News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Audette Exel on How Profit and Purpose Intersect

Audette Exel on How Profit and Purpose Intersect

Founder and chair of the Adara Group, New Zealander Audette Exel was interviewed recently at the 2017 EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Forum in Monaco. When you picture success in the corporate world, Exel’s…

Local Fundraising Hopes to Save Chocolate Factory

Local Fundraising Hopes to Save Chocolate Factory

A crowdfunding campaign to save Dunedin Cadbury chocolate factory has raised $3.3 million in less than two days, prompting hopes that locals can continue the tradition of chocolate-making – and eating. Mondalez International announced in…

Former Te Papa Chief Rick Ellis Crosses the Ditch

Former Te Papa Chief Rick Ellis Crosses the Ditch

Chartered Accountants ANZ has appointed former Te Papa boss Rick Ellis its new chief executive as the organisation seeks a “transformational leader” to remain relevant to its 117,000-strong membership. Ellis, who will take up the…

Xero’s Rod Drury Promotes the Global Ecosystem

Xero’s Rod Drury Promotes the Global Ecosystem

“As the world becomes more tribal, global platforms, which enable the flow of global commerce, will help build communities, foster understanding and deliver economic prosperity,” Xero founder and chief executive officer, New Zealander

Air NZ Takes Top Spot on Australian Reputation Index

Air NZ Takes Top Spot on Australian Reputation Index

Rugby’s Bledisloe Cup. Cricket’s Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Now New Zealand has taken the title of Australia’s most reputable company, James Thomson reports for Australian Financial Review. Air New Zealand has grabbed number one spot on…

Microsoft’s Lynch Wins IAPP Vanguard Award

Microsoft’s Lynch Wins IAPP Vanguard Award

Brendon Lynch, Chief Privacy Officer of Microsoft in Redmond, Seattle, has been named 2017 winner of the International Association of Privacy Professionals’ (iapp) Vanguard Award, writes Courtney Gabrielson on iapp’s…

Why Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel Sports, Embraces Failure

Why Sarah Robb O’Hagan, CEO of Flywheel Sports, Embraces Failure

“While by most metrics she’s now a success, Sarah Robb O’Hagan, who has held top jobs at Nike, Gatorade, and Equinox Fitness Clubs, doesn’t shy away from talking about her failures,” writes Jacob Passy…

New Zealand’s Rocket Man Peter Beck Taking Off

New Zealand’s Rocket Man Peter Beck Taking Off

When New Zealander Peter Beck arrived in Silicon Valley in 2013, he gave himself three weeks to secure funding for his small-satellite launch vehicle start-up, Rocket Lab, the Los Angeles Times reports. Instead of blanketing…

Martyn Connell Helping At-Risk UK Youth Find Jobs

Martyn Connell Helping At-Risk UK Youth Find Jobs

New Zealander Martyn Connell is the head of West Yorkshire recruitment firm Maze8 that aims to support the young in overcoming barriers to employment. From its semi-rural setting in Mirfield, Maze8 recruits specialist…

Fast Food Exec Jason Marker has New US Role

Fast Food Exec Jason Marker has New US Role

New Zealander Jason Marker, who most recently was president of Yum! Brands’ Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in the United States, has been named the new chief executive of CKE Restaurant Holdings, parent of another…

New Zealand Leading Country For Female Entrepreneurs

New Zealand Leading Country For Female Entrepreneurs

“New Zealand has been named the best country for supporting female entrepreneurship, according to MasterCard’s inaugural Index of Women Entrepreneurs,” writes Faaez Samadi for Campaign Asia. “While there is still work to do,…

Todd Corporation Saves Canadian Mine Plans

Todd Corporation Saves Canadian Mine Plans

The company behind a proposed tungsten and molybdenum mine in New Brunswick, Canada, which was running so low on cash six months ago it was borrowing money at credit card interest rates, is suddenly…

Xero’s Rod Drury on Succession Plans

Xero’s Rod Drury on Succession Plans

Succession planning is critical to the ongoing health and longevity of a company. New Zealand-based software company Xero’s succession plans were put to the test with the unexpected announcement that chairman, Chris Liddell, was…

Sarah Robb O’Hagan Appointed CEO of Flywheel Sports

Sarah Robb O’Hagan Appointed CEO of Flywheel Sports

Sarah Robb O’Hagan, the former president of Equinox Holdings has been “named chief executive of Flywheel Sports, the indoor cycling startup that launched in 2010 and has since grown to 41 studios,” reports  Christopher…

Farming Our Air for Chinese Market

Farming Our Air for Chinese Market

Pulling a trailer packed with dive tanks and a compression motor, the three co-founders of Breathe Ezy drive around the scenic mountains and valleys of New Zealand’s South Island collecting air Phillip Duval, Xu…

In the Head of AI Scientist Shane Legg

In the Head of AI Scientist Shane Legg

New Zealander Shane Legg, DeepMind Technology’s chief scientist, gives significantly fewer talks and far less quotes to journalists than his other co-founders, CEO Demis Hassabis and head of applied AI Mustafa Suleyman. Legg, 43, remains…

New Zealand Second Best Country For Business

New Zealand Second Best Country For Business

New Zealand has been identified as the second best country for business in 2017 in Forbes’ annual list of the Best Countries for Business. It’s the “11th straight year Forbes has gauged…

Britain’s Banking Watchdog Sam Woods Looks Ahead

Britain’s Banking Watchdog Sam Woods Looks Ahead

New Zealand-born Sam Woods, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), is one of the new generation of City regulators who cut their teeth in the financial crisis. At just 43, with the…

Financiers Make Debrett’s Most Influential List

Financiers Make Debrett’s Most Influential List

Two New Zealanders have made the 2016 Debrett’s 500 list of most influential people in Britain. CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Ross McEwan (pictured), 59, and Mark Wilson, 50, chief…

Camelle Kent Named CEO of Boston’s WellPet

Camelle Kent Named CEO of Boston’s WellPet

Massachusetts natural pet food company WellPet has named New Zealander Camelle Kent its new chief executive officer. Kent, a graduate of the University of Auckland, said she was honoured to be chosen for the role…

Tim Norton Builds 90 Seconds as Global Nomad

Tim Norton Builds 90 Seconds as Global Nomad

If there’s anyone who embodies how the so-called “sharing economy” is changing the way people live and build a business, it’s the founder and CEO of 90 Seconds, New Zealander Tim Norton. Norton…

Neil McGregor Appointed Sembcorp Top Roles

Neil McGregor Appointed Sembcorp Top Roles

Energy expert New Zealand-born Neil McGregor will take over the position of group president and chief executive at Singapore’s state-linked conglomerate Sembcorp Industries in April 2017. McGregor, 61, is currently heading the energy and resources…

NZ Attracting Entrepreneurs from Across the Globe

NZ Attracting Entrepreneurs from Across the Globe

New Zealand has been the home to Australian expats for years, and now New Zealander are muscling in on the startup world as low living costs and talented entrepreneurs continue to build the country’s…

Soul Machines Raises $7.5m in Series A Financing Round

Soul Machines Raises $7.5m in Series A Financing Round

“New Zealand-based artificial intelligence (AI) and avatar company Soul Machines has raised $7.5 million in a Series A financing round led by venture capital firm Horizons Ventures along with Silicon Valley firm Iconiq Capital,”…

Kester Black’s Anna Ross Wins Acclaim

Kester Black’s Anna Ross Wins Acclaim

Australia’s Young Business Woman of the Year has been named and she is New Zealand-born Anna Ross, founder of Kester Black Cosmetics, a brand customers rank better than global name Butter London and in…

Get Naked with a 3D Fitness Tracker Mirror

Get Naked with a 3D Fitness Tracker Mirror

New Zealand-born Farhad Farahbakhshian and Briton Ed Sclater of Naked Labs have designed a mirror that lets you see, in real-time, the effect of your workout on your body. The Naked 3D Fitness…

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space

Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space

Self-taught New Zealand-born scientist and CEO of Rocket Lab Peter Beck, 39, explains to accountancy industry magazine Acuity how – and why – he is making space more accessible. At its Auckland base, Rocket Lab…

Record Bilateral Trade Figures Mark Bank Of China New Zealand 2nd Anniversary

Record Bilateral Trade Figures Mark Bank Of China New Zealand 2nd Anniversary

(SPONSORED CONTENT) “Latest China-New Zealand trade statistics illustrate the value Bank of China (New Zealand) brings to the economic relationship as the bank marks its second full-year of operation in New Zealand,” as reported…

Qantas’ Lesley Grant Airline’s Saving Grace

Qantas’ Lesley Grant Airline’s Saving Grace

Qantas Loyalty chief New Zealand-born Lesley Grant is one of three individuals on the executive team who have helped the airline’s turnaround, according to chief executive Alan Joyce. Grant was an air hostess who worked…

NZ Model Set Up Luxury Travel Firm After Dare

NZ Model Set Up Luxury Travel Firm After Dare

“It’s often said that the inspiration for starting a business can come from anywhere. For Stephanie Chai it was a dare,” writes Sarah Porter for the BBC. The NZ-born model and former TV…

Jacky Scanlan Dyas Wins Person of the Year Award

Jacky Scanlan Dyas Wins Person of the Year Award

Jacky Scanlan Dyas, a Kiwi from Gisborne and a corporate partner at Hogan Lovells’ Tokyo office, has won the Person of the Year Award at this year’s British Business Awards at a gala event…

Air New Zealand Named “Most Excellent” Airline for 2017

Air New Zealand Named “Most Excellent” Airline for 2017

“Air New Zealand has been named 2017 Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com in its Airline Excellence Awards,” writes Maureen O’Hare in an article for CNN. It’s the fourth time the airline…

Inside Magic Leap, the Startup Changing Computing Forever

Inside Magic Leap, the Startup Changing Computing Forever

At Magic Leap, the start-up that secretly raised nearly $1.4 billion in venture capital, humanoid robots are walking down the halls, green reptilian monsters hang out in the lounge and there are cartoon fairies…

Sam Ovens Teaches Americans Secrets to Wealth

Sam Ovens Teaches Americans Secrets to Wealth

Entrepreneur Sam Ovens, who is originally from Auckland, achieved something truly unique – by the age of just 25. He became a consultant to consultants and made over US$10 million. From his luxury apartment…

Jake Millar’s ‘Unfiltered’ Interviews With Business Leaders

Jake Millar’s ‘Unfiltered’ Interviews With Business Leaders

21-year-old Jake Millar from New Zealand is turning his passion for business education into an empire, reports Shawn Setaro for Forbes. The young kiwi is the founder of Unfiltered, “a company that…

Rod Drury: “London’s Fintech Scene Is ‘World Class’”

Rod Drury: “London’s Fintech Scene Is ‘World Class’”

Rod Drury, “the CEO of £1.4 billion accountancy software giant Xero says London is a world leader in fintech — financial technology — and will remain that way post-Brexit,” reports Oscar Williams-Grut in an…

Sarah Perry’s Secret to Balancing Motherhood and Career

Sarah Perry’s Secret to Balancing Motherhood and Career

Sarah Perry, CEO of SnapComms, an award-winning internal communications software company, shares what helped her to balance motherhood and her career in an article for TIME’s Motto. “If you’re a working…

Astronauts and SAS buying up Armadillo Merino

Astronauts and SAS buying up Armadillo Merino

A British company, founded by New Zealander Andy Caughey, has developed a superfine wool which has been snapped up by the UK’s Ministry of Defence for SAS soldiers battling on the front line. Derbyshire-based Armadillo…

Iyia Liu Earns Big on Waist Trainers

Iyia Liu Earns Big on Waist Trainers

Along with a desire to cinch her waist, young commerce graduate, New Zealander Iyia Liu, 23, had a burning entrepreneurial ambition. After noticing the waist trainer – a contemporary version of the 16th century…

OK Tires’ Gurdeep Bains Helps Company Pull Ahead

OK Tires’ Gurdeep Bains Helps Company Pull Ahead

A Lamborghini Huracán zooms through the Mojave Desert, spinning sand in its wake, and though you might expect to find a professional racecar driver behind the wheel of this, the fastest Lamborghini yet, you’d…

Helen Clark on Why You Should Never Have a Plan B

Helen Clark on Why You Should Never Have a Plan B

The greatest challenge for women is getting into leadership positions, not actually leading, says Helen Clark former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Clark outlines…

Meeting with Banker Ross McEwan

Meeting with Banker Ross McEwan

Three years ago Ross McEwan set a Kiwi cat among Irish pigeons when, as newly installed chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), he ordered a review into the future of Ulster…

Why Craig Cooper Invests in Adventure Sports

Why Craig Cooper Invests in Adventure Sports

When New Zealand-born venture capitalist Craig Cooper isn’t rock climbing, meditating or writing for his men’s health blog The New Prime, he’s looking for the next great product to invest in. As…

Virgin’s Josh Bayliss Plugging Luxury Gyms

Virgin’s Josh Bayliss Plugging Luxury Gyms

Switzerland-based Virgin Group chief executive New Zealander Josh Bayliss was in Sydney recently to promote the company’s luxury gym arm The Collection, which will open its first gym in Australia next year. The gym business…

Countdown to New Zealand’s First Space Launch

Countdown to New Zealand’s First Space Launch

The New Zealand government has signed a contract with Rocket Lab, “a commercial space launch operator using technology developed in New Zealand, for launch operations on the Mahia Peninsula, on the east of the…

Biofuel LanzaTech Partner with Virgin Atlantic

Biofuel LanzaTech Partner with Virgin Atlantic

LanzaTech, which was formed in New Zealand 11 years ago, has made an aviation biofuel breakthrough with partner airline Virgin Atlantic, producing nearly 5700 litres of low-carbon ethanol produced from waste gases for the…

How Xero Made It By Doing Everything Backwards

How Xero Made It By Doing Everything Backwards

“It’s rare for a startup to go public almost within one year of being founded. But then again, how many startups do you know from Wellington, New Zealand,” writes Ariel Bogle for

US Brands Head to NZ for All-Wool Footwear

US Brands Head to NZ for All-Wool Footwear

As demand for all-wool shoes grows, a number of US footwear brands are heading directly to the source: the sheep pastures of New Zealand. San Francisco-based Allbirds, established by former New Zealand soccer player…

Grandma Uber Getting Brisbane Women Home Safe

Grandma Uber Getting Brisbane Women Home Safe

New Zealand-born taxi driver Kathy Raydings, 57, aka Grandma Uber, has made it her life’s mission to get young women home safe after a night out on the town in Brisbane. Working in the solar…

Roger Shepherd Promotes Charms of Korea

Roger Shepherd Promotes Charms of Korea

After spending eight years as a safari guide and wildlife ranger in Africa, New Zealander Roger Shepherd, 50, left for the mountains of Korea where he began a hiking business. Baekdudaegan is the mountain ridge…

Tipperary Store Keeps Homesick Hungry Stocked Up

Tipperary Store Keeps Homesick Hungry Stocked Up

Dean Hand is founder of kiwis.ie which brings a taste of home to other New Zealanders around Ireland through the website and a village shop in Clerihan, County Tipperary. “We’re a one-stop-shop for…

Mainmark Wins at 2016 Ground Engineering Awards in London

Mainmark Wins at 2016 Ground Engineering Awards in London

Mainmark’s Christchurch team has won the International Project of the Year Award at the 2016 Ground Engineering Awards for their post-earthquake resurrection of the Christchurch Art Gallery in New Zealand. During the earthquakes in 2010 and 2011,…

Yashili Production Plant Among Finalists at NZ Property Awards

Yashili Production Plant Among Finalists at NZ Property Awards

Yashili New Zealand Dairy Company was named as a finalist in the MyTrends Industrial Property category at the New Zealand Rider Levett Bucknall Property Industry Awards on Friday June 17, receiving Merit for its…

Building Africa’s New Cities

Building Africa’s New Cities

Rendeavour, helmed by New Zealand businessman Stephen Jennings, has taken on the challenge of building new urban landscapes across Africa.  Jennings shared insights into the vast opportunities in Africa and his organization’s role with…

Auckland Start-Up Cleans Up Post Part Mess

Auckland Start-Up Cleans Up Post Part Mess

New Zealand founded start-up Morning-After Maids, “has been inundated with requests for their services, from home and abroad,” as reported in an article in The Guardian. The cleaning service that picks…

Branding Expert Oksana Tashakova Making Her Mark

Branding Expert Oksana Tashakova Making Her Mark

New Zealand branding expert Oksana Tashakova, 35, is the founder and managing director of Wealth Dynamics Unlimited, a training, events and e-learning company focusing on entrepreneurship. Tashakova has just run the second annual Millionaire Summit…