In the three years since launching the Aotearoa Centre for Enterprising Women we have developed and taught two specific courses, one for MBAs and the other at Stage 3. Both focus on women and entrepreneurship. Key to teaching these courses is the link between theory and practice, and the best way to bring practice into the class is with guest speakers. Zarina Alexander, co-founder and CEO of Neocrete, was the first speaker to come into both these classes. Neocrete is redefining concrete with the mission of “reducing carbon and costs for the concrete industry” and improving its performance. I asked Zarina the following:
Q1. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, what challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them?
Early on, I definitely had to work hard to be taken seriously. Being a new person, “an outsider”, in the industry where everyone knows each other didn’t help either. Over time, I realised being authentic, consistent, and competent breaks all barriers: showing up prepared, doing what you say you’ll do, being open and honest and letting results speak for themselves. I’ve also been fortunate to have amazing mentors and allies – men and women – who believe in the mission and support me along the way through ups and downs. And also, being a woman and being different has its advantages. By default, you will stand out and be remembered – then it’s really up to you what you will be remembered as: simply a woman in a male-dominated industry, or a co-founder of a company that re-engineered the building block for our future.
Q2. Neocrete is built on sustainability. How has being a sustainability-focused business been both an advantage and a challenge in the construction industry?
It’s absolutely both. The advantage is that sustainability gives us purpose. We’re not just making another material; we’re helping decarbonise one of the world’s most polluting industries. That’s powerful and fulfilling. And that attracts amazing minds to work with us, as employees, consultants, customers, suppliers or investors.
The challenge is perception: that sustainability comes at a cost, either to quality or to economics, and sometimes to both. Neocrete is fighting that perception with rigorous testing, continuously demonstrating better performance than conventional concrete. And now we can achieve it while saving costs to our customers. I think in the current economic environment, cost reduction will be the game-changer for the industry to adopt and scale Neocrete. With continuous research and development we are removing more and more reasons to say “no” to us, because we want to make it really easy for our customers to make the sustainable choice. We want to make Neocrete the default option for the cement and concrete producers.
Q3. What tools, insights, or pieces of advice have been most vital in getting you to where you are today as a founder and leader?
There are different pieces of advice and tools that were critical for different stages of our growth. Probably some of the most fundamental skills was the financial literacy that I gained through my formal education (BSc in Economics) and work experience as a financial auditor and a business analyst. An ability to accurately forecast and assess different scenarios can easily make or break a startup, especially at early stages when you have very limited resources which you really don’t want to waste on the option that was never going to work. In terms of advice, probably the most memorable one (that unfortunately took me a while to actually listen to!) was from my mother-in-law: to quit my job and go full-time on Neocrete. I learnt from this and instilled the following in the company: if you believe in something, back it with action. That’s why in Neocrete we pride ourselves on being really good at execution. I like the Japanese proverb: “Vision without execution is just hallucination”.
Q4. AI is transforming every industry. How do you see it influencing construction and sustainability, and what opportunities or challenges might it bring for Neocrete?
AI has huge potential. From predicting material performance and optimising mix designs, to improving supply chain transparency and emissions tracking, it is part of our landscape. For Neocrete, AI can help us accelerate research and development, reduce the number of trials required to test customer materials compatibility and efficiency with our products and quantify sustainability benefits more accurately.
The challenge will be data, ensuring we have high-quality, reliable data to feed into these systems. But done right, AI could help us make greener, smarter, and more efficient concrete faster. In doing so, it could help reshape an industry that hasn’t changed much in decades.
Q5. For students and emerging entrepreneurs, what’s one way you think they can become “future-ready” especially in a world shaped by technology and sustainability?
Be endlessly curious and learn as much as you can as fast as you can. The pace of change is so much faster now, that whatever my advice is now will probably be outdated by the time they graduate. And the only way to not just try to fit into this ever-changing world, but to shape it and change it for the better, is to continuously learn new skills, debate new ideas, discover new concepts and find challenges that excite and fulfil you and ultimately provide you with a purpose.
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