News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Air NZ has “Coolest Airline Paint Job in the World”

Air NZ has “Coolest Airline Paint Job in the World”

Air New Zealand has been judged by Business Insider as having the “coolest airline paint job in the world”, ranked first out of 15 international airlines with striking exterior designs. “As airlines and…

Precious Life Preserved on Ward 3

Precious Life Preserved on Ward 3

The beginnings of plastic surgery during World War II and pioneer New Zealand-born Archie McIndoe’s work with the Guinea Pig Club at Queen Victoria Hospital are related in an excerpt taken from Extreme Medicine: How…

New Zealand “Best-Designed Government in the World”

New Zealand “Best-Designed Government in the World”

New Zealand has the best designed government in the world, American political commentator Dylan Matthews writes for Vox. “The shire has a mighty fine political system,” he jokes. “Recently New Zealand held its 51st general election,…

600-year-old Waka Found in New Zealand

600-year-old Waka Found in New Zealand

An ancient canoe with a sea turtle carving has survived 600 years in the South Island, creating a scientific stir around the world. A study of the waka by University of Auckland researchers appeared yesterday…

New Zealand in Top 10 on Asian Creative Productivity Index

New Zealand in Top 10 on Asian Creative Productivity Index

A new Creative Productivity Index ranks New Zealand sixth out of 22 Asia Pacific countries which are most efficient at turning creative inputs into tangible innovation. The Creative Productivity Index was developed by…

New Zealand Businesses Opening HQs in Texas

New Zealand Businesses Opening HQs in Texas

New Zealand software maker Project Manager Online Ltd., founded by Jason Westland (pictured), has opened a headquarters in the United States in Austin, Texas with plans to employ at least 80 workers within two…

Kiwi Startup Coco’s Coconut Co Picked up by Givenchy

Kiwi Startup Coco’s Coconut Co Picked up by Givenchy

Coco’s Coconut Co, a small Kiwi startup that produces a premium brand of coconut water called CoAqua, has landed a deal with French fashion brand Givenchy to be their in-store drink. CoAqua will soon be…

Scientists Closing to Breeding Eco-friendly Sheep

Scientists Closing to Breeding Eco-friendly Sheep

Scientists at New Zealand’s AgResearch and the US Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute have moved a step closer to developing a breed of sheep that belches less methane as part of a quest…

Expert Hacker Debugging the World’s Software

Expert Hacker Debugging the World’s Software

One of Google’s “secret team of bug-hunting hackers” is New Zealander Ben Hawkes. Part of the group known as Project Zero, a group of top Google security researchers with the sole mission of tracking…

Chandler Betting Big on Energy in Africa and Asia

Chandler Betting Big on Energy in Africa and Asia

New Zealand-born billionaire Richard Chandler, 55, is counting on gas and oil in far-flung locales from Papua New Guinea to Kenya and Ethiopia, banking on demand from Asia’s growing middle class. Chandler is amassing a…

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Tops 2.5 Million Players

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Tops 2.5 Million Players

Game designer Dean Hall, 33, has announced that his zombie survival game “DayZ” has reached more than 2.5 million players since its launch in December last year. Prague-based developer Bohemia Interactive recently delayed update 0.49,…

Newly Discovered Asteroid to Fly Over New Zealand

Newly Discovered Asteroid to Fly Over New Zealand

An asteroid is set to pass Earth closest to New Zealand, at a distance of just 25,000 miles, this weekend. Asteroid 2014 RC was discovered by astronomers on 31 August and will pass New Zealand…

Maggie Bolger’s Hip London Kids Club a Soho House for Parents

Maggie Bolger’s Hip London Kids Club a Soho House for Parents

Maggie Bolger and Rose van Cutsem are, on the face of it, unlikely friends and business partners. Bolger is a matter-of-fact New Zealander who lives in London, while van Cutsem — née Astor —…

Young Kiwi Entrepreneurs Win FedEx Competition

Young Kiwi Entrepreneurs Win FedEx Competition

Two teams from New Zealand won both first and second place at the FedEx Express/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge Asia Pacific, in which students in the region competed with business plans for a beauty…

Vista – New Zealand’s International Software Firm – Rising

Vista – New Zealand’s International Software Firm – Rising

New Zealand’s next big software company Vista Group climbed as much as 3 per cent on its first day of trading, after raising $92.6 million in its IPO last month. The New Zealand-based…

Gym President Sarah Robb O’Hagan Recommends Mindfulness

Gym President Sarah Robb O’Hagan Recommends Mindfulness

Sarah Robb O’Hagan, president of America’s Equinox fitness chain, believes in the links between exercise and confidence, and beauty and strength. Not surprisingly, the New Zealander is also a tri-athlete. But O’Hagan wasn’t always…

Allpress Espresso Takes Its Beans to Tokyo

Allpress Espresso Takes Its Beans to Tokyo

New Zealand coffee roasting company Allpress Espresso is expanding their international chain opening an operation in the Tokyo suburb of Kiba. Allpress has also secured 17 wholesale supply accounts in Japan. Japan is…

Jonathan Conway Takes Snow Study High into Canadian Rockies

Jonathan Conway Takes Snow Study High into Canadian Rockies

New Zealand scientist Jonathan Conway, who holds a PhD in glaciology and climatology from the University of Otago, is in the Canadian Rockies on a two-year posting at the University of Saskatchewan’s Centre for…

Second Colossal Squid for NZ Museum

Second Colossal Squid for NZ Museum

Seven years after a New Zealand museum captured the world’s attention with the first colossal squid, a second of the mammoth sea creatures has been added to Te Papa’s collection. Wellington scientists are excited by…

Kiwi Students Win Big at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup

Kiwi Students Win Big at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup

A group of aspiring technologists from the University of Auckland have taken out one of three grand prizes and won $50,000 at Microsoft’s Imagine Cup in Seattle. Kiwi team Estimeet won the Innovation category at…

Rocket Lab launches Commercial Space and Satellite Service

Rocket Lab launches Commercial Space and Satellite Service

New Zealand is bracing to get a big slice of the global satellite launch market with its unique space programme getting ready to blast off by 2015. Peter Beck, founder and CEO of private initiative…

Sainsbury’s Invests in Techion Cloud Technology

Sainsbury’s Invests in Techion Cloud Technology

A small New Zealand-based agri-tech company Techion Group have received a research and development fund from UK supermarket giant Sainsbury’s. The grant of 400,000 Euro will go towards further developing Techion’s cloud-based system for diagnosing…

Greg Foran Named New Wal-Mart USA CEO

Greg Foran Named New Wal-Mart USA CEO

Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, has announced New Zealander Greg Foran as CEO of its US business, responsible for 4,700 stores and accounting for 60 percent of the company’s total global revenue of US$476b. Foran,…

Air NZ liberating customers, becomes top profit performer

Air NZ liberating customers, becomes top profit performer

Within the airline industry, Air New Zealand has plenty of admirers, and is now the most profitable in Australasia with expectations of a full-year pre-tax profit of at least $300 million in August, which…

General Motors President Puts Pedal to the Metal

General Motors President Puts Pedal to the Metal

New Zealander Dan Ammann, 42, president of General Motors is one of the fastest drivers in the company, as reported in The Telegraph, and holds a coveted level-six…

Sean MacPherson Lights Up New York’s East Village

Sean MacPherson Lights Up New York’s East Village

New Zealand-born New York hotelier Sean MacPherson’s new hotel The Ludlow is the sixth and largest in his growing empire of soigné, Downtown lodgings and restaurants, reports the New York Observer. The Ludlow…

Kenyan Startup Backup the Internet with a BRCK

Kenyan Startup Backup the Internet with a BRCK

New Zealander Reg Orton, one of Nairobi-based BRCK Inc.’s co-founders, is helping to come up with new commercial products specifically designed to address African problems, namely a “backup generator for the Internet.” About a year…

Hot Pools Home to Useful Bacteria

Hot Pools Home to Useful Bacteria

Researchers from the University of Waikato and GNS Science will search the country’s picturesque hot springs for the next big breakthroughs in science over two-years in what is called the 1000 Springs…

Meet the New Zealander Who Wants to Colonise Mars

Meet the New Zealander Who Wants to Colonise Mars

Wellington-based scientist Hari Mogosanu is unperturbed by crude pop-culture imaginings of Mars, like the 1990 sci-fi classic Total Recall, writes Danielle Street for Vice. Three years ago, the she formed the New Zealand chapter of…

App Turns Colouring Books into 3D Art

App Turns Colouring Books into 3D Art

A kiwi invention is taking the beloved pastime of colouring-in to a whole new, high-tech level, allowing kids’ colouring creations to come to life. New Zealand company Puteko’s colAR Mix app allows users to print,…

Kiwi Doctor to Perform Double Arm Transplant

Kiwi Doctor to Perform Double Arm Transplant

New Zealand Doctor Simon Talbot will lead a surgical team to give a quadruple amputee both his arms back. Will Lautzenheiser, filmmaker and former BU professor, lost all four of his limbs three…

Boeing Delivers First 787-9 Dreamliner to Air New Zealand

Boeing Delivers First 787-9 Dreamliner to Air New Zealand

New Zealand will be home to the first Boeing 787-9 plane after Air New Zealand officially acquired the first of the 10 new models yesterday. “Boeing is proud to have contractually delivered the first 787-9…

Richard Branson Hosts New Zealand Scientist on Private Island

Richard Branson Hosts New Zealand Scientist on Private Island

A New Zealand scientist has spent a week with Richard Branson on his private Caribbean island playing chess, eating sushi and discussing technology and sustainability. Auckland University lecturer Dr Michelle Dickinson was one of eight…

Banking Chief Works on His Communication Skills

Banking Chief Works on His Communication Skills

ANZ Australia chief executive, New Zealander Phil Chronican, is a numbers man who freely admits the “soft skills” have been his biggest challenge. Chronican has had a stellar career in finance, starting out in Treasury…

Gibbs Adds Two-Seater To High-Speed Amphibian Range

Gibbs Adds Two-Seater To High-Speed Amphibian Range

Gibbs Sports Amphibians, founded by New Zealand entrepreneur Alan Gibbs, has added a new high-speed model to the company’s impressive range of amphibious vehicles. The Gibbs Quadski XL model will be added to the lineup…

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Set to Hit Consoles

Zombie Survival Game DayZ Set to Hit Consoles

Popular zombie survival horror game DayZ, designed by New Zealander Dean Hall, may be coming to Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 by the end of 2014. DayZ, which sells between 3000 to 4000…

Dale Murray’s Secret-Sauce Idea for New-Thinking

Dale Murray’s Secret-Sauce Idea for New-Thinking

New Zealand-born entrepreneur Dale Murray found inspiration for her UK mobile phone top-up company, Omega Logic over drinks one night discussing the shortcomings of the IT industry with one of her co-founders. Murray quit a senior…

Whittaker’s Chocolate Officially Enters Malaysian Market

Whittaker’s Chocolate Officially Enters Malaysian Market

Iconic Kiwi company, Whittaker’s Chocolate, is confident they will be the leader in Malaysia’s premium chocolate segment in two years. Whittaker’s, which has been sold in duty-free stores in Malaysia for the past 10 years,…

IT Expert Joins Growing Group of Female Tech Leaders

IT Expert Joins Growing Group of Female Tech Leaders

Dell Australia and New Zealand has appointed Angela Fox as the managing director, making her part of the growing list of female leaders of big technology companies in Australia, including Twitter’s Karen Stocks, Google’s Maile…

Fyfe a Great Fit for Icebreaker

Fyfe a Great Fit for Icebreaker

Rob Fyfe, the man who engineered the turnaround of Air New Zealand after the airline’s Government bailout, is the ideal candidate to take over the reins at Kiwi global outdoor clothing retailer, Icebreaker, says…

Kiwi Company Wins “Fairest Fairtrader” at International Awards in Germany

Kiwi Company Wins “Fairest Fairtrader” at International Awards in Germany

New Zealand company All Good Organics, which imports Fairtrade bananas and produces the Karma Cola drink, has won an international award for their ethically sourced food and beverages. The “Fairest Fairtrader” award was presented to…

Some of the Best Technology Talent in the World

Some of the Best Technology Talent in the World

Bringing New Zealand tech whizz kids to Silicon Valley for a summer of work experience at startup company Pertino is part of CEO Craig Elliot’s plan to strengthen the global IT community. Elliott, who was…

Making Eco Available to Every Body

Making Eco Available to Every Body

For the past twenty years, New Zealand entrepreneur Malcolm Rands has run Ecostore – his plant-based detergents and body products company. Now stocked nationwide, in over 1800 supermarkets throughout Australia, as well as in…

Glassholes Switched off with Google Glass Detector

Glassholes Switched off with Google Glass Detector

Julian Oliver, a New Zealand artist living in Berlin, is cutting off people accessing Wi-Fi with Google Glass with his new detector, reports WIRED magazine. Oliver has written a simple program called Glasshole.sh that detects…

Advancing Our Reputation on the World Stage

Advancing Our Reputation on the World Stage

Four internationally successful New Zealanders – digital entrepreneur Claudia Batten (pictured), Shrek director Andrew Adamson, investor Neville Jordan, surgical robotics technologist Dr Catherine Mohr – have been celebrated for advancing our reputation on the…

Frost Boss Wins Prize for Innovative Farming Wind Machine

Frost Boss Wins Prize for Innovative Farming Wind Machine

New Zealand engineer Kim McAulay’s portable frost protection fan – the Tow & Blow – has taken out Victoria’s 2014 Mildura Field Day Innovation in Horticulture award. According to the company’s website, the Tow &…

Picton: The Place Where Jurassic Fossils Still Live

Picton: The Place Where Jurassic Fossils Still Live

A sea animal thought extinct for four million years has been rediscovered in, of all places, Picton, New Zealand. Previously unknown outside of Europe and the Middle East, fossilised remains of the sea animal…

American Focus on New Zealand Start-Ups

American Focus on New Zealand Start-Ups

Rod Drury has revealed his secret for New Zealand’s start-up success: “global from day one”. Xero founder and entrepreneur Rod Drury told the Wall Street Journal that New Zealand’s small domestic customer base means the…

World’s Number One Innovator: Xero

World’s Number One Innovator: Xero

Influential US business media Forbes has declared New Zealand start-up Xero as the world’s most innovative growth company, beating out much bigger and well-established companies, ASOS and NetSuite. The Wellington-based cloud accounting firm, which has…

Engineering Company Buys US Robotics Business

Engineering Company Buys US Robotics Business

Dunedin-based engineering company Scott Technology Limited, which has been operating in New Zealand for 100 years, has purchased Ohio industrial robot integrator RobotWorx, providing Scott with a strong strategic base to increase its market…

On the Hunt for a Prized Mollusc

On the Hunt for a Prized Mollusc

In Otago, a group of recreational fishermen are about to go on their regular autumn hunt for shellfish, but it is not just any mollusc that they’re after. They are looking for a humble…

Burger Company to Start Grillin’ in the US

Burger Company to Start Grillin’ in the US

This year, New Zealand fast-food chain BurgerFuel is undertaking an ambitious expansion plan in the crowded American market through a partnership with Subway restaurants, an industry giant, the New York Times reports. Inside the Grey…

Lord of the Rings Triggers Kiwi Tech ‘Success Story’

Lord of the Rings Triggers Kiwi Tech ‘Success Story’

Microsoft has bought a Wellington cloud computing business that can trace its origin to the Lord of the Rings movies. The software giant has snapped up GreenButton, which has 18 staff, for an undisclosed amount….

New Zealander’s Honest Brew to Swap Beers for Bitcoins

New Zealander’s Honest Brew to Swap Beers for Bitcoins

UK-based online beer platform Honest Brew has added bitcoin to its list of payment methods. Honest Brew was started up in London by Andrew Reeve, a New Zealander who had long been a fan of…

Posse Founder Declares Business Barriers Imaginary

Posse Founder Declares Business Barriers Imaginary

Music industry entrepreneur and founder of social search engine Posse.com Wellingtonian Rebekah Campbell draws from her childhood to discuss how barriers to success are imaginary in a recent blog posting. “As a 13-year-old…

World’s First Jetpack Prepares for Commercial Sales

World’s First Jetpack Prepares for Commercial Sales

A New Zealand-based company is now close to making the jetpack only seen in science fiction movies a reality as the Civil Aviation Authority in the country has approved test…