Tag Archives: United States

Lord of the Rigs Honoured in NZ

Lord of the Rigs Honoured in NZ

Wade Thompson, US-based chairman, president and CEO of the world’s largest recreation vehicle company, is to receive an honorary Doctor of Commerce degree from Victoria University. Thompson, 66, completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree at Victoria in…

New Voice in US Media Marketplace

New Voice in US Media Marketplace

NZ-born advertising executive Antony Young, US CEO of Optimedia, is about to publish his first book in America. In Profitable Marketing Communication he offers US marketers a fresh perspective on the media marketplace, based largely around successful…

NZ Pathologist Testifies in Canada

NZ Pathologist Testifies in Canada

NZ-based pathologist Dr James Ferris has given evidence in the most high-profile murder case in recent Canadian history. Ferris, a veteran of 40 years forensic investigation, has testified at the trial of Robert William…

Winning Streak for 42 Below Ads

Winning Streak for 42 Below Ads

42 Below Vodka’s US advertising campaign won Saatchi & Saatchi New York seven statues at this year’s Clio Awards, including the Grand Clio in the print section. The slew of awards saw Saatchi & Saatchi New…

Inside Perspective on Disarmament

Inside Perspective on Disarmament

New Zealander Bob Rigg has written an essay for Open Democracy protesting the US manipulation of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and the ousting of its Brazilian director-general, José Bustani, in 22….

Zambesi Marches on Moscow

Zambesi Marches on Moscow

NZ fashion label Zambesi has netted its largest ever international account. Zambesi will be stocked in Moscow’s soon-to-open Cara & Co concept store, which describes itself as a “deluxe boutique for intellectuals.” Label owners…

Food to Match the Location

Food to Match the Location

Wellington restaurant Martin Bosley’s features in a guide to the Pacific region by the New York Times. Research for the guide was conducted by leading US travel authority Frommers. “Previously reserved as the…

World First for Scary Mary

World First for Scary Mary

Papamoa’s “Scary” Mary Perkins is the first woman in history to tour with freestyle motocross legends the Crusty Demons. The 24-year-old is currently the world’s number one female freestyler and holds the record for the longest…

Text Polling a Hit in US

Text Polling a Hit in US

Auckland mobile marketing company Txstation has established a strong presence in the US, providing real-time audience polling for the National Basketball Association, Fox News and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Txtstation’s technology allows broadcasters and event organisers to ask…

Premium Export

Premium Export

An ABC Radio report on Wellington’s Pinot Noir festival credits the grape’s – and NZ wine in general’s – explosion in popularity in the US to the success of 2004 indie film, Sideways. “We had $500 million…

Fuel of the Future

Fuel of the Future

Two national institutes are hoping to reduce NZ’s national oil consumption by developing the production of cellulosic ethanol. Ag Research and Scion (formerly the NZ Forest Research Institute) are working with US company Diversa on turning byproducts…

Silver Lining for OpenCloud

Silver Lining for OpenCloud

Wellington telecommunications support firm OpenCloud has raised US$10.25 million in funding from Advent Venture Partners (London), No 8 Ventures (NZ) and Motorola Ventures (US). The funding will be used to expand the company’s international interests, which include…

Safe Haven

Safe Haven

US travel expert Laura McKenzie includes NZ in her list of the world’s five safest travel destinations. NZ is ranked second only to Monaco in a list which includes Malta, Switzerland and Singapore….

Next-gen Stitches

Next-gen Stitches

A revolutionary tissue repair gel developed at Auckland University has secured NZ$15 million in US funding, thanks to the efforts of key developer Professor Colin Green. The US financial backing will help commercialise the drug…

More medals for Vili and Willis

More medals for Vili and Willis

NZ athletes won two medals at the IAAF World Cup of Athletics in Athens this month. Valerie Vili followed up her Commonwealth Games gold by winning the women’s shotput event, with a throw of 19.87m. Fellow…

Evans Provides Edge Perspective

Evans Provides Edge Perspective

Laurence Evans has taken a top position with Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations company. Evans has been appointed president of Edelman’s full-service research firm – StrategyOne – whose client list includes Unilever, Wal-Mart and Wrigley’s….

Another Reason to Eat Your Greens

Another Reason to Eat Your Greens

A NZ research team has discovered cancer fighting properties in cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower. Researchers at the Christchurch School of Medicine and Otago University’s Health and Sciences found that compounds called…

Bumper Crop

Bumper Crop

Kiwi wine exports hit a record high of half a billion dollars this year, according the New Zealand Winegrowers annual report. Pinot noir sales increased 55% to overtake chardonnay as NZ’s second most exported varietal, after perennial…

Power Shift in World Wine Community

Power Shift in World Wine Community

The EU is instructing struggling European winemakers to follow the example of their increasingly successful New World counterparts in NZ, Australia, and America. The “wine lake” situation in Europe has now reached crisis point, with one in…

Return to Peak Form

Return to Peak Form

Commonwealth Games medallist and Olympian, Greg Henderson, marked his return to form with a convincing win at the inaugural Commerce Bank Reading Cycling Classic in Philadelphia, USA. Riding for the Health Net-Maxxis team, Henderson beat Uzbekistan’s Sergey…

Wellington a Global Talent Magnet

Wellington a Global Talent Magnet

A Cato Unbound essay by Richard Florida – The Future of the American Workforce in the Global Creative Economy – uses the Peter Jackson led Wellington film studios as an example of “a profound shift in…

Career High for Cunningham

Career High for Cunningham

NZ’s up-and-coming Indy racing star, WadeCunningham, pulled out a thrilling win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s Freedom 100 event. The 21-year-old led all 40 laps, setting an average speed record of 295.48km/h

Power Couple

Power Couple

Hamilton-born Nicole Colovos has been appointed joint design director of Helmut Lang with husband Michael, making her the first Australasian designer in history to head a major international fashion label. After fashion editing at…

Best Western

Best Western

Leading US travel site, Frommer’s, featured a lengthy write-up on the South Island’s spectacular west coast – “where there’s more to see and do than there are residents.” The writer’s comprehensive holiday includes a…

Badge of Gold for Nancy Wake

Badge of Gold for Nancy Wake

Wellington-born Nancy Wake, 94, now living in a London rest home, has been awarded the NZ Returned Services Association’s highest honour, the RSA Badge in Gold, as well as life membership for her work…

Guantanamo Report

Guantanamo Report

NZ human rights lawyer, Paul Hunt, is one of the authors of a new UN report on the US-run detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, which calls for a dramatic improvement in its conditions if not…

Nuclear Discussion Just That

Nuclear Discussion Just That

NZ’s iconic 21-year-old nuclear ban has returned to the news, both as a sideline issue in the recent parliamentary elections, and through a National Power Union-commissioned white paper on the pros and cons of nuclear power….

Continental Drift

Continental Drift

Former PM Mike Moore spoke up about NZ’s increasing politico-cultural distance from Australia in the  Melbourne Age. “After 100 years of convergence, there is the beginning of divergence. Australia is becoming more like the US and…

Sugarfoot Speaks Up

Sugarfoot Speaks Up

In a sports-mad country like NZ, how can one of its richest and most successful exponents be virtually unknown? Kickboxer Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo has quietly earned more than $1 million from the sport and is a…

Less is More

Less is More

In a study released by the World Bank, New Zealand has been named the most business-friendly nation in the world. The study ranked 155 countries and was based on classic American assumptions of economic success, like…

Future Craft Flies Thanks to Kiwi Know-how

Future Craft Flies Thanks to Kiwi Know-how

NZ engineer Bill White has designed an ultra-lightweight engine to power a “back to the future” style mini helicopter for US company AirScooter. Christchurch based company Pegasus Aviation began developing the AeroTwin engine in the 1990s…

The “Little Airline that Could”

The “Little Airline that Could”

Air NZ’s ongoing $800 million overhaul has not gone unnoticed in the US, with lengthy articles devoted to its new look 747’s in the LA Times and FirstClassFlyer. Upgrades include fold-out flat beds in business class, personal…

Sideline Venture

Sideline Venture

NZ’s best known sportswear brand, Canterbury of New Zealand, registered on leading international trend analysis site WGSN’s radar with its entry into the US market. “In a sea of denim and tees,…

Cloudy Bay Credibility

Cloudy Bay Credibility

The burgeoning NZ wine industry gets an extensive survey in The Drinks Business magazine (UK.) Author Penny Boothman cites several factors behind NZ’s success on the international market, including the ongoing Cloudy Bay effect….

Design on the Money

Design on the Money

Auckland based Cabco Group Ltd is to provide hi-tech shopping carts for US retail giants Wal-Mart and H.E Butt. The Wal-Mart deal alone is expected to net the company $50 million per annum. The TV Cart is…

About Me

About Me

Edge denim designer Nicole Colovos and husband Michael were guest editors and cover stars of the sixth issue of independent US magazine, Me. Created by New York art director Claudia Wu, Me profiles a…

Surf’s Up

Surf’s Up

The powerful, curling waves that draw surfers to beaches will soon be breaking inland, thanks to a novel shape-shifting rubber reef that can be fitted to the floor of a swimming pool. The Versareef,…

It’s got to be Seen to be Believed

It’s got to be Seen to be Believed

A couple of years on and overseas visitors are still taking the Lord of the Rings tour of NZ. Says one US writer, “I knew that the movies were shot here, but I thought that much…

Right Royal Honour

Right Royal Honour

Rt Hon Justice Thomas Munro Gault is to be the first NZ’er in history to head the Royal & Ancient – the prestigious governing body on the rules of golf recognised everywhere except the U.S. Gault,…

NZ Cancer Rates Third Worst in World

NZ Cancer Rates Third Worst in World

New international research from IRAC show NZ men and women have the third highest cancer rates in the world. Male cancer rates are highest in the United States, Hungary and New Zealand, and lowest in Niger,…

Konference on Kool

Konference on Kool

US management guru Tom Peters was a keynote speaker at the 2005 Better By Design conference in Auckland. “To disregard design is to disregard me as ‘human user’. If PASSION matters, DESIGN matters. And…

“Pretty Damn Sweet”

“Pretty Damn Sweet”

A US exchange student in NZ writes an ode to Aotearoa in his home college newspaper, the New Hampster. “I think I’ve got NZ fever already. This country has been described as a laidback, fun place…

A Wine Like No Other

A Wine Like No Other

Pittsburgh Live writer experiences a dash of spring fever courtesy of Marlborough’s world-renowned sauvignon blanc. “The wine’s style elicits both tremendous enthusiasm and vehement rejection, but overall, sales of NZ sauvignon blanc are soaring, with more than…

Biotech Baby Steps

Biotech Baby Steps

NZ’s recently altered stance on Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) is the subject of an in-depth Technology Reviewfeature. “NZ, of all places, may have found a solution , proving once again that…

The Real Deal

The Real Deal

A year on and Rings-related tourist stories still crop up in US papers. This one, originally published in the Washington Post, attempts to find the “real NZ, the part still untouched by the ubiquitous cinema hype.”…

Fallen Treasures May Stand Again

Fallen Treasures May Stand Again

Since September 2004, NZ troops have been stationed in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan Valley to oversee the reconstruction of the area following the US-led war against the Taliban. As well as helping rebuild Bamiyan University, the NZ Army is…

Sir Ed Speaks Out

Sir Ed Speaks Out

Sir Edmund Hillary has spoken out against a US-led project to build an “ice highway” in Antarctica, which would allow hundreds of tons of scientific equipment to be transported to the Amundsen-Scott Base. ” spent weeks…

Dino-buff Wins US Accolade

Dino-buff Wins US Accolade

Dr Joan Wiffen of Havelock North received the esteemed Morris Skinner Award from the US-based Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology at its 64th annual meeting in Denver, Colorado. According to the SVP website, the award is “for…

Voters Want Out

Voters Want Out

The re-election of George W Bush has sparked an increase in enquiries about emigration to NZ from US voters seeking more liberal pastures. According to the Telegraph, “the size of victory has led hardcore Democrats, as…

A Man of Two Halves

A Man of Two Halves

LA Times profiles Ricky Ellison, a NZ-born NFL linebacker turned US defence advisor. “His team-mates called him ‘Fruit Loops,’ but this was also a guy who read the Foreign Affairs journal at lunch and spent his…

Southern Bookmarks

Southern Bookmarks

Four American students embarked on a voyage of self-discovery against the backdrop of NZ’s South Island. After taking in such “must-sees” as Queenstown, Franz Josef Glacier, and Milford Sound, the four would ” back a few…

Taking Care of Business

Taking Care of Business

NZ ranked first overall in the World Bank’s  ‘Doing Business’ report for 2004, ahead of the US, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Australia. The annual survey decides which countries are best for doing business in based on…

Staying Power

Staying Power

Aotearoa has a starring role in wine writer Thom Elkjer’s overview of sauvignon blanc – past and present – for the  SF Chronicle. NZ has been a major player in the grape’s popularity since ” out…

Cooper Cracks US

Cooper Cracks US

Trelise Cooper is the latest NZ designer to come to mainstream US attention, after her work graced the cover of venerable style barometer Women’s Wear Daily. Entitled ‘Southern Charm,’ the accompanying story charts Cooper’s…

Jumping Off Point

Jumping Off Point

Billionaire US adventurer Steve Fossett continues to attempt to break the world glider altitude record from his South Island base in Omarama. Wind levels have been unsatisfactory so far.

I Spy with My Little Eye

I Spy with My Little Eye

NZ wines scored a slew of major awards at America’s largest and most prestigious wine show – the San Francisco International Wine Competition. Best in Show awards went to the 2002 Lake Hayes ‘Amisfield’…