Paul Hansen

Paul Hansen is widely respected in the baking world. His gentlemanly manner is supported by actual gentlemanly virtues: integrity, courtesy, and respect for others. He is someone who listens more than he speaks. These qualities, fortunately, are not rare, but somehow Paul Hansen personifies them more than most.

Like many bakers, he entered the industry almost by accident. He really wanted to be a soldier or policeman. He  passed the army cadetship entry exams but was too young and was told to come back in a year. He went into baking in the interim and liked it so much that, as he says “I am now in my 42nd year of this wonderful industry.”

His soft-spoken manner does not mean Paul Hansen can’t be assertive or even aggressive if the occasion calls for it. “The body doesn’t show it now,” says Paul, “but I loved sport and in particular team sport, especially if it had an element of one-on-one competition. Good front row stuff.” He is a bit of a petrolhead too, having devoted himself for some years to the restoration of a Ford Zodiac, spangled in heavy chrome and now lovingly polished within an inch of its life.

Paul is unstinting in his praise for his wife Veneta. They met at secondary school and married at 20 after a seven year courtship. They have two daughters and now two grandsons. He reads a lot of history books, any period but particularly related to ancient Roman and Greek mythology. For exercise these days he is into walking and rock ‘n’ roll.

Paul Hansen’s career is studded with highlights and milestones. After his training he soon advanced into production and management roles. He later did some more advanced studies with Crop & Food Research (now Plant & Food Research) and has worked with the NZQA as a trade exam mediator. As well as roles in management and sales in the corporate sector, he has worked on his own account. He owned his own bakery and restaurant for eight years and from a practical view point fully respects and understands just how hard industry personal work.

He was a trade technical advisor with NZ Bakels for three years before becoming Export and National Sales Manager, a role he held for 12 years. Since then he has worked in a management role for Foodstuffs Auckland and was with the Auckland branch of Yarrows The Bakers Ltd up until June 2009, predomently working on NPD and setting in place a new Sales Team Structure .

He is currently doing part time work which involves design and operational planning for an Owner Operator in Auckland encompassing both bakery and delicatessen. In his spare time out side of this Paul continues to take on free lance work around bakery projects and still serves on a number of baking industry committees. 

Paul served for 10 years on the industry’s Allied Traders committee whilst in his tenor with NZ Bakels, and was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Baking Society for services to the industry. He was always quick to point out that his success had been due to his team's success.

He has nurtured and established a number of baking competitions aimed at raising skill levels in the industry, and continues often to act  as a judge and chief judge for competitions locally and internationally. While with NZ Bakels he established the Pie of the Year awards and today is the Competition auditer.

 Clearly Paul Hansen has a deep understanding of the industry, is extremly passionate about about it, and has an immense amount of knowledge to offer, but he still admits that he learnns more ever day and remains very open to this.