Inaugural scholarships back future cooperative capability
AUCKLAND, 2 october 2026 – cooperative business nzTwo people building leadership and governance capability within New Zealand cooperatives have been named the inaugural recipients of Cooperative Business NZ’s Cooperative Futures Scholarships.
Jenny Young, Operations Manager and Company Secretary at Combined Building Supplies Co-operative (CBS), and Steven Rowe, Learning & Development Manager at Flooring Xtra, will each receive a $2,000 scholarship towards professional development.
The scholarships were established by Cooperative Business New Zealand in partnership with executive recruitment and search firm Brannigans to invest in the development of people working within New Zealand's cooperative and mutual sector.
Cooperative Business New Zealand CEO Saya Wahrlich says the successful applications stood out for their potential to create benefits beyond the individual recipients.
"Jenny and Steven are pursuing very different areas of development, but in both cases the learning will flow directly back into their cooperatives.
"That's exactly what we hoped these scholarships would achieve. We're investing in individuals, but ultimately we're helping build stronger governance, leadership and capability across cooperative businesses."
For Young, the scholarship will support formal governance development as she grows into her dual role as Operations Manager and Company Secretary at CBS.
Young joined CBS around two and a half years ago and has developed a strong interest in governance through supporting its Board. Her scholarship will build on the practical experience and mentoring she has already received with structured governance learning.
"I've learned an enormous amount through mentoring and doing the Company Secretary role, and I'm keen to put some formal governance learning around that experience," Young says.
"The scholarship is an opportunity to build my knowledge and confidence and bring those skills straight back into CBS."
CBS, a cooperative that helps builders and tradies leverage collective purchasing power, has grown to more than 2,200 members since its establishment in 2018 and has recently expanded into Australia.
For Rowe, the scholarship will support further development in digital learning design, building on a major overhaul of learning and development at Flooring Xtra.
This year the cooperative launched its first dedicated leadership development pathway, an 18-week programme combining online learning with one-to-one coaching. With demand already exceeding Rowe's coaching capacity, Flooring Xtra is now developing additional internal coaches who can take the programme further into its network.
"The exciting part has been seeing people who have been through the programme become advocates for it themselves," Rowe says.
"In a co-op, people talk to each other and hear that something is working for another store or team. That's what creates momentum. The next step is building more coaches so we can multiply that impact."
Rowe's original scholarship proposal also identified opportunities to apply his learning across leadership, product training, onboarding, installer and supplier learning and future AI-assisted learning modules.
Brannigans' Nick Hodgson says the potential for that learning to multiply across the organisations was a feature of the successful applications.
"What stood out was that the value doesn't stop with the individual. Steven's approach is designed to build people who can then develop others, while Jenny's governance development strengthens the capability she brings back to CBS."
The Cooperative Futures Scholarships are funded through Cooperative Business New Zealand's partnership with Brannigans, which contributes $1,000 to the scholarship fund for every permanent or governance recruitment placement it makes with a Cooperative Business New Zealand Full Member.
"There's something particularly fitting about activity within our membership helping fund the development of people within our membership," Wahrlich says.
"We hope Jenny and Steven are the first of many people the Cooperative Futures Scholarships will help invest in over the years ahead."
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