Congratulations to Wil McLellan for receiving the Eisenhower Fellowship by US Chargé d’Affaires a.i. Marie Damour at the US Embassy’s Independence Day reception held in Christchurch on 9 July.

Wil is the Director of the EPIC Innovation Centre in Christchurch. EPIC is a project aimed at creating an innovation hub in Christchurch to encourage the growth of high-tech industries. The key component of the project is the building of a campus that attracts tech companies, talent and investors from around New Zealand and overseas. Currently the campus houses 20 companies with over 250 staff in total.

Wil was chosen for his ‘100 Heroes’ project which aims to create a network of government, finance and industry leaders across New Zealand and the USA. He aims to extend this as ‘innovation bridges’ to develop lines of communication connecting entrepreneurs, technology hubs and outposts of innovation around the world.

The Eisenhower fellowship is an international leader exchange program. In 2020 the Eisenhower fellowship awarded fellowships to 21 diverse individuals from throughout the world. The fellowships are awarded to individuals who demonstrate outstanding leadership in their fields and who show substantial promise for even higher achievements. They are visionaries who tackle big challenges in order to better the world around them.

Wil contributed to the TalentNZ Menu of Initiatives and EPIC is featured on our www.talentnzmenu.org website under the fifth initiative in the connect category of the Menu.