capped at 20. Not tools training. We start where the scarce work actually is: where each leader stands on AI, what stays human, where AI leads, and what they are willing to bet on.

"Often content like this for exec education is pitched too low-level. This one was spot on."

Luke Taylor, CEO, SSS

The two cohorts

Cohort 2

5–6 August 2026

Queenstown Resort College · 20 places · $5,000 + GST

Enrolling

Cohort 3

16–17 September 2026

Queenstown Resort College · 20 places · $5,000 + GST

Nearly sold out

The two days

Day one

Morning

KeynoteOpening · what's happening out thereKristine Dery · MIT CISR▶

The landscape and the frontier, to set the horizon for the two days. Professor Kristine Dery (MIT CISR and Macquarie Business School) on what she is seeing across the field, and where it is heading.

In conversationPeople, and leading through changeSarah Bellett · One NZ▶

How a large organisation manages the people experience of AI change. Professor Kristine Dery introduces One NZ; Rachel facilitates a Chatham House conversation with Sarah Bellett, Head of People Experience at One NZ. Said in the room, stays in the room.

CoreStance · personal and organisationalRachel McBride · Faculty▶

Where the Residency does its real work. Each leader sets their own stance on AI, then the organisational stance alongside it. This is the start of the SBEG spine the Pilot proved. Tap each step:

→ → →

Stance. Where you stand on AI, personal first, then organisational. Everything else follows from this.

Afternoon

Deep diveInside a firm that's actually building itAaron Kenny · Dairyworks▶

Aaron Kenny at Dairyworks is building, not just sponsoring: a leader in the work himself, a champion in every function, the people who learn it teaching the next ones. The real numbers, where it broke, and what carries across to your business. He's in the room for both days.

Live buildWatch one built, then build your ownRachel · Henry · Aaron▶

Straight from Aaron's story to Aaron's desk: one of his real problems, built live in the room in about fifteen minutes. Henry builds and narrates the working patterns as he goes, Aaron keeps it honest, Rachel calls what stays human. Then it's your turn — each leader builds a working tool of their own. Pick one to take away:

Research assistant

Reads, gathers, synthesises for you.

Comms expert

Drafts and reviews in your voice.

Strategic adviser

Pressure-tests a decision before you make it.

Organiser / PA

Holds the admin so you hold the judgement.

Built live, kept after. You leave with a tool that runs, not notes about one.

LessonsWhy change sticks, or revertsHenry Martin · Faculty▶

AI is a change project, not a technology project. What makes it hold: aim at what matters most, pair your champions with the people who own the work, and check weeks later whether it stuck or quietly reverted.

ReflectionWhere change actually landsRachel · Aaron · Henry▶

Day one ends honestly. A working tool is not a changed organisation — so Aaron gives the version of the Dairyworks story that doesn't make the board pack, and each leader names the real thing that will fight them at home. No plans tonight; day two turns it into something you can actually do.

Day two

Morning

PanelCohort 1, on the groundKari Jones & Luke Taylor · Cohort 1▶

Kari Jones (FMA) and Luke Taylor (SSS) come back from the first cohort, joined by a third Cohort 1 voice, on how putting change into their businesses is really going since May. What they actually went back and did, what's worked, and what turned out harder than it looked in the room. They stay for the whole day.

"It is a privileged opportunity to see what's not just possible but achievable from people just like you in New Zealand, using world-class practices and tools."Cohort 1 participant

ExerciseThe barrier wallRachel McBride · Faculty▶

Name what will actually stop you: data, governance, people, budget, tech, competing priorities. Each gets a specific action and a name against it. Not "sort out data" but "book the meeting by Friday."

BuildChoose your bet, build your planHenry Martin · Faculty▶

Each leader chooses the one bet worth backing — and what they're deliberately saying no to — then turns it into a real 12-week plan. The measure of success is not what was produced in Queenstown, but what is still running three months later.

PitchesPresent it to the roomThe cohort▶

Each leader pitches their project. The room sharpens it, and commits to it.

What you leave with

The conversations in the room. Everything else follows from these.

Your AI stance, personal and organisational.

A project already moving, and a working tool you built.

How the room works

A room set up for candour, so people say the true thing and not the safe one.
The real conversations carry on between the sessions as much as inside them.
Chatham House for guests: what's said in the room stays in the room.
A mixed-fluency cohort. Beginners alongside experts, government alongside startups, so the learning runs sideways and not just from the front.

Faculty and guests

Faculty: Rachel McBride and Henry Martin.

Guests: Professor Kristine Dery (MIT CISR · Macquarie Business School), Sarah Bellett (One NZ), Aaron Kenny (Dairyworks), and Cohort 1 alumni Kari Jones (FMA) and Luke Taylor (SSS).

Where are you at with AI?

Senior leaders come at this from very different places. Pick the one that's closest to true for you right now. Nothing is saved or sent. The reading is just for you.

I'm using AI daily, often heavily. I've quietly become the AI person here, and my organisation hasn't caught up to me.

I'm pro-AI and moving fast. What worries me is that our governance hasn't kept pace with how fast people are already adopting.

I've started pausing things: licences, pilots, agents, until someone proves the value. I'm holding the line and not sure that's right.

I can feel this is transformational and I don't want to be left behind. But my question is still broad. I haven't found the one sharp thing to point it at.

AI is already personal for me, a side venture or the family or my own work, before it's been strategic for the business. I haven't joined those up.

I can see this collapse the cost to serve in my industry, and the disruption behind it. I'm worried about which side of it we're on.

I've got one specific thing I want AI to crack in my domain, and I want to go deep on that, not survey everything.

There's no wrong place to be standing. Every leader will arrive somewhere on this map. The room starts wherever you are.

Be part of this conversation.

Book your place in Cohort 2 or 3, or find out more.

Book your place or find out more

As of

Last updated: 21 July 2026

This page is kept current. When the programme changes, it changes here.

v2.9 · 21 Jul · Day one now ends on "Where change actually lands" (reflection with Aaron); choosing the bet moves into Day two's plan-building session.
v2.8 · 17 Jul · Day-1 afternoon rebuilt around Aaron Kenny: deep-dive first, then a live build of one of his real problems (Rachel, Henry, Aaron) before each leader builds their own. Judgement and standalone tool-patterns sessions folded in. Alumni panel extended; alumni stay the full day.
v2.7 · 14 Jul · Kari Jones and Luke Taylor confirmed on the Day-2 alumni panel.
v2.6 · 14 Jun · Self-check heading reworded to "Where are you at with AI?"; intro tightened (dropped the duplicated "standing").
v2.5 · 14 Jun · Removed the "What this is not" toggle and the mixed-fluency diagram (didn't earn their place). Kept the clickable SBEG spine, the live scarcity dot, and the second alumni voice.
v2.4 · 14 Jun · SBEG spine made clickable inside the Stance session; "What this is not" candour toggle; mixed-fluency spectrum visual; live scarcity dot on Cohort 3; a second (Chatham House) alumni voice on the Day-2 panel.
v2.3 · 14 Jun · Self-check reworked to "Where are you actually standing?" — a single-select mirror grounded in real Cohort 1 starting states, moved to just before the CTA. Nothing saved or sent.
v2.2 · 14 Jun · "Is this your room?" self-check added. A reader-side qualifier; nothing saved or sent.
v2.1 · 11 Jun · "Your project to take forward" now led by Henry Martin.
v2 · 10 Jun · Judgement, implementation-lessons and barrier-wall sessions added; Aaron reframed to operating-model; right-hand column standardised; faculty levelled; Cohort 3 nearly sold out; score badge removed; copy tightened.
v1 · 10 Jun · Cohorts 2 and 3 programme, first build.