Ola Roberts hit her professional stride soon after graduating in psychology from Sydney's Macquarie University, but a game of rugby caused a side-step to Hawke's Bay.

She worked for Cable and Wireless Optus and a multinational executive training company, quickly building up a following as a result of her flair for developing people and teams.

Still in her mid-20s she started her own business as a communication consultant.

On a six-month contract in Auckland she found herself being especially patriotic while watching a Bledisloe Cup test in an inner-city pub.

"I was the only one in the place cheering for Australia," she said.

At halftime she met her Hawke's Bay-born future husband.

"As the relationship grew it turned into a year and then an 18-month contract," Ms Roberts said.

They married and lived in Auckland, but when children came along it was a choice between Sydney or Hawke's Bay.

"I've never regretted the decision," Ms Roberts said. "Hawke's Bay is just great but the travel is difficult. Most of my work is in Australia."

Her New Zealand client list is growing steadily. It includes Telecom, BDO Spicers, TVNZ, and the ANZ Bank and "some great Hawke's Bay companies", she said.

Ms Roberts' company, Refine Business and Professional Development, would like to work with more local clients but she would hold on to her Australian connection, both for her own professional development and to keep in touch with family.

But be warned, she's fussy.

She said she won't tolerate box-ticking clients.

"I will only work with those companies who demonstrate a real commitment to developing their people," she said.

Her first Hawke's Bay clients happened through family friend Sally Jackson, who heard of her skills and asked her to give a presentation on high-performance cultures to Hastings businesses, including business advisers PKF Carr Stanton.

"At the time I thought she was brutally honest," PKF director Campbell Brenton-Rule said.

"We've done lots of thing with her over the last five years. All projects have been clearly defined, scoped and priced up front. That made it very easy to assess the costs and benefits on a project by project basis. It's a practice we have implemented ourselves."

He said Ms Roberts had kept the company on track to define its goals, implement leadership programmes and increase company effectiveness.

"We now have the vision of where we want our business to be and we have the team aligned to our goals as well," Mr Brenton-Rule said.