Campbell at 25 years of age was elected as a Nelson City Councilor representing the Stoke-Tahunanui Ward in the October 2022 local authority election. 

He is an active sportsman playing both hockey and football and has been on the board of Nelson Hockey since 2018. In 2022, he was elected to  the board of the Tahuna Football Club and became Vice President. He stood down from this role  in late 2022 due to his election success and the time demands on him as a councilor.

His work in the community has also extended to Big Brothers Big Sisters(BBBS) where in 2020 he was accepted into the “Youth into Governance Programme” to understudy the BBBS board. The programme was established by BBBS as an extension to youth development in Nelson and was developed by Ross Newman, a Rotarian during his tenure as Chair of BBBS and rolled out through a selection process to place the successful candidates with other community boards in Nelson.

He says: 

“ I was very lucky to be selected to do the programme through BBBS because it was a very well organised and effective board under Chairman Ross Newman so was an excellent learning experience. The programme, also designed by Ross has given me a very good grounding in governance and board process. It naturally gave me a real sense of achievement when a board vacancy opened up in BBBS in 2021 and the board approached me to become a Trustee.”

BBBS has had one and sometimes two members of the Rotary Club of Nelson on its Board for each of the last 24 years since its establishment in 1997 and with Campbell having now joined Rotary he is adding to that legacy. See story at Big Brothers Big Sisters Nelson Tasman | Rotary Club of Nelson (rotarynelson.nz) 

The Rollo name is highly respected in Nelson business circles with a strong presence in the city over the last 50 years first through Rollo Locksmiths and later through their Camping and Outdoors shop together with supply operations they established to support the retail operations. It is testament to the customer loyalty generated that the new owners have continued to operate under the Rollo name since it was sold in 2018.

Campbells successes in recent times are no accident. Growing up in this family environment gave Campbell a good grounding in business and in particular taught him the importance of setting goals then developing strategies to achieve them.

“ I knew in the lead up to the elections that I needed to build on my community profile identifying the points of difference I could offer as a candidate. The setting of goals and strategies to achieve those was very much a part of the learnings from family around the kitchen table.”

Family ,and in particular his parents, also instilled a strong sense of community and the importance of putting back. As with many of the younger generation, Campbell has a strong focus on ensuring we protect our environment albeit it is with the same pragmatism with which he is approaching his role as a councilor.

This was evident whilst he was attending Garin College and set up the Environment in Schools programme which established recycling as a key component in dealing with and reducing overall school waste. Sport was also a strong feature of his school years and gave him his first leadership experience and this together with his  involvement in later years in club management and governance has given him the confidence necessary in dealing with people across a wide range of backgrounds and ages.

Campbell has been a member of Rotary for just over 18 months. He is the youngest member of the club and is mixing with people, some of whom are up to 3 times his age. He brings a fresh perspective but also listens and learns from those around him.

“Rotary through its projects gives me the opportunity to broaden my community contribution as with the recent Tahunanui Beach cleanup which our club contributed to.

Rotary is a great place to learn about community activities through the guest speaker programme but also at meetings through talking with people over dinner who have been ‘there and done that’ across a wide range of different careers and community activities.”