Clair Coker, 33, will tell you she’s unremarkable, yet she’s one of the most remarkable women I know. She’ll say she’s not sporty, yet she’ll tackle some of the hardest endurance challenges around. The best advice she’s ever received was to ‘kill them with kindness’, yet she’s genuinely one of the kindest people on the planet.
Clair is the first woman president of the Rotorua Mountain Bike Club. In just a year since taking over the reins, the membership has soared from 600 to 1600 and climbing. She’s helped fundraise more than $140,000 for the First Response Unit, she’s commissioned an epic art fundraiser, generated a huge amount of PR, built a new website and she’s about to tackle some of the nation’s favourite events.
In her day job, she’s the youngest of only two women working in the timber preservation forestry sector. As a territory manager for the lower halves of both North and South Islands, she travels for two weeks out of every month and has made $2 million in unforecasted sales.
When taking over the reins of the Club, some questioned her credentials; other presidents have been pretty hardcore riders linked in with the pros, often with their hands on the trail-building tools.
