Waikato entrepreneur and business leader, Cheryl Reynolds, has been announced as the new transitional CEO at Raglan’s leading community enterprise Xtreme Zero Waste this July.
With Cheryl Reynolds at the helm of the resource recovery centre, the Board and Team are working together on re-positioning Xtreme Zero Waste to meet the growing demands from the Raglan community and other communities across New Zealand and the South Pacific who are keen to duplicate Xtreme’s success over the past 18 years.
“I am thrilled to be taking on this new challenge as CEO of Xtreme Zero Waste because I love Raglan, I’m proud of Xtreme and the impact it’s had over the past 18 years, and I believe Xtreme’s successful community enterprise model provides an important way forward for the rest of Aotearoa and the world,” says Cheryl.
A Raglan resident for 15 years, Reynolds says after having 11 successful ventures under her belt and 15 years’ experience in the New Zealand start-up scene, it was a new and exciting phase to connect with her home community. Reynolds is also co-creating start-up venture number 12, which blends creativity, strategic philanthropy and social entrepreneurship.
Reynolds says to create both roles within Raglan, in and for the community and more widely for the planet, is both exciting and challenging, and the work that Xtreme Zero Waste does is inspiring and she is proud to be part of such an influential and important community enterprise.
“This new role at Xtreme and the development of my new venture complement each other really well. They both aim to support flourishing communities on a thriving planet and also have an opportunity to continue making Raglan a pioneering model for stewardship of our planet,” says Cheryl.
Rick Thorpe, Co-Founder of Xtreme Zero Waste says they are excited by the experience and networks that Cheryl will bring and the new phase of planning, growth and direction and the potential for expanding the innovation and “outside-the-box” thinking that Xtreme is known for.
“With all the changes taking place with plastics and the growing concerns globally about waste, Xtreme needs to be positioning itself ready for a world without waste. We believe Cheryl’s experience and networks will take Xtreme to the next level.”
Fiona McNabb, Chair of Xtreme Zero Waste says, “The Board are aware of the environmental and climate crises that the planet is facing and feel that Xtreme Zero Waste can and must step up to find ways to can make quantum changes in our thinking about the use of resources and how waste streams are managed. The stage one focus for Cheryl to undertake is to strengthen and re-position the core business before we launch into this new phase of development that we are all very excited about.”
Fiona adds, “Cheryl has been a board member for the past year and I am delighted she is becoming the organisation’s first ‘Chief Entrepreneurial Officer’ to guide the organisation through this next round of strategic development.”
Reynolds is known for her previous work founding SODA Inc, the entrepreneurship hub and award-winning start-up business incubator, and more recently founding Momentum Waikato Community Foundation, the region’s new philanthropic foundation.
She is also a Fellow in the Edmund Hillary Fellowship and an alumni of the CELF Leadership Programme, which brings together businesses and community not-for-profit organisations to increase the leadership capital of the Waikato region.
