Kiwi Flees

In this pod I catch up with Ollie Law , Co-Founder and Group Managing Director of Fixinc Group , who joins me from Kuala Lumpur after leaving Christchurch in late January 2026. Ollie is the freshest Kiwi Flee I’ve spoken to, to date. At the time of recording, he’s only been out of New Zealand for eight months, which gives this conversation a different edge. This isn’t someone 20 years offshore loo...

In this pod I catch up with public speaking and vocal coach, Helen von Dadelszen - a Kiwi now living in Crassier, Vaud, near Geneva in Switzerland. Helen works with professionals who want to speak with confidence and impact. Her coaching draws on psychology, theatre, singing, improv, and vocal training, along with the useful but slightly terrifying truth that simply having something important to s...

In this pod I catch up with Tauranga-born, Stuttgart-based lyric coloratura soprano Imogen Thirlwall , who works full-time as an opera singer in Germany at the Stuttgart State Opera. After training in Wellington and building her early career through New Zealand Opera, Imogen moved to Europe in 2017 to chase the dream.  She has performed in 75 professional opera, operetta, and musical theatre produ...

In this pod I catch up with Petone-born and now Bangkok-based Callum Meehan who left New Zealand in 2017 and has since become one of the most accomplished functional fitness athletes and fitness event entrepreneurs in South East Asia (SEA). Callum’s athletic CV sits in the brutal world of fitness racing and obstacle course racing. He has set three HYROX Asia-Pacific records, been ranked the number...

In this pod I catch up with Dani Kiwi Meier , who joins me from his family's farm in Castetner, in France’s rural south-west, a scant two-hour drive from the fires currently sweeping through the region. Dani left New Zealand in 1988 as a toolmaker with experience in plastics engineering. His first job in Switzerland was building an ice rink. Not bad for a guy who'd never ice-skated befor...

In this pod I catch up with Winston Cowie , who joins me from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This is a conversation about life-maxxing, adventure, reinvention, conservation, endurance, and one Kiwi’s deep connection to the seas, stories, and people of Arabia. Winston grew up at Campbells Beach on the Tāwharanui Peninsula, about 20km down a gravel road, with teacher parents, not much money, not many...

In this pod I talk to Professor Karen Willcox , a world leader in computational engineering and Director of the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering & Sciences at the University of Texas . Karen grew up in a modest household with parents who didn’t finish high school. She was the first person in her extended family to attend university, studying engineering at the University of Aucklan...

In this episode, I catch up with Nazeel Juvale , CEO of Al Ain FC - one of Asia’s biggest football clubs - and a rare New Zealander who has reached senior leadership at the elite level of the global game. Now living in the United Arab Emirates, Nazeel left Aotearoa New Zealand in 2012 after roles with Deloitte and the ANZ.   His career since has spanned infrastructure, tourism, entertainment, priv...

This pod sees me catching up with Lausanne-based Marc Checkley , an Auckland-born writer, host, actor, communications consultant, educator, & WSET-certified wine professional. Marc first left Aotearoa New Zealand in 2000, swapping Papatoetoe for Singapore to work in media education, digital arts, and filmmaking. Since then, his creative life has taken him across Asia and Europe - from newsroom...

In this episode of Kiwi Flees I talk to Toronto-based financier, Darren Sissons, who left Aotearoa New Zealand in 1993, heading to Taiwan with $1,500 in his pocket. Darren spent five years there learning Mandarin, working in a trading company focused on export markets, and doing the sort of long-week, high-pressure apprenticeship that helped shape the resilience and perspective he's carried t...

Rather than catching up with an offshore Kiwi Flee, for episode 15 I invited a former colleague and now friend, Sam Prescott , to take over the hosting duties, helping me unpick what I’ve seen, heard, and learned since launching the pod. This was a high-risk moment for me. Sam's a Co-Director of communications consultancy Sixteenth Letter and one of the sharper tacks in the toolbox. He's...

In this pod I talk to UK-based Kiwi Flee and entrepreneur, Melisa White , whose life outside New Zealand has cut across Denmark, Singapore, and the UK, and across a remarkable range of work: from finance to recruitment, technology sales to corporate sales, performance coaching to behavioural science, mindset training and housing advocacy. Melisa, who joined me from Cardiff, Wales, describes hersel...

In today's pod I catch up with the London-based internationally award-winning VFX guru and Producer, Johnny Blick. This pod is a little different to previous episodes as Johnny was keen to mix the conversation up - not wanting to just focus on what he's been doing offshore (perhaps the bogie of imposter syndrome raising its pernicious head again) but also to look at why so many Kiwis exc...

In this pod I catch up with Kelly Rolleston (Ngā Rauru & Ngāti Ruanui) who joins me from his family's home in Piacenza, located in northern Italy, about 70km from Milan. Kelly whakapapas to Taranaki iwi and on his father’s side, his grandmother - Hinemoerangi Tumaroroa - was the granddaughter of the Māori spiritual and political leader Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana, founder of the Rātana movem...

In this pod I talk to Tauranga-raised, France-based innovation guru, wildlife photographer, and wildlife photography tour guide, Francine Stevens, about her life since leaving New Zealand in 2007.  Our conversation tracks Francine's career from leading digital innovation teams with a multinational corporation, to eventually working with start-ups, and in a B Corp in the UK, before escaping Br...

In this pod I talk to a Kiwi-born rainmaker, risk-taker, & entrepreneur, Santa Barbara-based Gia Levé, who, at 60, walked away from the life she'd built to embark on what she calls her Legacy Lap - aka the Heroine's Journey. After landing in the United States in 1980, Gia built a successful career in communications & sales before co-founding an award-winning publishing company, D...

In this pod I talk to Nathan James Thomas , a veteran Kiwi traveller, writer, and publisher who left Aotearoa New Zealand more than a decade ago and built a life on the move before eventually putting down roots in Poland in 2022. Nathan left NZ in 2014, bound first for China. What began as an OE gradually evolved into something more permanent. Over the next 10 years he lived the life of a digital...

In this pod I talk to Hannah Seay, one seriously gritty, determined, & adventurous Kiwi who has just returned to Aotearoa New Zealand after spending the past 14 years working in one of the world's most demanding service roles - super yachting. Coming originally from Taupo and with a background in hospitality that started with washing dishes as a 12 year-old before eventually working in hi...

In this pod I talk to the indomitable Kirsten Chambers-Taylor whose first offshore role was working for the English photojournalist, Juliet Peck. Juliet's husband, Rory (a freelance news cameraman), had been killed by Boris Yeltsin loyalists in Moscow the year before Kirsten arrived in London in 1994. A stint in France as a horse trainer & nanny was followed by Kirsten then taking a role...

Los Angeles-based Kiwi, Pam Sheyne, is one of the most influential New Zealanders in global pop. She's a multi-platinum songwriter & singer whose songs have sold more than fifty million records. Her credits include co-writing Christina Aguilera's global number one hit, Genie in a Bottle , and she has over 100 platinum awards to her name. Pam, who whakapapas to Ngāi Tahu, is also a wi...

In this pod I talk to an amazing Japan-based Kiwi duo - businesswomen Jayne Nakata & Catherine O'Connell. Jayne and Catherine, among many other things, co-host the award-winning Jandals in Japan podcast, helping demystify Japan for Kiwi companies interested in breaking in to this amazing country. Jayne and Catherine share their experiences of arriving separately in Japan over 20 years ago...

In this pod I talk to Rhodes Scholar, former Mastermind contestant, cleric, and now author, Dr. Richard Major, about his life since leaving Aotearoa New Zealand in 1985.  Richard has lived in India, Australia, the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Hungary, South Africa, Palestine, and Cyprus…before returning full circle to resettle in Oxford just a few weeks before we spoke.  He...

In this pod I catch up with the indefatigable London-based CEO of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), Katie Sadleir. Katie is a Kiwi Olympian & Commonwealth Games medallist who has lived and breathed sports & then sports administration for most of her life.  She left New Zealand initially for Ireland in 2017 where she took on the role of General Manager, Women's Rugby, with World...

In this pod, I talk to Paul Spiers, Ngā Mahanga a Tairi, a global keynote speaker, author, leadership, & culture coach living in Britain, & working across the UK & Europe. Paul works with and coaches leading global brands on the relationships between leadership, culture, technology, & innovation, helping them navigate & succeed in the age of AI. His podcast, The New P&L, no...

In this pod, actress, singer, and writer, Ellie Smith (MNZM), shares what she's been up to since leaving New Zealand in 2009. From her time in Madrid teaching curmudgeonly Spanish bankers how to speak English, the personal impact of travelling to Kenya, the sometimes heart-breaking sometimes hilarious connections made performing in UK care homes pre-Covid, and on becoming a grandmother. We al...