PLUMBING INDUSTRY CHARITABLE TRUST (PICT)

​Alister started the organisation which became PICT in 1999 when running Englefields. PICT started out raising money by running a small tennis tournament, supporting activities to counter NZ’s horrendous record of Youth Suicide. One year two of Alister's daughters lost friends to suicide, and he decided he couldn’t just accept that and do nothing in case somewhere down the track it was one of his daughters.

When government policy moved to cut all of their funding to youth suicide prevention education activity, a school of thought was followed which said talking about it only encouraged young people to think about it and consider it as an option. Yellow Ribbon folded and PICT broadened its focus to embrace several programmes around “Youth at Risk”.

PICT grew and developed a real focus from across the industry. Most of the large suppliers to the industry are involved as are many plumbers. By 2012 the committee was running several golf tournaments, two annual Ladies Lunches and a Gala Ball raising more than NZ$200k each year. PICT has raised more than NZ$1.4m since it started, making a real difference through organisations such as What's Up, Foundation for Youth Development, the Parenting Place's "Attitude" programme and The Stellar Trust.

Alister believes this is a hugely valuable entity for the industry as it gets people who have supplier/customer relationships and competitor relationships, which at times can get testy, to work alongside each other in a non-confrontational environment, all focussed on the same end goal. They rediscover this amazing new management tool called “talking to each other”.

Alister remains a Trustee, and was appointed Patron in 2012.