SHIFT Compliance Consultant Profile: Dai Williams 

SHIFT Compliance Consultant Profile: Dai Williams 

SHIFT Compliance Consultant Dai Williams is a busy grandfather and part time risk and compliance specialist, strengthening SHIFT’s growing consultancy team. 

You arrived here from South Africa 25 years ago. What made you leave? 

From my perspective it was becoming unsafe for us to be there. I had a daughter who was 9 at that stage and she couldn’t walk around the corner to visit our friends who lived less than 50 metres away. 

It was hard to leave people, but I’m lucky we’re going back again this March for a whole month and will meet up with those same friends. We’ll spend a week with them in a little holiday village, sort of like Snells Beach. Then I have a school reunion. I finished school in 1974 so it’s going to be interesting to see what other people have done with their lives. 

Do you miss home? 

We’ve made a completely new life here, my children are all doing well, our grandchildren too, so no, I don’t have any sense that I would want to go back and live there. It’s great when we take our money across there as it’s so much stronger than the South African Rand. And if we sold our little house in Hobsonville we could buy an enormous place there but would you really want that when you don’t have the security? New Zealand is also a great country, and I am an avid AB Supporter. 

What was your first job in New Zealand? 

I joined PWC as an IT Audit Consultant and was promoted shortly thereafter. I spent a year there and learned a lot and met some awesome people, but I was spending all my time at work and that wasn’t viable with three kids, one in primary school, one in intermediate and one in college, with my wife working part-time at that stage.  

That’s why the SHIFT approach is so good. It gives us a better work life balance so we can spend quality time with our families and friends. It is also a great way to transition into retirement.  

But for most of the time I’ve been here I’ve worked for ASB and then Westpac. When I turned 65 in 2022 I decided to resign and take some time off to do some more study. Not long after that, Prue sent me a message saying, “can we talk?” 

I had sent her a connection request on LinkedIn and really wasn’t expecting anything. In fact I’d agreed with my wife I wasn’t going to do any more work that year! I started a contract with a SHIFT Compliance client a few days later. Since then, I’ve done two further engagements, six months with a government agency, and I’m now at an insurer. 

What are you doing in your current engagement? 

I’m the risk advisor for a big programme of work. The client has got a whole lot of different projects that they’re running and some of the projects have multiple streams.  

So you must be full time? 

No, I work .6 FT. I’m there in the mornings, a little bit in the afternoons, 5 days a week but not full time. And depending how noisy the house is, sometimes I can work from home. 

Noisy? 

Tomorrow afternoon, if you come to my house, you might think it’s a circus. We have eight grandchildren. Four of them live within 100 metres of us, two of them 800 metres away. The other two are a 20 minute drive. They will probably all be here. We call it The Menagerie on a Wednesday afternoon. It’s pretty full on. My wife Anneke absolutely LOVES being a grandparent. I do too, but I also like balance! Anneke will do things for them until she is exhausted. They’re very lucky to have a grandmother like they have. 

What do you love about your work? 

I very much like to see that people get good service from suppliers that they engage with, whether it’s a bank, insurer, or investment company. This programme that I’m currently working on is all about making sure that customers receive the very best service. It’s very much about doing the right thing by the customer, and being fair. 

What’s good about working at SHIFT? 

It’s a wonderful organisation, I’ve met some amazing people and I’ve really enjoyed the diversity of the sort of work that I’ve been able to do. I would have thought when I left Westpac that I would focus primarily on anti money laundering. I’m actually doing a lot more in the risk and compliance management space. 

How do you unwind, or actively relax?! 

My wife and I do some very casual cycling and walking. I’m having a bit of trouble with my hip so it’s more cycling at the moment, and doing things around the house. My wife loves gardening. We’re in Hobsonville Point with the tiniest garden we’ve ever had but she just loves it. There’s no swimming pool to clean or lawns to mow- just lots of flowers and veges. 

Favourite Restaurant or Café? 

Our favourite restaurant is Tokyo in Rosedale, Albany. We also like Thai Hobsonville here in Hobsonville. But of course we also need to watch the pennies as I know I won’t be able to work forever. But I don’t think I’ll ever stop completely.  

That’s why SHIFT is so good. There’s always the potential for Prue to get a call from somebody who wants someone for 2 months. That sort of thing could be a good option for me in the future. Maybe I can work in winter, not summer. 

Best book/podcast/show you have recently indulged in?   

The movie, The Six Triple Eight. It’s a war drama about an African American female battalion who were tasked with clearing large hangars full of mail that hadn’t been delivered. The ladies were subjected to intense discrimination for being female and for being “of colour”. They found ingenious solutions to complex problems, exercised incredible restraint and were very professional in all they did. They were amazing and because of their efforts the mail was delivered to the soldiers and their loved ones back home.