Logan Park High School

2002 National Winner
2002 Regional Winner – Lower South Island

Former Challenge winner, Aidan Yao, now works as an economist at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

Winning the Monetary Policy Challenge in 2002 set Aidan Yao, now 24, on his life’s path. Six years later Aidan is back where he started but this time as an employee of the Reserve Bank.

Aidan says his teacher at Logan Park High School in Dunedin, Jackie White, entered his team in the competition in 2002. That was the first year the Monetary Policy Challenge was run. “Thank goodness it was,” Aidan says, “as it sparked my passion for economics, giving me the chance to link what I had learnt in textbooks with reality.”

When he left Logan Park, Aidan continued his studies at Otago University where he completed a degree majoring in economics and finance. His enthusiasm for the subject then led him to complete a Masters degree in finance for which he was awarded distinction.

Aidan finished his 12,000 word dissertation in January 2007 and took up a graduate position at the Reserve Bank in the economics forecasting team. Aidan says “it feels as if I have come a full circle, the whole experience has been really exciting.”