Last night we were delighted to host an evening to honour and celebrate the achievements of three of our alumni at a Distinguished Alumni Dinner held at the school.
The food produced for the evening by our Level 3 Catering students was incredible. We are very proud of them. The table settings were beautiful, and the wait staff were professional.
Sacha Coburn (née Bourne)- Class of 1990, Jason Myers- Class of 2000, and Renee Stuart (née Lee)- Class of 2006 were inducted as Distinguished Alumni.
Sacha Coburn (née Bourne)
After leaving OHS, Sacha took a gap year that turned into three years working with the Les Mills group, which sparked her passion for business. She then went to Otago University, where she completed a law degree, winning the William Holden Memorial Shield, and later completed her Master's of Education with First Class Honours from Waikato University.
Having decided a career in law wasn’t going to suit her, Sacha embarked on a path that has enabled her to travel and work all around the world. As a leadership consultant and motivational speaker, she has worked with global leaders and organisations, developing international business-to-business sales models and emerging talent training programs.
She supports her husband, Chris Houston, in running their family business, Coffee Culture, which he founded in 1996. Coffee Culture is now a thriving group of boutique coffee shops employing over 300 staff in 20 locations.
In 2018, Sacha won a Prime Minister’s Business Scholarship to attend Harvard Business School. She has recently graduated from the prestigious OPM course, having the honour of being chosen as the graduation speaker.
She currently chairs the board of Foster Construction, the Waikato’s largest commercial construction company, and is also on the board of Tieke Golf Estate.
Jason Myers has established an impressive career dedicated to public health, equity, and social justice. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Social Sciences from the University of Auckland in 2004, he earned the University’s Top Scholar award for his Honours dissertation on media representations of HIV and AIDS. His groundbreaking PhD on the experiences of gay men living with HIV was a finalist for Best Doctoral Thesis in 2009. He went on to complete post-doctoral research at University College London, exploring palliative care for patients with renal failure.
Jason has held several influential roles, including Policy Advisor at the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and Advocacy and Campaigns Director at Oxfam Aotearoa. At just 34, he became the youngest-ever Chief Executive of the NZ AIDS Foundation, where he led a major strategic transformation that helped achieve the lowest national HIV infection rates since the 1980s. He also expanded the Foundation’s focus to better serve the broader needs of rainbow communities.
In 2022, Jason was appointed Executive Director of Oxfam Aotearoa, representing New Zealand in Oxfam’s global leadership team. He is widely recognised for his servant leadership approach and his commitment to an inclusive, values-driven organisational culture.
Renee Stuart (née Lee) has achieved remarkable success in the world of business and entrepreneurship. After graduating from Onehunga High School, she completed a Bachelor of Business, majoring in Marketing and Advertising.
Renee took a leap of faith and moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. She didn't speak the language or know anyone, yet her business acumen saw her rise to Head of International Marketing for Heineken. Renee's next move was to China, where she was appointed Global Marketing Director of ZURU.
In 2021, Renee co-founded Maison&Muse with business partner Grant Taylor, launching a line of affordable yet luxurious home fragrance products. Their wild vanilla and caramel-scented candle went viral on TikTok, becoming Australia’s top-selling candle and leading to a $24 million deal with major U.S. retailers Walmart and Target.
Building on this momentum, Renee expanded the product range to include car fragrances tailored to the U.S. market, specifically targeting the 96 million vehicles registered to women. Under their startup company MOXX, Renee and Grant have launched four successful brands: Maison&Muse (home fragrance), re.store (cleaning products), Everblue (hair and body care), and Atomic (laundry products). Notably, Everblue became the first New Zealand haircare brand to be stocked by Costco when it opened in New Zealand.
Each of our inductees talked about the importance of taking opportunities whenever they arrive and the need to be resilient when things go wrong. They challenged us to consider how we can each contribute to supporting those in our communities and around the world who are less fortunate than ourselves.
This was a truly entertaining and thought-provoking evening of pride and inspiration. We reflected on the considerable achievements of Sacha, Jason, and Renee, and the strong foundation they built at Onehunga High School. It was a reminder of the potential within our school community and an encouragement to current students to dream big.
