Tauranga Moana is undeniably home for Jett. Aside from being born in Auckland (plus a short stint in Mexico for a few months as a primary-schooler, when Dad decided to hang up the corporate boots and go on an adventure), Jett’s family have been in Mount Maunganui for about as long as he can remember.
After completing his primary and intermediate schooling in the Mount, Jett moved his education to Tauranga Boys to pursue football. School wasn’t his strength, Jett says, but he continued to Otago University. He describes his first semester there as something of an alarm bell: bad grades and near fails had him reckoning with what his goals were and what his future could look like.
Jett took it as a wake-up call. He put his head his down. And by the end of the second semester of that same year, he’d become the top student in Finance.
In his second and third years, Jett studied a Bachelor of Entrepreneurship – a brand new degree he was a ‘guinea pig’ for. It was a great programme that he reckons got him to think more practically than how other, more traditional alternatives might teach.
Newly minted with his degree, Jett graduated into a tough job market in 2024. Opportunities felt scarce, so he went into a Master of Business. That summer, Jett got the opportunity to conduct paid research at the University of Otago, exploring the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and cost of capital. Previously, he’d also done some slightly more creative work as a Marketing Analyst for New Zealand Honey Co. Finance can sometimes feel black and white, so he wanted to immerse himself in the entrepreneurship and culture side of his degree. After all, Jett says, it’s important to understand what drives traction and interest.
After playing football for 18 years, at University Jett switched to rugby, which he was highly involved in on a social level. Squash was his second most serious sport – he played for Mount Club. Sports remains a huge part of Jett’s life outside work. He loves keeping active, and he’ll dabble in just about anything – from tennis, to running, to touch, to gymming, to squash, to rugby and football. For Jett though, University was all about the culture, social opportunities and community. He was involved in a flat of 23 guys – “like a hotel with all your mates,” he jokes. That kind of ethos is exactly what he brings into the Quayside office, where his outgoing personality and willingness to yarn fit right in amongst the team.
Driven and vibrant, Jett is also involved in his own business venture. He’s a co-founder of SoloBoost: a startup that supplies emergency phone chargers to festivals, serving a fast-paced environment where a dead phone can quickly become a real safety concern. What began as Uni project between himself and a buddy burgeoned into a real-world initiative.
Suffice to say that Jett keeps occupied – from pre-dawn mornings at the gym, to the Quayside office during the day, then SoloBoost work in the evening. Jett loves a hustle and likes to stay busy.
These days, Jett’s finishing up his Masters of Business. He’s also undertaking his CFA. He came across the graduate role at Quayside whilst looking for opportunities in the Bay, and it immediately felt perfect. It was local, not to mention that it felt special knowing the company had tangible benefits for the community. In his interview for the role, he saw the vibe that the firm had and knew it was exactly the kind of people he wanted to be around.
It’s an inevitable fit. Jett reckons the Bay is a forever home for him. It’s where he sees himself right into the future, sticking to his roots: all of his family are here, from cousins to both sets of grandparents. Not to mention the great surf, the beautiful weather, and of course the tight-knit community he loves to serve with his spark, energy and drive.
