Farmer Eric Watson Smashes Wheat Growing Record
Ashburton farmer Eric Watson has broken the world record for the greatest wheat yield, with a “staggering” 16.91-tonnes/ha crop that left the current record of 16.5 tonnes held in the UK in its dust,…
News of New Zealanders via Global Media
Fast Food Exec Jason Marker has New US Role
New Zealander Jason Marker, who most recently was president of Yum! Brands’ Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) in the United States, has been named the new chief executive of CKE Restaurant Holdings, parent of another…
New Zealand Leading Country For Female Entrepreneurs
“New Zealand has been named the best country for supporting female entrepreneurship, according to MasterCard’s inaugural Index of Women Entrepreneurs,” writes Faaez Samadi for Campaign Asia. “While there is still work to do,…
Todd Corporation Saves Canadian Mine Plans
The company behind a proposed tungsten and molybdenum mine in New Brunswick, Canada, which was running so low on cash six months ago it was borrowing money at credit card interest rates, is suddenly…
Parkinson’s Disease Breakthrough
University of Auckland scientists have made a breakthrough in potential treatments for the debilitating Parkinson’s disease by identifying how it spreads in the brain. The scientists said they had the first strong evidence that the…
How Earth’s Newest Continent ‘Zealandia’ Was Found
Scientist recently discovered that “earth has a brand-new continent called Zealandia,” writes Dave Mosher in an article for Business Insider Australia. “What’s less widely known about the discovery, however, is how it…
Xero’s Rod Drury on Succession Plans
Succession planning is critical to the ongoing health and longevity of a company. New Zealand-based software company Xero’s succession plans were put to the test with the unexpected announcement that chairman, Chris Liddell, was…
Earth Has Brand-New Continent Called Zealandia
“A new study of Earth’s crust, has found that there’s a seventh geologic continent called ‘Zealandia,’ and it has been hiding under our figurative noses for millennia.” New Zealand and New Caledonia are part…
Rocket Lab Is Preparing For First Launch
Small satellite launch company Rocket Lab has announced that the first of its Electron rockets has arrived at its launch complex in New Zealand. “Its arrival commences a series of test items that need…
Wellington NZ Opens Doors To Tech Talent
Wellington is welcoming tech talent from around the globe with a bold new recruitment initiative, LookSee Wellington, which launches this week and is aiming to address the city’s IT skills shortage. The…
Sarah Robb O’Hagan Appointed CEO of Flywheel Sports
Sarah Robb O’Hagan, the former president of Equinox Holdings has been “named chief executive of Flywheel Sports, the indoor cycling startup that launched in 2010 and has since grown to 41 studios,” reports Christopher…
Farming Our Air for Chinese Market
Pulling a trailer packed with dive tanks and a compression motor, the three co-founders of Breathe Ezy drive around the scenic mountains and valleys of New Zealand’s South Island collecting air Phillip Duval, Xu…
In the Head of AI Scientist Shane Legg
New Zealander Shane Legg, DeepMind Technology’s chief scientist, gives significantly fewer talks and far less quotes to journalists than his other co-founders, CEO Demis Hassabis and head of applied AI Mustafa Suleyman. Legg, 43, remains…
New Zealand Second Best Country For Business
New Zealand has been identified as the second best country for business in 2017 in Forbes’ annual list of the Best Countries for Business. It’s the “11th straight year Forbes has gauged…
Britain’s Banking Watchdog Sam Woods Looks Ahead
New Zealand-born Sam Woods, chief executive of the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), is one of the new generation of City regulators who cut their teeth in the financial crisis. At just 43, with the…
Financiers Make Debrett’s Most Influential List
Two New Zealanders have made the 2016 Debrett’s 500 list of most influential people in Britain. CEO of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Ross McEwan (pictured), 59, and Mark Wilson, 50, chief…
Welcome to New Zealand’s Gateway to Space
New Zealand has become the unlikely frontier in a drive to open a private rocket-launch site, servicing a soaring market for tiny satellites, many the size of a shoebox, Rob Taylor reports for the…
Immunotherapy Researcher’s Aim for T-Cells
In Seattle, at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Christchurch-born Dr Rachel Perret, a postdoctoral research fellow, spends her days – and sometimes her nights – working toward an “off-the-shelf” version of T-cell therapy. The…
Camelle Kent Named CEO of Boston’s WellPet
Massachusetts natural pet food company WellPet has named New Zealander Camelle Kent its new chief executive officer. Kent, a graduate of the University of Auckland, said she was honoured to be chosen for the role…
Tim Norton Builds 90 Seconds as Global Nomad
If there’s anyone who embodies how the so-called “sharing economy” is changing the way people live and build a business, it’s the founder and CEO of 90 Seconds, New Zealander Tim Norton. Norton…
Neil McGregor Appointed Sembcorp Top Roles
Energy expert New Zealand-born Neil McGregor will take over the position of group president and chief executive at Singapore’s state-linked conglomerate Sembcorp Industries in April 2017. McGregor, 61, is currently heading the energy and resources…
Antimicrobials from NZ Labs Help Make an India
Eco-friendly antimicrobial agents developed by a team of researchers at the University of Auckland could contribute in some of the key identified sectors in the nation-building “Make an India” initiative, according to an Indian-origin…
NZ Attracting Entrepreneurs from Across the Globe
New Zealand has been the home to Australian expats for years, and now New Zealander are muscling in on the startup world as low living costs and talented entrepreneurs continue to build the country’s…
Soul Machines Raises $7.5m in Series A Financing Round
“New Zealand-based artificial intelligence (AI) and avatar company Soul Machines has raised $7.5 million in a Series A financing round led by venture capital firm Horizons Ventures along with Silicon Valley firm Iconiq Capital,”…
Kester Black’s Anna Ross Wins Acclaim
Australia’s Young Business Woman of the Year has been named and she is New Zealand-born Anna Ross, founder of Kester Black Cosmetics, a brand customers rank better than global name Butter London and in…
Drones Delivering Domino’s Pizzas To Customers
Domino’s Pizza has started to deliver pizzas using drones in the town of Whangaparaoa in New Zealand and the company is planning to make it available at more New Zealand stores in the future,…
Get Naked with a 3D Fitness Tracker Mirror
New Zealand-born Farhad Farahbakhshian and Briton Ed Sclater of Naked Labs have designed a mirror that lets you see, in real-time, the effect of your workout on your body. The Naked 3D Fitness…
Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck Building Business in Space
Self-taught New Zealand-born scientist and CEO of Rocket Lab Peter Beck, 39, explains to accountancy industry magazine Acuity how – and why – he is making space more accessible. At its Auckland base, Rocket Lab…
Record Bilateral Trade Figures Mark Bank Of China New Zealand 2nd Anniversary
(SPONSORED CONTENT) “Latest China-New Zealand trade statistics illustrate the value Bank of China (New Zealand) brings to the economic relationship as the bank marks its second full-year of operation in New Zealand,” as reported…
Qantas’ Lesley Grant Airline’s Saving Grace
Qantas Loyalty chief New Zealand-born Lesley Grant is one of three individuals on the executive team who have helped the airline’s turnaround, according to chief executive Alan Joyce. Grant was an air hostess who worked…
NZ Model Set Up Luxury Travel Firm After Dare
“It’s often said that the inspiration for starting a business can come from anywhere. For Stephanie Chai it was a dare,” writes Sarah Porter for the BBC. The NZ-born model and former TV…
Jacky Scanlan Dyas Wins Person of the Year Award
Jacky Scanlan Dyas, a Kiwi from Gisborne and a corporate partner at Hogan Lovells’ Tokyo office, has won the Person of the Year Award at this year’s British Business Awards at a gala event…
Keeping an Eye on Endace
Designed by little-known New Zealand company Endace, a powerful piece of technology called the Medusa system, had one main purpose: to vacuum up vast quantities of internet data at an astonishing speed. And it…
Morgan Marquis-Boire Talks Tech Tough in California
New Zealand-born security researcher, hacker and journalist Morgan Marquis-Boire recently spoke on digital authoritarianism at an Ars Technica Live event in Oakland, California, “telling us,” according to the Ars Technica Facebook pages, “what we…
Air New Zealand Named “Most Excellent” Airline for 2017
“Air New Zealand has been named 2017 Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com in its Airline Excellence Awards,” writes Maureen O’Hare in an article for CNN. It’s the fourth time the airline…
Inside Magic Leap, the Startup Changing Computing Forever
At Magic Leap, the start-up that secretly raised nearly $1.4 billion in venture capital, humanoid robots are walking down the halls, green reptilian monsters hang out in the lounge and there are cartoon fairies…
Sam Ovens Teaches Americans Secrets to Wealth
Entrepreneur Sam Ovens, who is originally from Auckland, achieved something truly unique – by the age of just 25. He became a consultant to consultants and made over US$10 million. From his luxury apartment…
Jake Millar’s ‘Unfiltered’ Interviews With Business Leaders
21-year-old Jake Millar from New Zealand is turning his passion for business education into an empire, reports Shawn Setaro for Forbes. The young kiwi is the founder of Unfiltered, “a company that…
Rod Drury: “London’s Fintech Scene Is ‘World Class’”
Rod Drury, “the CEO of £1.4 billion accountancy software giant Xero says London is a world leader in fintech — financial technology — and will remain that way post-Brexit,” reports Oscar Williams-Grut in an…
Sarah Perry’s Secret to Balancing Motherhood and Career
Sarah Perry, CEO of SnapComms, an award-winning internal communications software company, shares what helped her to balance motherhood and her career in an article for TIME’s Motto. “If you’re a working…
Astronauts and SAS buying up Armadillo Merino
A British company, founded by New Zealander Andy Caughey, has developed a superfine wool which has been snapped up by the UK’s Ministry of Defence for SAS soldiers battling on the front line. Derbyshire-based Armadillo…
Iyia Liu Earns Big on Waist Trainers
Along with a desire to cinch her waist, young commerce graduate, New Zealander Iyia Liu, 23, had a burning entrepreneurial ambition. After noticing the waist trainer – a contemporary version of the 16th century…
Michael Aitken Wins Top Science Prize for SMARTS
New Zealand-born entrepreneur Michael Aitken has been awarded an Australian Prime Minister’s Prize for Science for developing software to identify rigging in the financial markets. Aitken, founding CEO of the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre in…
Yealands Completes NZ’s Largest Solar Panel Installation
“The Yealands Wine Group has put up New Zealand’s largest solar panel installation at its vineyard in Marlborough as it reinforces its claim to be the most sustainable winery in the world,” as reported in…
OK Tires’ Gurdeep Bains Helps Company Pull Ahead
A Lamborghini Huracán zooms through the Mojave Desert, spinning sand in its wake, and though you might expect to find a professional racecar driver behind the wheel of this, the fastest Lamborghini yet, you’d…
Helen Clark on Why You Should Never Have a Plan B
The greatest challenge for women is getting into leadership positions, not actually leading, says Helen Clark former Prime Minister of New Zealand and current head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Clark outlines…
Meeting with Banker Ross McEwan
Three years ago Ross McEwan set a Kiwi cat among Irish pigeons when, as newly installed chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), he ordered a review into the future of Ulster…
NZ Researchers Decode First Electronic Song
Researchers from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand have managed to restore the first ever computer-generated piece of music, which was created by Alan Turing, as reported in The Telegraph. The recording was…
Why Craig Cooper Invests in Adventure Sports
When New Zealand-born venture capitalist Craig Cooper isn’t rock climbing, meditating or writing for his men’s health blog The New Prime, he’s looking for the next great product to invest in. As…
Virgin’s Josh Bayliss Plugging Luxury Gyms
Switzerland-based Virgin Group chief executive New Zealander Josh Bayliss was in Sydney recently to promote the company’s luxury gym arm The Collection, which will open its first gym in Australia next year. The gym business…
Countdown to New Zealand’s First Space Launch
The New Zealand government has signed a contract with Rocket Lab, “a commercial space launch operator using technology developed in New Zealand, for launch operations on the Mahia Peninsula, on the east of the…
Biofuel LanzaTech Partner with Virgin Atlantic
LanzaTech, which was formed in New Zealand 11 years ago, has made an aviation biofuel breakthrough with partner airline Virgin Atlantic, producing nearly 5700 litres of low-carbon ethanol produced from waste gases for the…
How Xero Made It By Doing Everything Backwards
“It’s rare for a startup to go public almost within one year of being founded. But then again, how many startups do you know from Wellington, New Zealand,” writes Ariel Bogle for
Wellington Unveils National Virtual Reality Complex
Work on New Zealand’s first national virtual reality complex has begun in Wellington, writes David Swan in an article for the Australian. The centre will be “used to developed and test world-first…
US Brands Head to NZ for All-Wool Footwear
As demand for all-wool shoes grows, a number of US footwear brands are heading directly to the source: the sheep pastures of New Zealand. San Francisco-based Allbirds, established by former New Zealand soccer player…
Grandma Uber Getting Brisbane Women Home Safe
New Zealand-born taxi driver Kathy Raydings, 57, aka Grandma Uber, has made it her life’s mission to get young women home safe after a night out on the town in Brisbane. Working in the solar…
