News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Packaging Queen Rebecca Percasky Charms Cartier

Packaging Queen Rebecca Percasky Charms Cartier

New Zealand-based entrepreneur Rebecca Percasky launched sustainable packaging company The Better Packaging Co. after years spent working in e-commerce left her feeling disillusioned by the amount of plastic waste her industry was creating, Yeong…

Tom Wright Peddling Juice to NYC Fashionistas

Tom Wright Peddling Juice to NYC Fashionistas

Described as “the underground GOAT” by Supreme store manager and community organiser Aaron Wiggs, New York-based Tom’s Juice is the small-batch, cold-pressed fruit (juice) of 31-year-old New Zealander Tom Wright’s labour, Maggie McGlinchy reports…

Wool From NZ Makes Sheep Inc.’s Carbon Neg Hoodie

Wool From NZ Makes Sheep Inc.’s Carbon Neg Hoodie

The production of UK-based start-up Sheep Inc.’s 100 per cent carbon negative hoodie starts on three farms in New Zealand, where the business sources its wool, Adele Peters reports for Fast Company. By using regenerative…

Sweet Flower’s Tim Dodd Leads LA Cannabis Movement

Sweet Flower’s Tim Dodd Leads LA Cannabis Movement

New Zealander Tim Dodd left behind executive roles at Technicolor, Warner Bros. and Time Warner, and acquired Los Angeles cannabis boutique Sweet Flower with a long-time colleague. Together, they reorganised, rebranded and then opened…

Invert Robotics Relocates HQ to Dublin

Invert Robotics Relocates HQ to Dublin

Christchurch-founded Invert Robotics, a company that develops inspection robots, is relocating its headquarters to Dublin after recently raising €3.5 million from backers that include State-backed Finistere Ventures, Charlie Taylor reports for The Irish Times.

Tamara Singer Discovers the Truffle in Seaweed

Tamara Singer Discovers the Truffle in Seaweed

New Zealander Tamara Singer and her friend Norwegian Angelita Erikson harvest wild seaweed on the beaches of Norway’s Lofoten archipelago. It’s an inconspicuous plant, but one that can be used in many ways. One variety in…

Bob Valentine New President of Concord Music

Bob Valentine New President of Concord Music

Concord Music Publishing has named its CFO New Zealander Bob Valentine the new president of the company. According to Music Business Worldwide editor Murray Stassen, Nashville-based Valentine first began his association with Concord in 1999,…

Colorado-Based Tip Top Savory Pies Grows

Colorado-Based Tip Top Savory Pies Grows

Tip Top Savory Pies, a popular eatery in Lafayette, Colorado “will soon introduce its New Zealand-style cuisine to a new area of Boulder County as the company is set to expand into a new…

Dubai-Based Kim Thompson’s Business Success Story

Dubai-Based Kim Thompson’s Business Success Story

Top restaurants in Dubai spearheaded by female owners, founders and chefs are profiled in Time Out Dubai, and include an interview with New Zealander Kim Thompson, who owns RAW Coffee. RAW Coffee was set…

NZ Fintech Companies Have Sights Set on Hong Kong

NZ Fintech Companies Have Sights Set on Hong Kong

“As a small country and market by population, it is second nature for New Zealand businesses to explore and expand into new geographies,” New Zealand Trade Commissioner for Hong Kong and Macau Kiwa Whatarau…

Jaimee Lupton’s Haircare Brand Monday Gets Global

Jaimee Lupton’s Haircare Brand Monday Gets Global

The brainchild of New Zealand-based beauty entrepreneur Jaimee Lupton, Monday Haircare made its stateside debut this month debut at Target and Ulta, Celia Shatzman reports for Forbes. Monday Haircare made quite the splash when it…

Contact Tracing Company SaferMe Focuses on US

Contact Tracing Company SaferMe Focuses on US

Wellington-based contact tracing technology provider SaferMe, which played a role in helping New Zealand bring COVID-19 case counts down to zero, is setting its sights on Texas and the North American market, Dom DiFurio…

Cooee Keeping Tour Guides in Virtual Business

Cooee Keeping Tour Guides in Virtual Business

Cooee, a travel platform developed in New Zealand, is finding ways to keep tour guides in business during the pandemic – and let people get a view of somewhere besides their own house, Adele…

Tech Sector Humming with Mergers and Acquisitions

Tech Sector Humming with Mergers and Acquisitions

Specialist in the tech area, Mark Clare of Wellington’s Clare Capital, said the level of mergers and acquisitions, capital raising and general advisory work in the industry was busier than he had ever seen…

Weta Digital Looks to Become Content Producer

Weta Digital Looks to Become Content Producer

At a time when much of Hollywood is reeling from Covid-19, Weta Digital, the Wellington visual-effects company behind Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, is looking to pull a growth story out of its magic hat,…

Rocket Lab Launches Sixth Successful Mission of ‘20

Rocket Lab Launches Sixth Successful Mission of ‘20

Rocket Lab USA Inc. has completed another mission sending a satellite into space aboard one of the New Zealand-founded company’s Electron launch vehicles, Elijah Chiland reports for the Los Angeles Business Journal. It was…

Canada-Based Builder Rob Parsons Lauded

Canada-Based Builder Rob Parsons Lauded

New Zealander Rob Parsons a Victoria, Canada contractor known for building high-end homes and for integrity in his business dealings has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Victoria Residential Builders Association in recognition…

Unilever NZ to follow lead of Perpetual Guardian to Trial 4-day Work Week

Unilever NZ to follow lead of Perpetual Guardian to Trial 4-day Work Week

Unilever New Zealand will be trialling a four day workweek for one year, representing a fundamental change in the way the company views their workforce, reports Azi Paybarah for The New York Times. All 81…

Former Olympic Athlete Now Criteo CEO Megan Clarken Aims Ever Higher

Former Olympic Athlete Now Criteo CEO Megan Clarken Aims Ever Higher

Internet advertising company Criteo’s first female CEO, Megan Clarken, has had an illustrious career in business so far. For the past 15 years, the native New Zealander has been a champion of diversity and…

Ocado Retail CEO Mel Smith Takes on M&S

Ocado Retail CEO Mel Smith Takes on M&S

Mel Smith is a plain-speaking, cheery New Zealander who joined online supermarket Ocado as CEO of Ocado Retail just over a year ago from Marks & Spencer, Harry Wallop reports in a story about…

The Caker’s Rondel Sisters Take Baking Kits to US

The Caker’s Rondel Sisters Take Baking Kits to US

Boxed cake mixes don’t have the most glamorous reputation, and that’s precisely why Jordan and Anouk Rondel think The Caker stands out. The two sisters have expanded the baking business from their hometown of…

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Xero’s Steve Vamos Leads Staff Through Pandemic

Head of Wellington-based accountancy software group Xero, Steve Vamos, 62, strives to create an environment where staff do ‘great work’. The tech veteran recently spoke to Financial Times correspondent Jonathan Moules over a video call about…

Icebreaker Aims to Go Plastic-Free by 2023

Icebreaker Aims to Go Plastic-Free by 2023

Last year, Auckland-based outdoor brand Icebreaker sponsored French ultra-swimmer Ben Lecomte to swim across the Pacific from Hawaii to San Francisco through the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. He swam 350 nautical miles over the…

Portland’s Twist on Classic NZ Dessert

Portland’s Twist on Classic NZ Dessert

What happens when it rains? A question especially pertinent for warm-weather businesses, like ice cream shops, many of which say they see a big drop in business during rainy weather, Katherine Chew Hamilton writes…

Billion-Dollar Start-Up Allbirds Launches Apparel

Billion-Dollar Start-Up Allbirds Launches Apparel

Allbirds, the San Francisco brand whose wildly popular £95 wool trainers and low-carbon ethos earned it a valuation of $1.7bn from investors earlier this month, is about to find out. The five-year-old company, co-founded…

Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU

Security Company Gallagher to Expand in UK and EU

Work is underway on the construction of a European HQ for New Zealand-based security giant Gallagher, Rachel Covill reports for UK media site, The Business Desk. Gallagher, a leading manufacturer in security and agricultural…

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds Bets on Physical Stores Despite Pandemic

Allbirds, the wool shoe brand that closed a $100m fundraising round this week, is backing bricks-and-mortar stores in spite of the pandemic, according to Financial Times journalist Jonathan Moules. Moules writes that the new…

Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval

Dose & Co. Get the Kardashian Approval

Good American founder Khloé Kardashian has invested in Dose & Co., a New Zealand-based company that sells a variety of collagen products throughout New Zealand and Australia. Kardashian is joining the company as a…

Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles

Attica’s Ben Shewry Flexes Other Creative Muscles

In Melbourne, coronavirus brought with it a challenge the scope and severity of which local restaurateurs have never seen before. With eateries collapsing around him, New Zealand chef and restaurateur Ben Shewry was forced…

Meet Monday Haircare’s Jamie Lupton

Meet Monday Haircare’s Jamie Lupton

Jaimee Lupton took the beauty world by storm with the launch of Monday Haircare, which sold out from Australian supermarket Coles within days, with the stockist having to put a purchase limit on its…

Gary Rohloff’s BNPL Outfit Laybuy Soars on ASX

Gary Rohloff’s BNPL Outfit Laybuy Soars on ASX

New Zealand-based buy now, pay later (BNPL) outfit Laybuy pulled off a stellar landing on the Australian Securities Exchange, with its shares shooting up 45 per cent on its maiden trading day as a…

Why Everyone Wants A Piece Of Shift72

Why Everyone Wants A Piece Of Shift72

Many film companies have taken a battering during the pandemic. The opposite is true of New Zealand-based video streaming platform Shift72, which has grown by 400 per cent. Andreas Wiseman reports for Deadline. Business for…

Fix & Fogg Opens First Outpost in Houston

Fix & Fogg Opens First Outpost in Houston

Wellington-based gourmet peanut butter company Fix & Fogg has set up shop in Montrose, Houston in the US and you can get it at a walk-up window. Fix & Fogg was founded in 2013. After…

New Zealand Live Lobster Exports to China Surge

New Zealand Live Lobster Exports to China Surge

New Zealand exports of live lobster are surging as Chinese gourmets return to restaurants, Bloomberg reports. More than 300 tons of the crustaceans were airfreighted to China in May, up 53 per cent on…

Fix & Fogg Spreads to Houston

Fix & Fogg Spreads to Houston

High-end peanut butter company Fix & Fogg has achieved enough success in its native New Zealand that it has established its first American retail presence in Houston, Eric Sandler reports for US lifestyle web…

US Investors Eye Mellonsfolly Ranch

US Investors Eye Mellonsfolly Ranch

Set in the heart of the North Island in the Ruatiti Valley, Mellonsfolly Ranch is a detailed replica of an 1860s Wyoming frontier town, with a successful manuka honey business on the side. Owner…

Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company

Narrative Founder James Broadbent on NZ’s Covid-19 Response in Fast Company

In a Fast Company story, internationally renowned photographer and the CEO of Auckland-based Narrative, James Broadbent describes how New Zealand efficiently executed its pandemic response. He argues this same efficiency makes the country an…

Allbirds and Adidas Team up on New Carbon-Zero Shoe

Allbirds and Adidas Team up on New Carbon-Zero Shoe

Footwear competitors Adidas and Allbirds, co-founded by former All White, Tim Brown, are setting aside strategic and intellectual property concerns and embarking upon an unusual collaboration to quickly and jointly develop a high-performance athletic…

Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge

Whispir’s Jeromy Wells Likes a Challenge

New Zealander Jeromy Wells, the chief executive and founder of listed cloud communication platform and workflow software company Whispir, denies COVID-19 is the best thing that has ever happened to him, Patrick Durkin reports…

From TV to Hot Sauce Charlie Page Looks Ahead

From TV to Hot Sauce Charlie Page Looks Ahead

Radical job switches are daunting, but they have the power to rewire entire careers and lives, according to Ed Peters in as story for the South China Morning Post. Peters interviews Ho Chi Minh-based…

How New Zealand Genetics Make Milk in Brazil

How New Zealand Genetics Make Milk in Brazil

New Zealander Craig Bell, co-founder of premium Brazil-based milk company Leitíssimo, likens his product to a time machine. “We have a lot of consumers who told us that ‘this stuff actually tastes nice, this…

UAE Roaster Kim Thompson Looks on the Bright Side

UAE Roaster Kim Thompson Looks on the Bright Side

New Zealand-born Dubai-based Kim Thompson, the founder of Raw Coffee Company, tells local English-language newspaper, The National that looking after her employees is her priority during the COVID-19 crisis. The boutique roastery supplies cafés, restaurants,…

Diana Baker’s Online Baby Photography Class a Hit

Diana Baker’s Online Baby Photography Class a Hit

For new mothers across the world the coronavirus crisis has thrown a major spanner in the works of what should be a time of celebration and bonding with their newborn child, Conor Matchett writes…

Pink Tiger CEO Raewyn McBain Feels the Rush

Pink Tiger CEO Raewyn McBain Feels the Rush

Connecting over the phone with three-year Discovery Bay resident New Zealander Raewyn McBain, Around DB journalist Elizabeth Kerr discovers that the inspirational CEO of Pink Tiger Media is also a dab hand at feng…

Our Entrepreneurs Who Have Made Forbes 30 Under 30

Our Entrepreneurs Who Have Made Forbes 30 Under 30

If you’re looking for reasons to stay optimistic despite what is promising to be a challenging year, look no further than the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia class of 2020, which includes five young…

Corby Lovell Berlin’s Peanut Butter Provider

Corby Lovell Berlin’s Peanut Butter Provider

Auckland-born Corby Lovell is introducing Berliners to the delights of peanut butter, selling his Twisted Nut brand to locals at the famous Saturday market at Kollwitzplatz, in the district of Prenzlauer Berg. “ produces ‘handmade…

Charles Ma, City Maker, Leads Thinking in Knight Frank City Wellbeing Index

Charles Ma, City Maker, Leads Thinking in Knight Frank City Wellbeing Index

Auckland-born Charles Ma, 29, is working on an ambitious project to reimagine the way we live with its development of an entire city – Auranga, in southern Auckland at Drury – which will…

From Smart Cities to Fintech, Jannat Maqbool CPA, Hamilton, advances many initiatives

From Smart Cities to Fintech, Jannat Maqbool CPA, Hamilton, advances many initiatives

“It’s not every day that you hear about an Australian woman of Punjabi descent with a CPA qualification who has scaled New Zealand’s burgeoning financial technology sector,” writes Adam Courtenay for INTHEBLACK, the…

Studiocanal Names Anna Marsh Its CEO

Studiocanal Names Anna Marsh Its CEO

New Zealander Anna Marsh, the newly appointed CEO of leading European film and TV group Studiocanal, comes off as self-contained and mild-mannered, but her bullish track record at the company and relationships with big-name…

Former Equinox Head Sarah Robb O’Hagan in New Role

Former Equinox Head Sarah Robb O’Hagan in New Role

Former Equinox president New Zealander Sarah Robb O’Hagan, who has been advising fitness brand Exos’ board since September of last year, will take the reins as chief executive officer, Fast Company reports. Robb O’Hagan, a…

Andrew Barnes Makes The Case For A 4-Day Week Revolution on Greater Boston

Andrew Barnes Makes The Case For A 4-Day Week Revolution on Greater Boston

Appearing WGBH’s Greater Boston show to discuss his book The 4 Day Week with host Jim Braude, New Zealand entrepreneur and author Andrew Barnes laid out his compelling case that companies should switch…

Laybuy to List on ASX Boards

Laybuy to List on ASX Boards

Trans-Tasman rivalries are as old as life itself. And there’s another fierce battle brewing, this time in the hottest sector of the last few years: the buy now pay later space, Australian Financial Review…

Cruise CEO Dan Ammann Looks Beyond the Car

Cruise CEO Dan Ammann Looks Beyond the Car

Late last year, the former General Motors president wrote a blog post entitled, “We Need To Move Beyond The Car”. The statement wouldn’t be surprising if it came from the head of the Sierra…

Brand Allbirds Charting Climate-Positive Roadmap

Brand Allbirds Charting Climate-Positive Roadmap

The last four years have been a whirlwind for New Zealander Tim Brown and American Joey Zwillinger, the founders of Allbirds. The company has recently announced that it has filed a Series D round…

Banker Ross McEwan Receives OBE

Banker Ross McEwan Receives OBE

Former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) New Zealander Ross McEwan, whose job at the UK lender was labelled one of the toughest in banking, has been named in the Queen’s…

How Uni Dropout Nick Mowbray Built a Toy Empire

How Uni Dropout Nick Mowbray Built a Toy Empire

The BBC’s weekly ‘The Boss’ series profiles different business leaders from around the world. Last week, the broadcaster’s Virginia Harrison spoke to New Zealander Nick Mowbray, 34, co-founder and co-chief executive of toymaker Zuru. A…