China Tilapia Supplier Expanding His Farms
“New Zealander Jason Carter always knew he was an entrepreneur at heart, but running a fully vertically integrated tilapia business in China was not exactly what he planned on when he travelled…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Dreamliner Flying in the Face of Convention
16 April 2014 – The newly painted, and “stunning”, black Air New Zealand 787-9 is literally flying in the face of convention, according to Los Angeles Times travel editor Catharine Hamm. “The Dreamliner,…
Famed US Business Thinker Lauds NZ Anchor Company
Fourth generation family sea anchor business WA Coppins, a Port of Nelson-based company, has made a big splash with one of the world’s most influential business thinkers, American author Tom Peters. Peters, author…
Signing up as Finance Director at Bank of Scotland
The Royal Bank of Scotland has hired New Zealander Ewen Stevenson, of Credit Suisse, as its new finance director, to help restore the health of the part-nationalised bank, which lost 8.2 billion pounds last…
Wipster Launches Video Software at SXSW Festival
Wellington-based start-up Wipster has launched its video sharing software platform globally, just over a year after being founded by New Zealand filmmaker Rollo Wenlock. Wipster allows editors to share their…
Peter Thiel Invests Big in POS Software Provider Vend
New Zealand point of sale, cloud-based software provider Vend has new investors – Peter Thiel, the PayPal cofounder and the first outside investor in Facebook, is among a group that has agreed…
New Zealand’s Dusty Landscapes Explain Ice Age Cooling
3 April 2014 – New Zealand’s iron-rich dust is helping scientists explain how the Earth cooled after the last Ice Age. Scientists travelled to the Southern Alps in an expedition to gather dust samples…
Talking to an Angel for Start-Up Investment Tips
Award-winning angel investor, New Zealand-born technology entrepreneur Dale Murray talks to British publication Director magazine about the best path to take in order to secure start-up investment or to fund the crucial…
Knittable Sensor Could Revolutionise Bandages
Simon McMaster, a New Zealand-born inventor and chemist, has developed a new knittable, wearable sensor, which could lead to the creation of bandages that measure their own tightness. The sensor will be demonstrated for…
Public Response to Climate Engineering Tested
Averting mass economic and social upheaval from looming climate change will likely require forms of climate engineering to supplement existing energy efficiency and emissions control programs. Climate engineering is the…
Not Since 1974: Kiwi Dollar to Hit Parity with Aussie
The last time it happened Dick Taylor won gold at the 10,000m Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, Hone Tuwhare was awarded the Robert Burns Fellowship for poetry and Bunny Walters topped the charts with his…
Get out of Your Routine, Says Fitness Exec
Sarah Robb O’Hagan, president of American luxury fitness company Equinox Fitness, is one of six luminaries invited by the Wall Street Journal to weigh in on the question of power. The New Zealander is…
Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson Quadskis into Lake Como
Jeremy Clarkson, host of hit BBC show Top Gear, recently drove the New Zealand-designed Quadski, described as “the world’s first personal sports amphibian” vehicle, into Italy’s Lake Como in a race against co-presenter Richard…
Virgin Media Boss Building Company up from the Top
The boss of Virgin Media, New Zealander Tom Mockridge, a former senior lieutenant in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, has been busy since he was installed as chief executive last June. For much of the…
Wellington Crema the Crop!
Wellington, home of the flat white, has been named one of the world’s 8 great coffee cities by CNN, in a list which also includes roasting heavy weights Melbourne, Rome and Seattle. There’s…
Air NZ Soars Above Qantas
The last time Air New Zealand invested in the Australian aviation market, the airline required a Government bail-out to stave off bankruptcy as its subsidiary Ansett fell apart. This time round, it’s Air New…
Promoting an Egalitarian Workplace with a Global Approach
Originally from Hastings, Todd Lauchlan, 41, is Indonesia country head at property consulting company Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL). He talks with the Jakarta Post about his role at the firm and how an egalitarian…
Serial Entrepreneur Forging His Own Online Spice Routes
New Zealand-born James Lillis, 37, is the founder of Black Milk, “one of the fastest-growing Australian clothing companies you’ve never heard of, selling more than 1000 garments a day,” Glenda Korporaal writes in a…
Xero Eyes 29 Million US Small Businesses
Wellington-based accounting software maker Xero signals a major push in the United States market, with appointment of former and current executives from Microsoft, HP and PayPal in a move analysts say could foreshadow a…
NZ Farm the Basis for Winning London Butchery
Nothing tastes better than grass-fed beef and lamb, as anyone raised on a New Zealand farm can tell you. But for those poor souls who flew the coop in search of a different life…
Toxicologist Claims Alexander the Great Died from Poisoned Wine
National Poisons Centre toxicologist Dr Leo Schep may have unravelled the mystery surrounding the death of Greek king Alexander the Great, who died at 32 in 323BC. Schep thinks the culprit could be poisonous wine…
National Australia Bank Appoints Tech Whizz Geraldine McBride
Victoria University-educated Geraldine McBride, founder and chief executive of software company MyWave, has been appointed director of National Australia Bank (NAB) and will join the board in March. McBride’s appointment is a clear demonstration of…
Computers Number One Risk to Humanity Says NZ Scientist
In 2011, New Zealander Shane Legg, co-founder of London-based DeepMind, the artificial intelligence company acquired last week by Google for some US$500 million, made an ominous prediction more befitting a ranting survivalist than an…
Insurance Boss Marks One-Year Anniversary at Helm with SE Asia Deal
Chief executive officer of Britain’s second-largest insurer Aviva, New Zealander Mark Wilson, has marked his one-year anniversary at the company targeting high-growth markets in Southeast Asia. This month Aviva formed a joint venture with…
World’s First Flower Vending Machine Opens in London Tube Station
New Zealand-born film production designer Andrew McAlpine has launched Rockflower, the world’s first flower retail and vending kiosk on the forecourt of London’s Blackfriars Underground station. Trading has been going very well so far, says Rockflower founder and…
Top Innovation Prize Goes to Kiwi
Auckland-based designer Nelson Rayner has won an international prize for innovation run by Google and the Advertising Club of New York. Rayner, Australian-born but raised in New Zealand, won the Young Innovators Award for…
Nautical Hot Rod Breaches like a Whale
It looks like an Orca breaching the water in pursuit of its favourite stingray prey. But it is in fact the high performance “hot rod for the water” that is the brainchild of California-based…
Zombie Game Downloaded a Million times One Year Before Launch
New Zealand-born game designer Dean Hall’s online zombie thriller DayZ has been downloaded one million times, barely a month after its “alpha” launch on PC gaming service Steam, Guardian games blogger Keith…
Forensic Software Invention Transforming DNA Gathering
A New Zealand forensic software invention is changing crime scene investigation across the world, meaning that for the first time police can take samples containing DNA profiles of up to four individuals without reference…
NY Google Internship Awarded to Hamilton Man
Hamilton man Boris Pfahringer has secured an internship with Google and will spend 14 weeks at the search giant’s New York office in Manhattan. Pfahringer – who has just graduated with a bachelor of computing…
New Zealand Outpaces Crawling World Economy
In a world still limping its way out of the global financial crisis, The Wall Street Journal has written that New Zealand’s economy is looking remarkably zippy – and even outdoing our much larger…
What’s Not to like about Grown Men Dancing?
English socialite and sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, Pippa Middleton, who prefers “rugger” to soccer, explains the game to Vanity Fair readers in the latest issue of the magazine, mentioning the “battle cry”…
AJ Hackett Heads to Russia for Ever Bigger Thrills
New Zealand bungy kingpin AJ Hackett will set multiple records in Russia this year, when the world’s highest swing, the world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge (550m) and a double-ended flying fox open as part…
Auckland Amped with New Trains
Monocle radars Auckland as a “City to Watch” on the international stage in 2014, primarily stimulated by the forthcoming launch of a fleet of 57 electric trains as part of a billion dollar rail…
London Investment Bank Chief has Never Lost Ties to NZ
Investment bank chief executive New Zealander Kent Gardner, who runs London-based Evans Randall, has been living in the United Kingdom for more than a decade and says he never lost ties to…
Make Your Customers a Promise Says Entrepreneur
New Zealand-born business speaker and global entrepreneur Carl Bates was recently in Cape Town addressing business owners at a Business Partners seminar on the difference between product and promise in business. “My favourite example…
Royal Bank of Scotland Head Gets Back to Basics
Asked about possible job cuts for the 125,000 staff of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), New Zealander Ross McEwan turns the question to what jobs are needed for the bank to better serve…
New Zealand’s Ongoing Brain Drain
New Zealand is no stranger to the ‘brain drain’ phenomenon, having experienced substantial losses of highly skilled talent for decades. The country is now at the point where the Organization for Economic Cooperation and…
Local Video Game Makers among Best in the World
New Zealand video game makers have been lauded in major international “Best of 2013” lists, with West Auckland-based Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile winning GameSpot’s PC Game of the Year Award and…
New Zealand’s cows come home in its own commodities boom
The Chinese consumer market’s demand for quality milk products is fuelling New Zealand’s economic growth. Senior Australian economics correspondent Michael Pascoe outlines 2014 economic prospects for New Zealand, based significantly around a “one commodity…
Fonterra takes Anchor brand to China
Four months on from August’s botulism scare, New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has launched their Anchor brand into the Chinese market. The brand, which is endorsed by Chinese actress Hu Ke, is being touted a…
Strong Brand and the Product’s the Real Deal
Lewis Road Creamery, located at Green Valley Dairy, Mangatawhiri in the Waikato, is included in the “The Monocle 100” list as one of the “innovative minds behind global food production.” “Until last year, the…
State of the Art Voyage to the Deep
New Zealand and Japanese scientists joined forces on a recent expedition to explore underwater mountains and volcanoes 1000km northeast of the country around the Louisville Seamount Chain and the Kermadec Arc. From the research…
Ammann named GM President
New Zealander Dan Ammann, 41, General Motors’ Chief Financial Officer, has been promoted to President of GM. He will manage the company’s regional operations around the world, as well as the Chevrolet…
Global Recognition for Biofuels Pioneer
Loss-making biofuels innovator LanzaTech’s quest to raise more capital next year has been given a boost after it was named second “hottest” biotech company in the world. Industry bible Biofuels Digest also named the…
For a Vessel You Can Trust
Three “nautical pros” of New Zealand’s multi-million dollar boat building industry feature in “The Monocle 100” special supplement of “things to sample experience and discuss.” “While Emirates Team New Zealand lost the America’s Cup in…
NZ Innovation Shines on World Stage
New Zealand’s reputation for world-leading innovation has been significantly burnished in the latest Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific Index, which ranks the top 500 tech companies across the region based on triennial revenue…
One of the World’s Top 99 Greatest Investors
Sir Ron Brierley has been included in Swedish hedge fund manager Magnus Angenfelt’s book, The World’s 99 Greatest Investors, which will be released in Australia later this year. The New Zealander is named alongside many…
Ice Telescope to Reveal Secrets of the Universe
27 November 2013 – University of Canterbury scientists are using a telescope pointed at the earth’s interior over 2000m below the surface of ice in Antarctica to study tiny particles in the hope of…
By the Pricking of my Bubbles …
The Reserve Bank’s new loan value ratios restricting bank mortgage lending has, it’s fair to say, got a mixed press back home. But internationally, the policy initiative is generating excited commentary about the correct…
Driving the Kiwi Economy
Many strange things are used to measure economic growth and decline: the lipstick economy, the horse-trading economy, the Playboy economy (curves in recession, skinny in boom times) and even underwear, as Fed chairman Alan Greenspan…
Don’t Beat the Currency War Drums Yet
The drums of war have been beating for two years now. With America, Britain and Japan printing money and the Euro zone considering unprecedented zero interest rates, the other tradable currencies – especially New…
Sweet News for NZ Winemakers
Global demand for wine is outstripping supply, meaning prices for New Zealand wine in export markets are likely to increase, according to a new report by US financial services firm, Morgan Stanley. Production of…
Aussies Envious at NZ’s Hot IPO Market
There are not many things in which New Zealand enjoys a marked superiority to Australia. Rugby and … It’s a short list. But for the last year, the trans-Tasman economic powerhouse has been casting…
Cambridge Cycle Path Has a Mind of Its Own
Hamish Scott’s “glowing, seemingly self-aware bike path” is being tested in Christ’s Pieces park in Cambridge. The New Zealander’s “Starpath” is a type of solar-enhanced liquid and aggregate made by UK-based Pro-Teq Surfacing, which…
Grand Theft Auto Five Developer Requests NZ Audio Input
New Zealand-based technology company Arvus Digital has confirmed that Grand Theft Auto Five (GTA5) developer RockStarNorth used its unique audio technology High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) to AES/EBU digital audio converter the HDMI-2A. Arvus…
