Honouring the Historic for Business Sake
“Even if you’re familiar with the All Blacks, you probably still weren’t aware of their dominant 77 per cent winning percentage against the planet over the last century. What you’re probably familiar with is…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Allbirds’ Tim Brown on Team Dynamics
New Zealander Tim Brown, 38, didn’t have the typical resume of a hotshot Silicon Valley entrepreneur when he co-founded his shoe startup Allbirds in 2016, but he knew firsthand how to put together a…
Eco-Star Cristina McLauchlan Spreads the Word
New Zealand-born Hong Kong-based wellness advocate Cristina McLauchlan aims to achieve sustainability in all aspects of her life, but she has seen enough of the world to understand that a waste-free society is highly…
Weta Digital Receives Significant Investment
Napster co-founder and former Facebook president Sean Parker has invested in film director Peter Jackson’s Wellington-based visual effects studio, Weta Digital, Fortune magazine reports. Weta Digital has contributed work on a number of blockbuster films…
Entrepreneur Steve Ashby Helping Others Start Up
New Zealander Steve Ashby tells Dubai-based newspaper The National that he launched his start-up Businessmentals in the UAE in 2017 with one clear ambition: to provide other would-be entrepreneurs with everything they needed to…
National Australia Bank Hires RBS Head Ross McEwan
National Australia Bank (NAB) has appointed the New Zealander who oversaw Royal Bank of Scotland’s lengthy restructuring as its new chief executive, Daniel Shane and Jamie Smyth report for the Financial Times. Melbourne-based NAB,…
New Culture Making Cow Cheese Without Cows
Head of Silicon Valley-based food startup New Culture, New Zealander Matt Gibson, founded the company because he didn’t like the non-dairy options on the market, according to a story by Larissa Zimberoff published online…
How the Gig Economy Worked for Sue McLachlan
New Zealand-born mother-of-two Sue McLachlan is pursuing her passion in the gig economy and making a comfortable amount of money after the collapse of her cloth nappy company business. Yahoo Finance reports on how…
Modulation Effects Man Lee Nicholson Talks Business
Dunedin boutique effects maker Lee Nicholson has earned a reputation for creating innovative modulation-based analogue effects with digital brains that blend sonic experimentalism with ease of use. Josh Gardner at Guitar.com spoke to him…
Hilton Boss Alan Watts Sets His Sights on India
Alan Watts, Asia-Pacific president of iconic hotel brand Hilton, which turns 100 this month, is bullish on India, Ashish Gupta writes for Fortune. New Zealand-born Watts joined Hilton in January 2018 after a 20-year…
High Hopes for the Town of Ruatoria
New Zealand medicinal business, Hikurangi Cannabis is looking to secure its slice of the “cannabusiness”, all while empowering the marginalised community of Ruatoria and allowing it to create wealth from within. Anna Watanabe reports…
Allbirds Is Just Flat out Busy
Allbirds’ first distinctly feminine silhouette has just been released. Shannon Fitzgerald reports on the new line, a brightly-hued ballet flat called The Tree Breezer, for Fortune magazine. The flat is constructed from an extremely light…
Mental Health Means Business for Hannah Hardy-Jones
A new wave of female entrepreneurs who are using their own experiences of mental health to help others feature in Forbes, including New Zealander Hannah Hardy-Jones, founder of The Kite Program, “the world’s first…
Rachel Carrell Fixing Broken UK Childcare System
There are a dozen different words that Rachel Carrell can think of to describe the challenges of finding childcare for parents in the UK. None of them are positive. “It’s exhausting, expensive, overwhelming, stressful…
Virgin CEO Josh Bayliss Reflects on Climate Action
New Zealand-born Josh Bayliss, CEO of multi-billion-pound brand the Virgin Group, which holds a stake in Virgin Atlantic, discusses with BusinessGreen journalist Michael Holder how corporates should respond to consumer outcry over climate change. There…
Ross McEwan Completes RBS Turnaround
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc’s top banker, New Zealander Ross McEwan, will leave the state-backed lender within a year, Bloomberg reports. The bank will start searching for chief executive officer McEwan’s replacement immediately, according…
Software Startup AskNicely Moves to Portland
Auckland-founded software startup AskNicely has moved its headquarters to Portland, Oregon. The company’s technology is designed to help clients improve customer satisfaction and it opened its Portland outpost in 2017 and now employs 35…
Paul Clews in Legal Team Dealing to Risky Bonds
A legal duo made up of New Zealander Paul Clews, 41, and American Sabrina Fox, 42, lead the newly formed European Leveraged Finance Alliance (ELFA), a group trying to raise standards in Europe’s junk…
Menstrual Company Hello Cup Expands into US
New Zealand menstrual cup brand Hello Cup, co-founded by Robyn McLean and best friend Mary Bond, has signed a deal with American clothing brand Urban Outfitters. From the end of this month, Hello Cup will…
Laybuy Continues its Move onto UK Platforms
Laybuy, which was co-founded by Gary Rohloff and his son Alex, is a New Zealand company that’s trying to bring a new payment model to the UK. It’s based on a model known as “layby”,…
Māori Business Revaluing the Past
Global businesses should heed traditional, indigenous knowledge to better protect land, honour old customs and boost profits, participants at a Wakatū Incorporation conference in Wellington said last week. Instead of a wasteful “take, make and…
Travel the World Like Influencer Alex Gillespie
New Zealand-born Instagram travel guru Alex Gillespie has amassed over 54k followers on Instagram over recent years, and has made a living travelling the world. He’s one of those enviable people who seems to…
New CMO Role at TRI Pointe for Linda Mamet
One of America’s largest homebuilders, California-based TRI Pointe Group, announced last week that New Zealander Linda Mamet has been named chief marketing officer. In her role as vice president of corporate marketing for the past…
Tim Topham Drills Through Adversity
New Zealanders Tim Topham and his brother had little to show for their business dream in 2006, spending their nights on mattresses in their newly purchased yard in Boulder, Western Australia. By day they…
Lonely Lingerie One of the Labels Changing Lingerie
“Lingerie is set to become a $59 billion market globally by 2024, up from $38 billion in 2017, according to Zion Market Research. And as sales grow, tastes also appear to be shifting,” writes…
Laybuy Partners with Footasylum to Mark UK Launch
“New Zealand-based ‘buy now, pay later’ platform Laybuy has marked its official UK launch by announcing a partnership with high street brand Footasylum,” George Nixon reports for The Daily Mail. “Online…
Samuel Wilkes Rolls Out New Business in Manila
Serving handcrafted ice cream in Bali, Indonesia since 2017, XOXO has now opened branches in Manila. “We opened here at Greenbelt 3 in October of last year,” says Samuel Wilkes, the New Zealand-born co-founder…
Zero-Waste Advocate Kate Mercurio Starts with Soap
Having grown fed up with watching her children play among plastic rubbish on Hong Kong beaches, New Zealand-born Kate Mercurio decided to tackle the issue head on – one bar of soap at a…
Allbirds Taking Viral Wool Tennis Shoe to China
Allbirds Inc., the wool shoe startup co-founded by New Zealander Tim Brown that’s become a staple of Silicon Valley fashion, is opening its first stores in China, aiming to replicate its viral success in…
Virgin’s CE Josh Bayliss Brings Focus to Group
The first tickets went on sale last week for Virgin Voyages, a Miami-based cruise operator aiming to launch the first of the four ships it is building early next year. Followed by a group…
Entrepreneur Phil Richards Exchanges Ideas
New Zealand-born Phil Richards, author of The Entrepreneurial Accountant, straddles two worlds. Part qualified accountant, part tech pioneer, he outlines his formula for success in both areas. Most would think anyone tagged with the moniker…
Luxury Hotel Manager Tapa Tibble Heads to Bahamas
Late last year, New Zealander Tapa Tibble was named the Singapore-founded COMO Hotels and Resorts managing director of the Americas, meaning he’ll oversee operations in Turks and Caicos and Miami, and help lead spearhead…
Rachel Carrell Not Your Average Venture Capitalist
New Zealand-born Rachel Carrell cut an unusual figure when touring venture capital firms to raise funds for her childcare company. “You’re quite a spectacle when you are nine months pregnant. And I suspect if…
Malware Doesn’t Sleep and nor Does Emsisoft
Christian Mairoll is the CEO of malware protection business Emsisoft – a New Zealand-based company with no offices, where every single one of his 40 or so employees works remotely, including Mairoll who works…
CoAqua Snapped Up by Gywneth Paltrow’s Goop Store
New Zealand coconut water brand, CoAqua has caught the eye of actor Gwyneth Paltrow and her team at Goop, her international “lifestyle” store. The store, which offers “cutting-edge wellness advice from doctors, vetted travel recommendations,…
Ed Mumm’s Earthmoving Fun to Franchise
New Zealand-born Ed Mumm is the founder of Dig This LLC, a hands-on excavating experience in Las Vegas unlike any other where people from 8 to 108 can operate heavy machinery just as if…
IKEA to Open in New Zealand
IKEA Group, the world’s biggest furniture retailer, is expanding into New Zealand – even as it faces stiff competition worldwide from online outlets and traditional department stores that are branching out into home furnishing. IKEA…
New Zealand Tech Companies Making It Big in US
As Peter Jackson has shown, it’s perfectly possible to do things on a global scale from New Zealand. But the big money, support and collaboration with other scientists overseas can be a powerful lure,…
Maru Nihoniho One of Forbes’ Top 50 Women in Tech
Metia Interactive founder and managing director, Maru Nihoniho, has been named one of the Top 50 Women in Technology by Forbes. “Founding Metia Interactive in 2003, Nihoniho…
RBS Boss Ross McEwan Addresses Brexit
Ross McEwan surprised markets in October when Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc made a provision related to Brexit. With Theresa May’s divorce deal from the European Union potentially days away from being defeated,…
Laybuy Founders Take Company to New Heights
New Zealander Gary Rohloff had a great life working in corporate before he co-founded Laybuy, a retail payments platform he started with his son Alex. So why ‘go it alone’? The UK’s Real Business…
Hong Kong-based Anthony Somerset Loves the Outdoors
Making highly urbanised, bright young people feel uncomfortable outdoors is what 52-year-old New Zealand-born Anthony Somerset has done for the last three years, having taken over A Team EdVentures in…
How Allbirds Became a $1.4 Billion Company
“If you started a company that was valued at $1.4 billion after just two years, you’d probably be pretty proud–of the valuation, your product, and yourself,” writes Cameron Albert-Deitch in an article for
Dan Ammann to Lead Cruise Self-Driving Car Unit
“Days after General Motors CEO Mary Barra unveiled a major restructuring”, “the auto giant said President Dan Ammann will be the new head of its Cruise self-driving car company, which she says is key…
Can Marijuana Save Ruatoria?
As New Zealand prepares to legalise the production of medicinal cannabis, companies are racing to secure the first and biggest slices of a market that has proved lucrative in the United States and Canada….
Chicken Magnate Morgan McGlone Looks to Asia
New Zealand-born chef Morgan McGlone, 44, owner of Belles Hot Chicken, a chain of seven fried chicken shops in Sydney and Melbourne, was recently in Singapore promoting his wares in a pop-up restaurant at the city’s…
NZ is a Nice Place to be a Female Entrepreneur
“During my trip to New Zealand, from Queenstown in the Southern Alps all the way north to the Bay of Islands, I felt like I was on journey to discover successful women in business….
Jake Millar & Yuuki Ogino Make Forbes ’30 Under 30′
Jake Millar and Yuuki Ogino, the founders of global education platform Unfiltered, “have been named on Forbes Magazine’s “30 under 30” list of individuals in education to watch in North America,” as reported…
Tim Brown’s Allbirds Now a Global Brand
“Coming from New Zealand, the land of 27 million sheep, the idea of wool in footwear seemed like one of those things that should have been done and never had been,” Allbirds co-founder Tim…
Epic Fly Rods in Demand All over the Globe
A fiberglass fly rod made by the Wanaka-based Swift Fly Fishing Company is in hot demand all over the world, according to a recent TVNZ report. “We’ve got rods in probably every continent of the…
Koru’s Rachel Carrell Says Invest in Women
Tech startups and investment remain fairly homogeneous, with ethnic minority and female founders still in the minority. One early-stage UK venture capital firm, Forward Partners, is releasing diversity statistics for its startups for the…
Air NZ and French to Develop Electric Aircraft
Air New Zealand and the French plane manufacturer Avions de Transport Regional (ATR) have signed an agreement to explore the possibility of using hybrid or electric aircraft on our domestic and regional routes. Under the…
Gibbs Amphibians to Establish Humdinga Assembly Subsidiary In Qatar
“Gibbs Amphibians (Gibbs) is establishing a strategic partnership with the Madaeen Al Doha Group for the supply and assembly of the Gibbs Humdinga amphibian vehicles,” as reported in The Gulf…
Dropping in on Designer Wayne Sørensen
“Content might be king, but hype is currently retail’s high priest,” according to Forbes contributor Katie Baron, who explores “drop culture” in a feature for the publication. “Luxury is caressing streetwear tactics to stay…
How GM Went From Bankrupt to One of the World’s Best-Run Car Companies
“A decade after the financial crisis, General Motors is led by the best management team it’s ever had and one of the best C-suites in all of business. CEO Mary Barra, President Dan Ammann…
Banker Ross McEwan Cuts to the Chase
When New Zealander Ross McEwan dropped in for a surprise visit to a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branch in London last month, he was appalled by how scruffy it looked. “It needs a…
