Having seen EIT from a distance for a few years, Glenn Fulcher – as head of the Tourism and Hospitality and the English Language centre – feels it is now nice to be part of it.

Taking over from Jenny Robertson, who retired in April, Glenn was most recently regional manager Pacific for City & Guilds of London Institute.

His work for City & Guilds allowed him to be based in Hawke’s Bay, a region the ex-Aucklander holds dear. 

“My wife Tania and I are both out-of-towners, and we definitely fell in love with Napier and Art Deco when we stayed here for a friend’s wedding in the mid-2000s.”

With sons Joss, 4, and six-year-old Hudson, the family enjoys living on a good-sized section in Onekawa, “close to everything”.

Glenn developed strong links within Hawke’s Bay in managing City and Guilds’ international qualifications at EIT, as well as throughout New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands.

Before his association with the brand, he worked for the hospitality industry’s training organisation HSI, which has since been restructured as ServiceIQ.

He was a senior advisor for HSI when Hawke’s Bay was identified as a region suitable for expanding hospitality training programmes.  The region encompassed a lot of high schools, he points out, and also had a significant geographical spread.

“We felt the apprentice system could work well here and contracted EIT to run off-job apprenticeships for trainee chefs.”

Moving to Hawke’s Bay in 2008, Glenn joined the Napier Old Boys’ Rugby Club and played as a flanker lock.  While he no longer plays, he says his boys have started on their own rugby journeys.

Tania, who has a marketing background, works for Te Awanga Winery.

A member of the New Zealand Chefs Association, Glenn is enthusiastically embracing what he expects to be a long-term role at EIT. 

“The best thing about working in education,” he says, “is connecting with students’ lives and bettering them and those of their families.”