new-zealand
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Aaron Ward and the trouble with good advice
His father suggested accounting. Aaron Ward eventually found his way to an Auckland garden shed, a global software business, and a question he is still trying to answer: how do people discover what they are good at?
Amanda Jones had a different idea of high tea
After two decades of writing about other people’s adventures, Amanda Jones co-founded Kikoko with a friend. Their business came with floral tins, vintage hats, and a firm rule about whom they would work with.
Ashley Walsh, Between the Rulebook and the Team Sheet
Ashley Walsh’s route to leading BGC Group in Australia and New Zealand runs through law, compliance and Asian markets. His place on the Family of League board adds another connection: the game his own family plays.
Alex Kendall’s car learned the wrong lesson.
An early Wayve experiment rewarded a car for distance travelled. It learned to zigzag. For Alex Kendall, the journey from that awkward lesson to production car agreements has been an education in what intelligence actually requires.
Zarina Alexander and the price of changing concrete
Her father developed a more durable concrete; Zarina Alexander built a company around a harder question: would anyone change the recipe? From early rejection to commercial pours in Brunei, the Neocrete co-founder is learning what makes an old industry try something new.
Patrick Caragata and the trouble before the trouble
Before a business fails, its numbers begin to tell a story. Patrick Caragata built RapidRatings to help people read it, after a career spent examining risk from Toronto to Wellington and Brisbane.
Richard Wyles Put a Price on Software Freedom
From a New Zealand education consortium to Totara, Richard Wyles kept returning to one awkward question: who pays to keep open software working? His answer gave customers room to change the code and partners room to build a business.
Mark Woodruff and the value of being in the room
From investor sales to Citi’s Australia and New Zealand leadership, Mark Woodruff has built a career around bringing people together. His meetings range from global investment forums to a youth employment hub in Fitzroy.
Graham Campbell and the business of getting people on the same page
Before Graham Campbell led Gallagher’s benefits and HR consulting operations across Australia and New Zealand, he helped rebuild a practice with six different approaches to advice. The work of bringing people together has followed him ever since.
Luke Billiau and the art of putting a price on tomorrow
Before he led JLL’s capital markets business across Australia and New Zealand, Luke Billiau spent eight years valuing commercial offices. His career traces a question that keeps changing: what makes a building worth owning?
Greg Foran and the education of a shopkeeper
He started by filling supermarket shelves in Hamilton. After Walmart and Air New Zealand, Greg Foran is back in the grocery aisle at Kroger, where familiar principles face a new test.
Alissa Holz and the art of changing your mind
Before she became CEO of RGA Australia and New Zealand, Alissa Holz spent years thinking about how institutions learn. Her career connects the mathematics of risk with the rather less tidy business of people.
Darrin Grafton and the art of getting there
A farm upbringing, a hotel-room office and a partnership spanning decades shaped Serko’s co-founder. Now Darrin Grafton is asking how much of a business trip software can take off your hands.
Greg Cross and the trouble with giving the future a face
He helped bring Windows 95 to New Zealand and co-founded a company Apple bought. With Soul Machines, Greg Cross took on a more curious sales pitch: software that could look you in the eye.
Mike Bell and the business of paying attention
Before Manukora, Mike Bell sold golf balls rescued from a lake. Honey taught the New Zealand founder that the things a customer cannot see deserve as much attention as the things they can.
Rupert Morrison and the question that outlived the consultants
A client wanted to know what would happen six months after the consultants left. Rupert Morrison built Orgvue around the answer - and is still working on the question at Ārahi.
Rod Drury and the trouble with staying small
He helped move the small-business ledger into the cloud, then turned to the connections missing closer to home. Rod Drury’s story runs from a Wellington apartment to Queenstown infrastructure - and, in 2026, a reckoning over accountability.
Ted Jordan and the software that learned to listen
Ted Jordan built Actionstep for small businesses. Lawyers kept coming back - and helped turn his idea about flexible software into a company that crossed oceans.
Sean Gourley and the trouble with knowing more
A New Zealand decathlete went to Oxford to study physics and ended up studying war. Quid and Primer grew from the question that followed: what can people do with information they could never read alone?
Chris Ashenden and the business of coming back
Before AG1 raised $115 million, Chris Ashenden spent a decade building it around repeat customers. His story also carries an earlier property business, a court judgment, and a public argument for taking responsibility.
Dr. Tom Williams and the price of a cow’s burp
Raised in New Zealand’s dairy country, the synthetic biologist co-founded Number 8 Bio to turn lost feed energy into a reason for farmers to cut methane. His route from yeast research to grazing trials has required a willingness to change the science without losing sight of the farm.
David Booth and the business of being in the right room
From a teenage iPod venture in New Zealand to On Deck and a16z, David Booth keeps returning to one question: who could build something together, if only they met?
Alex McNaughten and the work between the conversations
At nineteen, Alex McNaughten fell into sales. At twenty, he was leading a team. His subsequent businesses keep returning to the same question: who helps the people expected to hit the number?
Luke Irving and the long way to a shorter queue
He took Fingermark from touchscreens to restaurant AI, and moved its base from Auckland to Havelock North. Now Luke Irving has handed over the CEO job, with a place on the board and more ideas to pursue.
Masood Tayebi and the weekend that came with homework
Before he backed software founders in New Zealand, Masood Tayebi built wireless networks across borders. His investment career carries the same practical question: how do you get all the pieces to work together?
Guy Haddleton and the art of starting again
He helped build Adaytum, then returned to the same stubborn problem with Anaplan. Now Guy Haddleton is putting his experience behind a different planning challenge: what New Zealand can build for itself.
Greg Davidson and the things you have to build first
A graduate’s cheeky question revealed the engineer inside Datacom’s future chief executive. Nearly three decades after joining Datacom, Greg Davidson is still interested in what sits beneath the next big thing.
Neil Matheson Knows Who to Call Next
Twenty years after hiring a colleague, Neil Matheson brought her back onto his team. The New Zealand-born entrepreneur’s career offers a close look at what survives when companies change hands: the relationships.
ROSÉ Found Her Own Voice by Letting Rosie Speak
She crossed three countries, four years of training and one giant girl group to make a record intimate enough to carry her family nickname. Then a Korean drinking game became a worldwide chorus.
Danny Tomsett
Danny Tomsett is the founder and CEO of UneeQ, an enterprise AI company that builds lifelike digital humans for customer service, training, and marketing. A New Zealand entrepreneur who started building games at age eight and exited a telecom company at 25, he launched the business in 2009 as the video chat startup FaceMe before pivoting to CGI-driven digital humans. Under his leadership the company delivered high-profile projects like Nadia and Digital Einstein, won Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Business Challenge, and partnered with NVIDIA. He relocated the company's center of gravity to Austin, Texas in 2019.