Big Picture Learning Ltd.

Managing Director

Rakesh Pandey

Rakesh Pandey has been recognised as an expert in study skills and motivation for nearly two decades. Born in the United States, he has organised and run numerous camps and leadership courses throughout New Zealand, has helped hundreds of senior secondary school pupils, international sports stars and owns his own self-development centre in the South Island city of Dunedin. His aim is to inspire young minds, assist self-development, motivation and improve study skills.

Rakesh not only tutors students to improve their school grades, he also prepares them for life. Athletes, such as double Olympic gold medallist swimmer Danyon Loader and former All Blacks captain Taine Randell, have been helped by Rakesh.

Born in 1958, Rakesh has been recognised as an expert in study skill and motivation throughout New Zealand since 1989 when Television New Zealand approached him to front a live educational television programme, which proved a huge success. Rakesh has regularly toured the country motivating and energising students and business people. He was a long-serving board member of the Otago Chamber of Commerce and helped organise the introduction of salmon smolt into the Otago Harbour, an initiative which has paid long-term dividends. Rakesh has been closely involved in the Toastmasters organisation and he often appeared as a guest speaker at their conferences. He is also a significant contributor to the International Festival of Environmental Science and Technology in Dunedin.

He credits his empathy and passion for other people from the influence of his late mother, Kanti, a fierce fighter for justice who was intimately involved with Citizens Advice, court counselling and other community work after settling in Palmerston North in the mid-1960s with her husband, Kamla, a world-renowned scientist in the field of genetic engineering. The family's record of academic prowess continued with Rakesh. He was offered a medical research studentship involving genetic engineering in the pharmacy department at the University of Otago shortly after receiving a first class Bachelor of Science with honours. Although Rakesh chose to concentrate on sharing his undoubted motivational abilities, he has worked within and alongside a number of different departments in Otago University, including anthropology, marketing, management and science, and is widely known and trusted within the university. His interest in educational motivation has resulted in his involvement in a number of programmes, such as Hands On Science, in which students learn to experience the fun and practicalities of science through exercises developed by Rakesh. The focus of his involvement in the programme was to break down personal barriers between the large groups of students who had often appeared at the course knowing few others. As a result, university became an option for many students who might not otherwise have considered tertiary study.

Rakesh has a personalised health centre retreat at his Waitati farm, 15 minutes north of Dunedin. Activities have been incorporated into the natural and innovative environment to help foster good habits. The farm provides an environment where students, business people and others can reflect, relax and bond. The farm features an underground cave, a 3-metre tall tee-pee, tree huts and oversized spas and saunas, creating an environment which offers challenges and encourages people to move out of their comfort zones. Many different types of courses are run at the Waitati retreat. Large factories to smaller high-tech companies are catered for. The courses are tailored to suit the measurable objectives of each company. Common courses include team work, managing change and creating or readjusting a common vision. Rakesh describes the farm as "relaxed, intimate, classy, high-tech yet earthy".

It is all part of Rakesh's philosophy to help others find the best in themselves and in life - whether that be through conquering fears through skydiving, jumping blindfolded off a diving board or by learning the path to academic success.

Rakesh believes that having strong values alongside the courage to test comfort zones underpins any true success.