Sir Ray Avery: The Resilience Of Ray

LIZ GUNN

Sir Ray Avery is an inventor, scientist, entrepreneur, and has been New Zealander of the Year ( 2010) . He is a man with a painful past, whose innate resilience helped him survive the orphanages and systemic abuse of foster homes during his brutal childhood in England. He came to New Zealand as a young man in 1973.

He has contributed much to this and other countries since then, and says that he is still driven to make a difference to the lives of those who struggle, even as he counts himself lucky to have perhaps a decade more to make change for the better. Ray talked with Liz Gunn at Manifest Studios about the challenges he has had to overcome, the inner resources he has developed because of those challenges and his visions for a better future for others, including his latest innovation, a nutrient dense ‘Amigo’ bar to ensure hungry children get their ‘Essential Nutrition in One Bar’.