UC future very strong: Adversity brings improvement says ex-New York trader

Former New York equities trader Doug Hastie said today the University of Canterbury (UC) had a strong future and he wanted to be part of the Christchurch rebuild.

Hastie is the new chief executive of Syft Technologies, a UC spin out company that sells high performance, trace gas analysers. Hastie has had a career that includes trading equities for Goldman Sachs in New York, building a bridge on the channel tunnel, a roller coaster at Euro Disney, and creating the Chanui tea brand.

``I can only judge UC by the people I work with at Syft and all of them are very high quality. I think UC’s future will be very strong. Adversity brings improvement,’’ Hastie said today

``Also in two years’ time, Christchurch is going to be gripped by a massive building project which will result in an influx of money, and people, which will make it a very vibrant city. Canterbury still has beautiful scenery, and outdoors that are very accessible, so it is still a very attractive place to live.’’

Hastie will be the key speaker at UC next week during their annual Research Week series. He said Syft sells an instrument called the Voice200 which detects volatile organic compounds.

Historically they sold most of their instruments for measuring dangerous gases for containers. This year they have expanded their markets and as a result their biggest market is now laboratory testing although they have also sold more instruments into the container market.

``Our sales are up significantly from last year. We are going to concentrate on our expertise which is measuring gases. This is a massive market, and we have a very good product for this market. At present we are aggressively growing our distributor network.

``A big application for our product that is emerging is environmental testing. As people are becoming aware of how polluted the air is in many cities, and the damaging health effects this has, more and more demand develops for air testing.’’

Hastie, with a civil engineering degree, worked on the overbridge on the English Channel Tunnel Terminal site and the last bridge before cars go underground. At Euro Disney in Paris, he was in charge of building all the non-ride elements on the Temple of Peril roller coaster.

``I then decided to do an MBA so I sat the GMAT test. I received such a high score that I received offers of universities all over the world, including Yale so I went there. I had always wanted to work on Wall Street, so I interviewed for a position and Goldman, Sacs & Co. This is a major process, and a lot of applicants, but I got accepted.

``When I returned to New Zealand I launched Chanui tea. I liked tea and wanted to be involved in a business that sold a brand rather than a commodity, and something that was not affected by the economy. I also like drinking tea: a lot. Engineering teaches you a lot of skills that are easily transferrable to other businesses and that are what has helped me create the business.

``I have set up Chanui in a way that I have delegated operations to many people so it becomes a very simple business to operate. I keep an eye on it and make key decisions but day to day operations are done by other people,’’ Hastie said today.