Telecom Retail CEO Chris Quin  has taken over as chair replacing Greg Cross who is leaving the board as his own entrepreneurial activities demand more of his time offshore. Long standing ICEHOUSE board member and Dean of The University of Auckland Business School, Greg Whittred said, “Greg has been an exceptional leader in his three years as Chair of The …

So often when companies are developing a China strategy, they focus on the ‘window of opportunity’ and while they’re not wrong to do this, what many are forgetting to do (or don’t know to do) is to firstly ‘look in the mirror’. What do they see? Do they have the resources, the people, the time, the funds, the commitment, the …

Trade Minister Minister Tim Groser is playing down expectations that he will have a tilt at the top job in global trade. But it is inevitable that the potential for a Groser run at the role of director-general of the World Trade Organisation will be discussed around the edges of the World Export Development Forum (WDEF) in Jakarta this coming …

The United States attack on Chinese telecommunications company Huawei shapes up like a declaration of economic warfare complete with buckets of political rhetoric and China bashing. Cynics might think a presidential election is looming. In just one month, the US has taken China to the World Trade Organisation claiming the Chinese subsidise their car industry and has blocked a Chinese …

5:30 AM Wednesday Oct 3, 2012 It has all the trappings of a hit movie – “Johnnie goes to Hollywood” – in which the Kiwi hero tries to inject more lifeblood into the NZ economy while a Great German Hulk flails about claiming New Zealand is in danger because US moguls are conspiring to capture the hero in their net. No …

Vladivostok has got a lot going for it. But out in the ‘Gulag’ – the concrete monstrosity that the Russians have plonked on Russky Island – it wasn’t so hot. It wasn’t the shoddy building standards (lifts stopping mid-floor; toilet doors too large for their frames) but the E-coli bug that did in several NZ delegates there for the prestigious APEC CEOs …

Former Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard beat a swift retreat from the recent Russian APEC. Bollard clearly wasn’t used to being tracked by big ominous looking Russians and did not hang about after being announced as APEC’s new executive director.The APEC role is the ultimate when it comes to “herding cats” – aka the many officials from around the region who …

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully left has left the ‘Big Apple’ to visit Jamaica and Cuba for bilateral talks. McCully displayed considerable prowess at the United Nations where he delivered a cut-through address slamming the Security Council’s failure to deals with the mounting deaths in Syria. He wants the P5 – the club of five permanent council members; the US, Russia, …

Why doesn’t Tower Investment’s Sam Stubbs round up a few institutional investors in Fisher & Paykel Appliances and go pay a call on Haier at its China HQ and say they want to stay in with the company for the long haul? How hard would it be for the mercurial Stubbs to muster a coalition of the usual suspects and …

Blowing in the wind … John Key grapples with the problems of ownership. Photo / Mark Mitchell Mr Speaker, I rise today in this House to introduce legislation to vest all natural resources – water, geothermal steam, airwaves, aquifers and, for the avoidance of doubt, all minerals, ironsands, magma, rare earth deposits, coal, lignite, methane and uranium in this country …