Kiwi Flees

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 say doesn't automatically mean people will hear it. 

Helen left NZ in the early 2000s without what she calls a “master plan”. Scotland came first, followed by Italy, where questions of langu...

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 productions in her career to date, including more than 180 performances at Staatstheater Meiningen. A permanent member of the Staatsoper Stuttgart chorus since 2022,  she has performed in 22 opera productions and more than 165 performances over her past tw...

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 one Spartan athlete in both Malaysia and Singapore, been part of the Spartan Pro Team, and ranked Malaysia’s number one DEKA FIT athlete.

We talk about Callum’s early...

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 before, let alone constructed a rink for the skating aficionados of Europe.

Snowboarding then opened the door to an international life.

As an elite snowboarder, Dani be...

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 people around, but the ocean front and centre.

Since then, he’s built an extraordinary life and career across Arabia. An award-winning marine conservation leader, Winston has worked on ma...

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 Auckland while working 27-hour weeks at McDonald’s to pay her way.

From there, she left Aotearoa New Zealand for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she completed her PhD in Aero...

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, private investment, global sport, and now professional football – with the past 12 months including matches against Manchester City and Juventus at the FIFA Club World Cup, as well a...

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 newsrooms, studios, and senior television roles, to Olympic Games broadcasting in Beijing, work connected with the legendary Jim Henson, and now Switzerland, where wine, hospitality, tourism, and storytelling have become the next expression of his craft.

Our conversation follows Marc...

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 through the rest of his life.

Since leaving New Zealand, Darren has also lived and worked in the UK before settling in Canada. He’s held senior roles at Portfolio Management Corp, Scotiabank, Scotiabank Private Equity, Os...

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 a successful and seasoned communications professional, a writer (do check out his Slow Comms newsletter on Substack), editor, and former video games journo. And as you’ll hear from his opening gamb...

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 herself as a mixed Kiwi - having a Kiwi Dad and a Singaporean Mum. Despite admitting she wasn't that great at school and not graduating from university, Melisa got into Mensa at 24 and went on to become...

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 excel internationally. We touch on both the upsides and downsides of forging a  career and life outside of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Johnny first left NZ with his family in 1986, swapping W...

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 movement.

A hard-running rugby fullback who played for the Wellington Lions from 1992 to 1996, Kelly left New Zealand in' 96 and went on to play professionally in Italy and Fran...

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 Britain just before a Covid lockdown to work in NEOM, one of Saudi Arabia's many ambitious giga-projects. 

Francine's personal and professional journey took a twist in the trail when, in 2020, she committed to five years of training, with the go...

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, Dream Spaces. At 60, following the death of her father, she spent two years trying to answer the challenge posed by three little words which can hit many of us at a key inflexion point in life - "Is T...

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 nomad, working across China, Spain, Hungary, Albania, Georgia, & Poland, supporting himself as a writer and editor.

In our conversation we talk about what life...

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 high-end resorts including Huka Lodge, Hannah left NZ aged 19, bound for France & determined to work on super yachts.

In the pod we discuss how she got her first super yacht role, the long...

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 as a Domestic Servant with the United States-based UK Consul General.

We discuss humble beginnings including a six-week, 'no-hope-of-extension' job at the British Consulate which turned into a stellar 24-year career which saw Kirsten...

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 winner of an Ivor Novello Award - one of the highest international honours a songwriter can receive - and her songs have been recorded by artists ranging from Demi Lovato & Seal to Jessica Simpson, t...

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, both thinking they'd only be away for a year or two but finding themselves still hooked to their adopted country over two decades later. We discuss their different but also connected lives. Jayne being rurally-based with her family...

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 shares his experience of arriving in Oxford with former All Blacks' captain, David Kirk, climbing an active volcano in tweed to toast the erupting volcano with a glass of Beaujolais before being esco...

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 Rugby, before taking on the CGF leadership role in 2021.

In 2022, Katie became a recipient of the Kea World-Class New Zealander Award. Two years later she was made a Companion of the N...

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, now sits in the top 5% of podcasts globally, being listened to in hundreds of countries globally. 

­Paul shares his experiences of landing in London, setting up his first agency, finding the seeds of triumph in disaster, the...

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 also talk about Ellie's return onto the NZ stage for the first time in 17 years to perform her London sell-out solo show, Life on a Loop.

Ellie has worked as an actor, singer, director, and...