News of New Zealanders via Global Media

Luxe Fisher & Paykel Appliances Appeal in LA

Luxe Fisher & Paykel Appliances Appeal in LA

“If you have a ‘Kitchen Porn’ board on Pinterest, and your idea of a perfect Saturday afternoon is drooling over showpiece ranges and luxe dishwashing drawers, then welcome to your new favourite place to…

Grant Phelps’ Chilean Hotel a Sustainable Paradise

Grant Phelps’ Chilean Hotel a Sustainable Paradise

New Zealand-born winemaker Grant Phelps has just opened WineBox, a wine-focused hotel in the city of Valparaíso, Chile constructed out of 25 decommissioned shipping containers. Set on a former micro landfill in Cerro Mariposa (or…

Michael James Wong Helps Men Find New Masculinity

Michael James Wong Helps Men Find New Masculinity

Boys of Yoga founder New Zealander Michael James Wong, 32, is interviewed by Sunday Times correspondent Stuart Heritage for an article about the growing popularity of lifestyle sites for men. Wong describes himself as a…

Chris Liddell Named White House Deputy Chief Of Staff For Policy Coordination

Chris Liddell Named White House Deputy Chief Of Staff For Policy Coordination

“Christopher Liddell has been named the deputy chief of staff for policy coordination, the White House announced Monday morning,” writes Jenna Johnson in an article for The Washington Post. “Liddell, a…

Flying Taxis Secretly Tested In New Zealand

Flying Taxis Secretly Tested In New Zealand

Silicon Valley-based flying car start-up “Kitty Hawk, backed by Google founder Larry Page, has been secretly testing an electric autonomous aircraft for several months in New Zealand, the company revealed…

Auckland Airport Testing AI Avatar Service

Auckland Airport Testing AI Avatar Service

“New Zealand’s Auckland Airport is testing the use of an onscreen avatar to answer biosecurity questions from travellers in a bid to reduce the workload of airport officials,” writes Aaron Tan in an article…

Scientists Assess Surprise Status of Ross Ice Shelf

Scientists Assess Surprise Status of Ross Ice Shelf

New Zealand scientists have peered into one of the least-explored swaths of ocean on Earth, a vast region located off the coast of West Antarctica. It is locked beneath a crust of ice larger…

Fossil Poop Reveals Critical Role of Giant Birds in NZ’S Ecosystem

Fossil Poop Reveals Critical Role of Giant Birds in NZ’S Ecosystem

“When the first humans landed on what is now known as New Zealand 700 years ago, they didn’t find mammals. Instead, they discovered giant birds called moas, as well as a host of other…

Virgin Media’s Tom Mockridge Connects UK Homes

Virgin Media’s Tom Mockridge Connects UK Homes

Virgin Media, with New Zealander Tom Mockridge at the helm, has connected more than a million homes to its ultrafast broadband network, in the latest sign that the roll-out of high-speed internet services is…

Peter Beck’s Mission to Conquer Space

Peter Beck’s Mission to Conquer Space

Rocket Lab entrepreneur Peter Beck’s recent launch into orbit of the 65-sided, carbon-fibre satellite Humanity Star drew a barrage of flak from scientists. But the New Zealander remains undaunted. Beck explains his decision to Ian…

New Zealand Publicly Funds HIV Protection Drug

New Zealand Publicly Funds HIV Protection Drug

New Zealand is about to take a pioneering approach to fighting HIV/AIDS – by publicly funding pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) medication Truvada, manufactured by US biotech giant Gilead. Taking this drug daily has shown to offer…

London’s Frame Gym Finds Private Equity Backing

London’s Frame Gym Finds Private Equity Backing

Frame gym, founded by New Zealander Joan Murphy, 36, (pictured right) and Briton Pip Black, 35, offers pay-as-you-go membership and classes, from ballet-inspired barre workouts to kitsch 1990s-style aerobics – imagine headbands, neon and…

Why the Tech Elite Love New Zealand

Why the Tech Elite Love New Zealand

This year, Rocket Lab plans to blast a 56-foot vehicle into orbit on a mission to revolutionize access to space. The rocket “was manufactured in Auckland and will launch from New Zealand’s Mahia Peninsula,”…

Neville Crichton has Transformed Sailing Industry

Neville Crichton has Transformed Sailing Industry

New Zealand born and bred, Neville Crichton’s humble beginning on a farm in the South Island is a far cry from where he is today, 72 years later. Crichton is the executive chairman of one…

Rocket Lab Launches the Humanity Star

Rocket Lab Launches the Humanity Star

The glittering Humanity Star satellite, which may be the brightest object in the night sky, serves no purpose other than to “make people look up and realise they are on a rock in a…

NZ Women’s Fund Launched

NZ Women’s Fund Launched

“In a country celebrated for women’s leadership and where women were first to win the vote, it’s surprising to find a shortage of philanthropic funds by women, for women,” reports an article published in…

Aviva Fixer Mark Wilson on First Five Years in Role

Aviva Fixer Mark Wilson on First Five Years in Role

In 2013, New Zealander Mark Wilson, an insurance turnaround specialist hired from Hong Kong to fix a then-troubled Aviva, was wondering how he could overhaul its Irish business in a very difficult market. “When I…

Julian Oliver Mines ZCash in Harvest Project

Julian Oliver Mines ZCash in Harvest Project

Julian Oliver is a New Zealander who uses wind power to mine ZCash – a bitcoin cousin – to fund climate research as part of a project called, Harvest. As the poster child for…

Jonathan Dower Gets a Kick Out of His Game

Jonathan Dower Gets a Kick Out of His Game

New Zealander Jonathan Dower, who is a game artist for Helsinki-based Supercell, didn’t just design how people play the real-time multiplayer game Clash Royale – he helped come up with how it looks, too,…

Laughing Kea a Science Story of the Year

Laughing Kea a Science Story of the Year

Leading scientists pick the dozen most significant discoveries and developments of 2017 – from a steep decline in flying insects to a laughter-like play vocalisation – a warble call – has been discovered in…

Organisational Expert Beck Wadworth Shares Tips

Organisational Expert Beck Wadworth Shares Tips

Twenty-eight-year-old New Zealander Beck Wadworth founded her own stationery company and blog, An Organised Life, in 2013 – after a fruitless search to find a functional-yet-sleek diary left her with nothing. She shares how…

Journey Through Scent with Abel’s Frances Shoemack

Journey Through Scent with Abel’s Frances Shoemack

When Huffington Post contributor E. Nina Rothe was introduced to Amsterdam-based brand Abel at this year’s Pitti Fragranze, a fragrance fair held in Florence every September, she fell in love. Not just with their…

Cycle on Water with Manta5’s Electric Water Bike

Cycle on Water with Manta5’s Electric Water Bike

“New Zealand-based company Manta5 has created a hydrofoil bike that allows cyclists to glide atop water,” writes Lacy Cooke in an article for Inhabitat. Co-founder Guy Howard-Willis “glimpsed New Zealand’s coastline…

Allbirds, How To Take A Leap Of Faith To Success

Allbirds, How To Take A Leap Of Faith To Success

Former professional soccer star Tim Brown “was troubled by what he felt was a lack of sustainable practices in footwear materials and manufacturing,” as well as “the over-the-top nature of the branding landscape itself….

Graeme Hart’s Ulysses the Biggest Luxury Yacht Sale in 2017

Graeme Hart’s Ulysses the Biggest Luxury Yacht Sale in 2017

“2017 has been a strong year for superyacht sales with 369 yachts sold so far this year, already up nearly 5% from the previous year,” reports an article in Business…

Farming Couple Matt and Pip Smith Enter New Market

Farming Couple Matt and Pip Smith Enter New Market

Award-winning farming couple, New Zealander Matt Smith and wife Pip, co-owners of Trefranck Farm near Launceston, in the UK have used HSBC funding to acquire 250 pedigree breeding deer, which has increased their livestock…

Auckland Startup Fergus Raises $3.5 Million

Auckland Startup Fergus Raises $3.5 Million

Auckland-born job management software start-up Fergus has raised $3.5 million in funding from Australian fund Microequities Venture Capital Fund, a joint venture between Microequities Asset Management and Equity Venture Partners,”…

“Any Business Can Use AR” Says Plattar’s Rupert Deans

“Any Business Can Use AR” Says Plattar’s Rupert Deans

“By 2022, the Augmented Reality (and Mixed) market is predicted to expand to $117.4 Billion,” writes Angela Mellak in an article published on LinkedIn. To find out more about AI…

Meet the World’s First Virtual Politician

Meet the World’s First Virtual Politician

Politicians in New Zealand might want to watch their backs, as they could soon face stiff competition in the form of a virtual bot, Shibali Best reports for the Daily Mail. Created by Marlborough…

Graeme Sait Discusses a Chemical-Free World

Graeme Sait Discusses a Chemical-Free World

Educator and writer Graeme Sait’s mission in life is creating a new agricultural paradigm for the world to improve human health. Soil health and nutrition farming is what the New Zealander imparts and India,…

Confitex Launches in US

Confitex Launches in US

“For the 25 million Americans who experience bladder control issues, few underwear products have combined comfort, fashion and performance – until now,” writes Manoela Marandino in an article for The…

Engender Technologies Innovates Artificial Insemination in Dairy Cows

Engender Technologies Innovates Artificial Insemination in Dairy Cows

New Zealand AgTech startup Engender Technologies “has created a new microfluidic and photonic technology to sort livestock sperm by sex to enrich X chromosome-bearing bull sperm cells,” writes Jennifer Kite-Powell…

Sean Seamer is New Supercars CEO

Sean Seamer is New Supercars CEO

Top advertising executive New Zealand-born Sean Seamer has landed the role of Supercars CEO and will take up the position in Australia next year. Seamer joins the series following a 15-year stint with Mediacom,…

GM’s Dan Ammann Sees the Future as Autonomous

GM’s Dan Ammann Sees the Future as Autonomous

New Zealand-born Dan Ammann, the president of General Motors, is boundlessly optimistic when it comes to the Detroit automaker’s role in the future of cars. “We are inventing a lot as we go. No one’s…

Icebreaker Cuts Deal with VF Corporation

Icebreaker Cuts Deal with VF Corporation

Merino wool clothing retailer Icebreaker, founded by New Zealander Jeremy Moon 22 years ago, has been sold to US-based VF Corporation, which owns The North Face, Timberland and Vans. Moon, who did not reveal how…

World’s Best Airline is Air New Zealand

World’s Best Airline is Air New Zealand

Aviation safety and product rating site AirlineRatings.com has just come out with its highly anticipated annual list of the best airlines for 2018, and the winner for the fifth year in a row is…

Manta5 Pedal-Electric Hydrofoil Takes To The Lake – Or Sea

Manta5 Pedal-Electric Hydrofoil Takes To The Lake – Or Sea

What’s the aquatic equivalent of the e-bike?  “That’s what New Zealand outdoors entrepreneur Guy Howard-Willis wondered back in 2010, when he conceived of the Manta5,” writes Ben Coxworth in an article for

Primer’s Sean Gourley Takes the Load off Humans

Primer’s Sean Gourley Takes the Load off Humans

New Zealander Sean Gourley, the founder and CEO of Primer, a 2.5-year-old, previously media-shy startup that uses artificial intelligence algorithms to parse vast quantities of data and spit out pithy, navigable digests, is demonstrating…

Apple buys Wireless Charging Company PowerbyProxi

Apple buys Wireless Charging Company PowerbyProxi

Apple, which recently said it was including wireless charging in its latest iPhone X and iPhone 8 smartphones, has acquired Auckland-based firm PowerbyProxi that designs wireless power products for consumers and industry. Wireless charging allows…

Phillipa and Brangka Munan’s Borneo Efforts Pay Off

Phillipa and Brangka Munan’s Borneo Efforts Pay Off

New Zealander Phillipa Munan and her husband Brangka, who earned his Bachelor of Agriculture and Science from Lincoln University, operate The Milk Shop, an organic dairy goat farm in Kuching,…

The Ethical Minefields of Technology

The Ethical Minefields of Technology

“As we embrace technological innovation, we must also grapple with its implications,” warns New Zealand futurist Roger Dennis in a blog post in the Scientific American. “The introduction of new software…

Rodd and Gunn Takes NZ Style to LA

Rodd and Gunn Takes NZ Style to LA

New Zealand menswear label Rodd & Gunn celebrated the soft opening recently of its first Los Angeles store, which joins others in San Francisco and Newport Beach. The focus on California makes sense, said the…

New Zealand Opens First Rocket Launch Site

New Zealand Opens First Rocket Launch Site

New Zealand’s first orbital launch site, Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1, on the Mahia Peninsula has been officially opened by New Zealand Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce. Joyce congratulated Rocket Lab’s chief executive and founder…

New Book Highlights Work of Harold Gillies

New Book Highlights Work of Harold Gillies

Faces from the Front: Harold Gillies, The Queen’s Hospital, Sidcup and the Origins of Modern Plastic Surgery by Andrew Bamji “highlights the work of young surgeon Harold Gillies, who repaired the faces of those…

Interview With RBS Chief Ross McEwan

Interview With RBS Chief Ross McEwan

Straight-talking New Zealander Ross McEwan has been at the helm of Royal Bank of Scotland since 2013, working to try and rebuild its tattered reputation and repay the £45bn of public money required to…

New Zealand’s Very Own Sex Witch Shaney Marie

New Zealand’s Very Own Sex Witch Shaney Marie

An exotic dancer from New Zealand has transformed herself into a “sex witch” and plans on putting her spell on disciples around the world. Melbourne-based Shaney Marie, 31, delved into witchcraft after spending years…

Winning Like The All Blacks

Winning Like The All Blacks

New Zealand “is small in size and population, but vast in talent and its position on the global scale,” writes Rajeev Gupta in an article published on

‘Giant Of Volcanology’ Bruce Houghton Wins World Honour

‘Giant Of Volcanology’ Bruce Houghton Wins World Honour

“Professor Bruce Houghton – described by one colleague as “a giant of volcanology” – has received the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth’s Interior’s Thorarinsson Medal”, which is ‘volcanology’s highest honour,’…

Australia’s Unlikely Cosmetics Mogul Anna Ross

Australia’s Unlikely Cosmetics Mogul Anna Ross

She doesn’t have a multimillion-dollar laboratory or a celebrity endorsement deal. But New Zealand-born Melbourne-based Anna Ross is a bona fide cosmetics queen, with her Kester Black nail polish selling around the world –…

Blue Maestro’s Pacif-i Takes the Heat off Parents

Blue Maestro’s Pacif-i Takes the Heat off Parents

Co-founder of UK-based Blue Maestro, New Zealander Kirstin Hancock knew from experience that attempting to take the temperature of a poorly child is no mean feat – whether you’re using an in-the-ear thermometer or…

How Air NZ Makes Airline Safety Videos Exciting

How Air NZ Makes Airline Safety Videos Exciting

Air New Zealand has taken a dull chore and turned it into a viral video phenomenon, complete with jaw-dropping shots from its home country and A-list Hollywood actors, Matt Meltzer reports for men’s digital…

New Legal Role for Josephine Van Lierop in Scotland

New Legal Role for Josephine Van Lierop in Scotland

New Zealander Josephine Van Lierop who relocated from one continent to another has now moved from London to Scotland to lead the employment law team at Slater and Gordon Edinburgh. Van Lierop will oversee the…

Silicon Valley Crazy About Allbirds Wool Shoes

Silicon Valley Crazy About Allbirds Wool Shoes

Silicon Valley goes through its own unique shoe crazes. There were Vibrams. There were Crocs. Now comes the Allbird, a knit wool loafer. Founded by New Zealand soccer star Tim Brown, 36, and clean-technology…

Banqer’s Kendall Flutey Teaching Kids Money Smarts

Banqer’s Kendall Flutey Teaching Kids Money Smarts

The answer to the conundrum of adding financial literacy classes to already overloaded curriculums may just be an innovative piece of technology being trialled by 3000 Australian primary school children called Banqer and developed…

Silicon Valley Whizz Kids Pitch New Zealand

Silicon Valley Whizz Kids Pitch New Zealand

When American Matthew Monahan first visited New Zealand, the Silicon Valley software developer was struck by a sense of possibility, Bloomberg reports. Seven years later, the 33-year-old is helping the government lure other foreign entrepreneurs…

Wainui Chemist Selected as Finalist for PhD Prize

Wainui Chemist Selected as Finalist for PhD Prize

Victoria University PhD candidate Ryan Schwamm, 26, has become the first New Zealander to be nominated for the prestigious Reaxys PhD Prize in chemistry, which recognises the best work being…