Index Up and in the Black
New Zealand is the only MSCI developed country index still to be in the black over the past year. Throughout the year, global economies have been rocked by the eurozone sovereign crisis, rising US…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Living Fossil Bewitches
Te Papa scientist Vincent Zintzen and colleagues have been studying the hunting behaviour of the hagfish — or snot-eel — a blind sea creature partway between fish and worm, with a spinal cord but…
Steam Research Collaboration
New Zealand’s geothermal scientists will be collaborating with the world’s leading researchers after the country is admitted to the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology (IPGT) in Melbourne on 16 November. Established in 2008, the…
Hiring Ahead of the Pack
New Zealander Stephen Jennings is CEO of emerging markets investment bank Renaissance Group, “the bank that keeps on hiring”, and a company “running the other way and obeying Warren Buffett about being greedy when…
Boosting Activity in the South
Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard says New Zealand’s reconstruction of the earthquake-devastated city of Christchurch will boost growth and inflation pressures and may mean an increase in interest rates. Bollard is among Asia-Pacific central…
Plan for Luxury Moving Hotel
Businessmen John Johnston and Dave Nixon are behind a planned luxury Orient-Express-style luxury train that would travel the length of New Zealand catering to foreign tourists with a big budget. The pair are looking…
Wearable Breathalyser
Wellington’s Matt Leggett has invented a breathalyser jacket which lets the wearer know whether they’ve had too much to drive, with results displayed on lights stitched into the forearm of the jacket; the more…
Healthy UK Appointment
New Zealander Professor Malcolm Grant will be appointed chair of the UK’s new National Health Service (NHS) commissioning board. Grant, who is currently president and provost of University College London (UCL), would…
Fear the Spud No More
Researchers at Otago University have found that potatoes may not be the fat-gain ogres that many dieticians claim and that when you eat these carbohydrates as part of a meal of meat and vegetables…
Flu Research Coup
The Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) has won a five-year, multi-million-dollar contract awarded by the United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to study influenza in an effort to better…
Laminating in China
Auckland-based construction giant Fletcher Building Ltd has announced it is to build a new laminates plant in China through its Formica Group unit. Formica, which designs and manufactures laminates, would build its second China…
Parallel Computing Hotbed
New Zealand could be a hub of expertise for parallel computing — “the future of computing” — according to software director at chip maker Intel James Reinders. Parallel computing is when software uses multicore…
Testing Theories of Existence
New Zealand and Australia are working together to build the most powerful radio telescope ever constructed, the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The international consortium behind the project — 67 organisations in 20…
Desert Diplomats Draw Closer
The New Zealand Embassy in Riyadh recently played host to a special meeting of 100 trade and investment leaders from the Saudi Arabian business community including New Zealand businessmen who live in the Kingdom….
Lucerne Greens Up the Dry
Farmer of the Year Marlborough lamb and beef producer Doug Avery was a guest at the Queensland Agforce conference in September giving Australians tips on drought proofing their properties. The ABC’s Landline executive producer…
Lit Up on Coconuts
The electricity demands of New Zealand territory Tokelau will soon be met by renewable energy sources. Tokelau’s leader Foua Toloa has announced that by the middle of 2012, 93 per cent of Tokelau’s electricity…
Film on the Ground in LA
Film New Zealand and Wellington post production outfit Park Road are joining forces to open a Los Angeles-based office. From 2012, head of marketing at Park Road Post Production Vicki Jackways will represent the…
Mutual Love of the Outdoors
New Zealand-based active-lifestyle clothing company Icebreaker – one of a number of new international fashion and fashion-related retailers operating in Canada – opened a store in Vancouver this year, attracted largely by British Columbians’…
Scottish Dairy Venture
New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra, the largest processor of milk in the world, has made its first move into Europe by forming a joint venture with Scotland-based First Milk, which supplies and markets 15…
Fun With Dirt in Caterpillars
Dunedin-born businessman Ed Munn is making a living in Las Vegas with Dig This hiring big toys out to big kids, with enthusiasts paying up to NZ$885 for a few hours reliving their childhood….
Ginseng for China
King Country Ginseng growers Maraeroa C Incorporation are working with a Shanghai-based distributor to market their crops in China under the label Pureora NZ Ginseng. “We’re probably the only grower of simulated-wild, natural, organically…
Algae Potential
New Zealand-based algae technology developer Aquaflow Bionomic Corp. is collaborating with Texas-based CRI Catalyst Co. to further develop a process that can potentially convert algae and other feedstocks into renewable fuels. The…
Top Guns
General Motors (GM) chief financial officer New Zealander Dan Ammann, 39, is one of a number of central figures graded at GM in an article by Fortune Magazine’s senior-editor-at-large Alex Taylor III discussing the…
Rugby Jersey Ruckus
When the All Blacks revealed late July the shirts the team would wear for the Rugby World Cup, which begins in September, it was a proud moment for Adidas, the designer of the uniform…
Rewriting the Focus
A million-dollar investment in gold bullion has kept Wellingtonian Theresa Gattung, 49, financially secure for the past four years out of the spotlight, but now the former chief executive of Telecom New Zealand (TNZ)…
Doing Business Like Conchords
“As the duo behind the comedy and musical group Flight of the Conchords, you might be wondering what a folk band from New Zealand can offer by way of business advice,” Forbes contributor Deborah…
Stateside for Sealegs
Auckland-based Sealegs International, makers of amphibious marine craft, will open its North American flagship showroom at the Hingham Shipyard Marinas in New England this month, the company’s first store outside New Zealand….
Undeniable Success
New York’s hippest hotelier New Zealand-born Sean MacPherson — co-owner of the exclusive Waverly Inn, Maritime Hotel, Bowery Hotel, Jane Hotel and Montauk’s Crow’s Nest — makes the cover of August’s Avenue for a…
Drilling for Silence
Seventy scientists from around the world will gather in Gisborne from 1-5 August to discuss proposals to study “silent” earthquakes by drilling into the seabed. Silent quakes, also known as slow slip events, occur…
Ensuring World Nourishment
With a rapidly growing world population New Zealand has a key role in ensuring food security and safety for future generations, according to Mark Ward, general manager of Massey University’s The Riddet Institute, which…
Farmyard Cancer Link
Researchers from Massey University in Wellington have found that growing up on a farm is linked to an increased risk of developing blood cancer later in life. The academics studied the death certificates of…
In Love With His TV
Chief executive of Virgin Media New Zealander Neil Berkett has been placed at number 52 on the MediaGuardian annual top 1 guide to the most powerful people in television, radio, newspapers, magazines, digital media,…
Talent Spotting Down Under
“There’s a lot of incredibly talented people in New Zealand,” legendary American venture capitalist Peter Thiel told the New Zealand Herald recently. “You look around and you see the small businesses and it’s very…
Petunia Precedent
A few years back, several New Zealand scientists began tinkering with petunia pigment genes developing biotech varieties with lush dark leaves. The scientists wondered if they could sell their flowers. They wrote to regulators…
Market Prevails
New Zealand’s stock market, worth a total of around only $48 billion, is one of the world’s best performing this year despite the effects of the Christchurch earthquake, a weak economy and a foreign…
Juicy Japanese Deal Done
Former All Black and television personality Marc Ellis has sold his juice company Charlie’s to Japanese drinks giant Asahi for NZ$129 million. Ellis told the New Zealand Herald the deal would not change him…
Midwives Lead the World
New Zealand midwives provide the best care in the world for mothers and newborn babies, described international delegates attending the recent 29th Triennial Congress of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) in South Africa….
Lured by Indian Skies
A host of New Zealand companies are keen to enter the Indian aviation market enticed by the South Asian country’s booming economy and its burgeoning aviation sector growing at 19 per cent. Pacific Aerospace,…
Enough Room for Everyone
The New Zealand company behind Toyota people-carriers Spaceships — in the UK now for 18 months — is recommended by the Guardian in a travel feature about campervanning in Britain and mainland Europe. “The…
Sleeping Right in Pregnancy
Auckland University researchers have found a link between sleep position in the final hours of pregnancy and the risk of late stillbirth. Women who did not sleep on their left side on their last…
Hart’s Packaged Deal
New Zealand billionaire Graeme Hart’s Reynolds Group Holdings Ltd has acquired Graham Packaging Co Inc (GRM.N) after raising its bid to $1.69 billion. Reynolds, a private-investment firm run by Hart, raised its…
Keeping Germs at Home
An editorial written by Victoria University sociologist Professor Kevin Dew and published in the British Medical Journal says “presenteeism”, prevalent among health workers and those in other caring or teaching occupations, was…
Challenging the Monopoly
New Zealand company Pacific Fibre has embarked on an ambitious unlisted capital raising to fund a submarine cable from Australia to New Zealand and on to the US west coast, challenging the…
Out of Africa
New Zealander Stephen Jennings, industrialist, investment banker and CEO of Moscow-based Renaissance Group, discusses the issues surrounding wealth creation in Russia, and doing business in Africa, on BBC Hardtalk. Jennings contends that Africa is…
Chasing Emerging Markets
“When you are the world’s biggest exporter in a sector powered by Asia’s high-octane economies, it is not difficult to find opportunities for growth,” Kevin Brown writes for the Financial Times. “Fonterra,…
Board Made Bespoke
Wellington-based tailoring firm Working Style will make 1 bespoke suits for the management team of the International Rugby Board this year after winning a six-figure contract normally reserved for European companies….
Up, Up and Away
Glenn Martin’s jetpack has set a new flight record this month climbing at a rate of 8 feet per minute, reaching an altitude of 5ft, then soaring back to earth safely on…
North By North West
A massive wind farm, comprising 168 turbines that could provide enough electricity for 17, homes has been approved for construction between Port Waikato and Raglan. The wind farm, to be named Hauauru…
Silencing Cancer Genes
Otago University Professor Michael Eccles and colleagues have found a way to stop the growth of certain cancer tumours by “silencing” a group of PAX genes, members of a small family of genes that…
Ponoko Perfect
Ponoko, the virtual manufacturing pioneer, has announced that its Personal Factory platform will support the new 3D modelling software, Autodesk 123D. The partnership between Autodesk and Ponoko allows the companies to meet…
Spend Your Time Wisely
New Zealander Derek Handley, who sold his mobile marketing company, The Hyperfactory to American media conglomerate Meredith Corporation last year for an undisclosed amount, gave a speech in April at Kea, New Zealand’s global…
Distinctly New Zealand Feel
New Zealand landscaper Sam Martin has landed a multi-million dollar contract to redevelop London’s iconic Battlesea Power Station. After sitting derelict for nearly 3 years, Europe’s largest brick building is now being revamped to…
Sunshine Beats Pneumonia
Researchers at Waikato University have found that sunshine can help save the lives of pneumonia patients. Medical scientists at the University have found that vitamin D, which is absorbed through the skin and produced…
Repositioning Long-Haul Travel
Air New Zealand’s “innovative” Skycouch Economy seat has won the Aviation category in Condé Nast Traveller’s 211 Innovation and Design Awards trumping new First Class A38 cabin designs entered by…
Burgers and Fries to Iraq
New Zealand-listed gourmet burger company BurgerFuel Worldwide has sold the Master License agreement for the rights to BurgerFuel Iraq. It is the company’s fourth new territory in the Middle East. The brand…
Don’t Ask About the Price
Auckland yacht manufacturers Diverse Projects’ 31.5m boat Black Pearl headlines this year’s Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show in Queensland. The hull of the superyacht is modelled on a rare…
