International Heavy Hitters Join To Congratulate The Best Of Our Offshore Kiwi Community

Thursday, September1st 2022

Pop superstar Pharrell, Former All Black Coach Graeme Henry, and Emmy Award nominee Melanie Lynsky were just some of those who joined in congratulating the eight winners of this year's Kea World Class New Zealand Awards at Auckland’s Shed 10 last night.

Almost 800 people gathered at events in New Zealand and the UK last night to celebrate this year’s winners who were chosen by a panel of judges as global Kiwi who over the past year have demonstrated the unique power of Kiwi connection and used it to benefit Aotearoa. The winners came from a variety of backgrounds, ethnicities and ages and worked in different sectors from business to technology to performing arts, sports and public services.

International actor, director and performance coach Miranda Harcourt took out the 2022 Kea World Class New Zealand Supreme award for the work she has done connecting Kiwi actors, directors and producers into her vast global network and the work she has done to support the performing arts community during the pandemic. Her deserving win was supported by comments from some of New Zealand’s top acting talent including Emmy nominee Melanie Lynsky, Eric Thompson, Rose McIver and Miriama McDowell.

Kea Global CEO Toni Truslove says celebrating and thanking these incredible and inspiring Kiwi was a timely reminder of the incredible power and influence of New Zealand’s talent

“As a nation of explorers and exporters, connection to the world has always been crucial to our success, however this has never been more apparent than over the past few years. Tonight’s winners are both inspiring and incredible and showcase just how much our global community are invested in helping their fellow Kiwi across all industries and corners of the world. These are the people that are crucial to New Zealand’s reconnection and will always be our strongest brand ambassadors.”

Supreme Award winner Miranda Harcourt says being chosen as the winner of the Kea World Class New Zealand Supreme award is a huge honour and seeing so many Kiwi being celebrated for the work they do in connecting Kiwi to Kiwi goes to the very heart of what it means to be a New Zealander.

“We have such an amazing global Kiwi network of willing, passionate people who want to help give other Kiwis a leg up. I will reach out to these people and say, do you want to help a young Kiwi performer step up and try and create an international career? And they say of course I do. It’s part of what makes us so special.”

Tonight's winners join an inspiring community of Kea World Class New Zealanders including Rocket Labs’, Peter Beck; Choreographer Parris Goebel; All Birds founder, Tim Brown; Chef Peter Gordon; Former Prime Minister; Helen Clark; and Actor, Cliff Curtis.

Kea 2022 World Class Award Winners

World Class New Zealand Supreme Award winner- Miranda Harcourt

Miranda Harcourt is an acclaimed actor, director, writer and leading acting coach, whose clients include Nicole Kidman, Dev Patel, Melanie Lynskey, Lucy Lawless, Erik Thomson, and Miriama McDowell. Her career spans more than 30 years and during that time she has been responsible for using her vast global network of writers, actors, producers and directors to place Kiwi talent into roles and experiences all over the world. She was head of acting at Toi Whakaari for seven years and during this time was credited with accelerating the connection of the performing arts scene in New Zealand with the wider global community. Her students and graduates from Toi Whakaari are remarkably well-represented amongst New Zealand’s premier actors and directors. During the pandemic Miranda created a series of online tutorials for actors and creatives as an alternative platform for teaching storytelling and to support the creative community during a difficult time. She is a passionate voice for the community and holds board or patron positions with the Performing Arts Foundation, Arts Access Aotearoa, and charities, “So They Can” and Women’s Refuge.

Kea World Class New Zealand Friend of New Zealand winner- Kaila Colbin

Kaila is originally from the US but moved to Christchurch in 2005. Just before the first earthquake she was responsible for bringing TEDx to Christchurch and immediately following the second quake she organised a further event which focused on the city’s rebuild - this event was attended by global speakers including people who had been instrumental in rebuilding quake damaged cities such as San Francisco.

Around this time she also helped launch the Ministry of Awesome - a not for profit organisation which encourages the growth of startup businesses in Christchurch. A few years later she used her international connections to bring a panel of silicon valley experts to New Zealand for the country’s first Singularity University summit - a three day conference aimed at starting a conversation about our shared future, attended by top ceo’s business leaders, start-up entrepreneurs and school children.

She then started Boma, a company which uses extensive worldwide networks to help leaders create global change and create a better tomorrow. Through Boma Kaila is also creating a platform to share Kiwi ideas on the world stage. Currently her company is working with Crusaders Rugby to create a coaching leadership program for coaches around the world from high school to professional level, which leverages the Crusaders' incredible history of success in the sport and also their history and success in also the history in terms of dedication to culture and belonging.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Dave Ferguson

Dave is the co-founder of a California based technology company Nuro, which is focused on accelerating the benefits of robotics in everyday life. He graduated from Otago University and was a principal engineer on Google’s self-driving programme. One of his algorithms is currently being used for long-range autonomy on NASA’s Mars rover. During the pandemic Dave volunteered Nuro’s technology to enable contactless delivery of supplies to heath and essential workers in order to help slow the spread of the virus and allow those in high risk jobs to limit their contact with the general public. He is passionate about getting other young Kiwi into robotics and AI roles and has just created a scholarship for robotics students at Otago University in memory of one of his past professors who has since passed away. His vision is to create a world where robots can take over the more mundane areas of our lives allowing us to have more time to connect with people and do the things we love.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Katie Sadleir

Katie Sadleir is a former Olympic and Commonwealth Games athlete, and the first female CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation. Prior to this, she was the General Manager of Women’s Rugby at World Rugby, where she was responsible for promoting, growing and commercialising the Women’s game. She’s a passionate advocate for gender equality in sport and during the first year of her role at World Rugby she oversaw the appointment of seventeen women to the World Rugby Council, a council which had previously been made up entirely of men. She’s also focused on developing participation in rugby in regions where women’s rights have previously been impeded – including Iran, Syria, Malaysia, Laos. For many years she has mentored others into sports management roles and has created programmes and pathways to connect other women into sport.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Zion Armstrong

Zion Armstrong is a former Commonwealth Games athletics champion who represented New Zealand in Kuala Lumpur. His first job was unpacking boxes at a Converse distribution centre at age 16. At 21 he joined global brand Adidas where he worked his way up to become the President of Adidas North America. He is seen by his peers as a renowned leader and during his two decades offshore has used his Māori and Pacific values to connect and empower teams, foster a diverse and inclusive culture and grow talent. Zion didn’t finish high school and never attended university. He credits his success to a former West Auckland cop who was also the local athletics coach and who helped him turn his life around when he was 14. Because of this Zion is passionate about mentoring and helping to connect other Kiwi. After meeting Allbirds founder Tim Brown for lunch one day, he was responsible for introducing Tim to his colleagues at Adidas and the two companies went on to collaborate, releasing the world’s lowest carbon running shoe in 2021.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Guled Mire

Guled Mire was a former refugee who came to New Zealand at age six. He is a passionate human rights advocate and has been recognised for his leadership and contribution to public policy and his efforts to better connect ethinic and minority communities into Aotearoa. He is a Fulbright Scholarship recipient who spent time at Cornell University in New York and is using the lessons learned during his time in the USA to help inform public policy in this country. He’s twice spoken on behalf of New Zealand at the United Nations and chaired conversations with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He is an strong advocate for minority communities and often speaks on behalf of his community: following the Christchurch Mosque attacks be became a spokesperson for the Muslim community and played a key role in helping people deal with the aftermath of the event.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Arama Kukutai

Arama is a global leader in the agritech industry. He is of Ngāti Tipa, Maniapoto, Te Aupouri, Parihaka descent, and started his career in finance at a time when Māori organisations were beginning to actively develop forestry, farming, and fishing assets. He served as executive chairman of PKW farms, and also worked for the Government’s Trade & Investment agency in North America. Arama is a co-founder of, and partner at Finistere Ventures, one of the pioneering venture capital firms dedicated to agritech. He was responsible for the company's global portfolios and used his connections to create a global agritech community to allow people to better share ideas and inspiration. He has helped connect Kiwi tech entrepreneurs into silicon valley and is focused on particularly helping provide Māori with opportunities to pursue careers in agritech. Arama is also the CEO of Plenty, an indoor vertical farming operation, aiming to revolutionise the way food is produced and ensure fresh food is available to all.

Kea World Class Award Winner - Geoff Andrews

Geoff moved from New Zealand to the US in the 1980’s to coach the New York Rugby team, and loved the city so much he never really left. He was one of the original instigators of the Kiwi community in New York and was a convenor or co-convenor of a multitude of New Zealand events in the US over many years, building a large database of expat Kiwi and publishing a regular newsletter. He hosted tables at Irish pubs for Saturday morning All Black matches and was the instigator of the New York City Dawn Service on Anzac Day at Battery Park. He also started a traditional Kiwi picnic that still runs to this day.He would frequently collect Kiwi travellers in and around New York and bring them back to his one bedroom apartment for roast lamb. Geoff passed away in his sleep last year and will be honoured with a posthumous World Class New Zealand Award for all the work he did in establishing the Kiwi community in New York.

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