World changing Kiwi

This month Kea spoke to Auckland based entrepreneur Tim Alpe, co-founder of JUCY group. Tim started JUCY rentals with his brother Dan in 2002, and the business quickly grew to include campervans, accommodation and cruises. However from the highest of highs came the lowest of lows when the pandemic decimated two decades of hard work almost overnight.

Tim talks openly and honestly in our latest World Class New Zealander speaker series, about the destruction of his company during the pandemic. He also discusses the huge affect this had on his mental health, what pandemic has taught him as both a CEO and a father and what he thinks the future holds for New Zealand tourism operators.

Watch the full webinar below. 

The aim of our speaker series is to highlight the incredible stories of our World Class New Zealanders and inspire other Kiwi to push the boundaries of their own business goals and expectations. Our World Class community are keen to use their insights and learnings to help others achieve the same heights of success that they have experienced

Kea is delighted to announce the six new World Class New Zealand and Friend of New Zealand Award winners for 2021.

SUPREME AWARD WINNER

Peter Cooper

Peter Cooper is a visionary leader with a reputation for iconic projects throughout the US, New Zealand and the world. He is best known in New Zealand for developments such as Auckland’s Britomart Restoration project and Northland project, The Landing, which involved the extensive creation of wetlands, native bush and preserving areas of high archaeological value.

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FRIEND OF NEW ZEALAND AWARD WINNER

James and Suzy Amis Cameron

Renowned filmmaker James Cameron and Suzy Amis Cameron weren’t born here, but nonetheless, epitomise our mana and our Kiwi values.
With a real passion for New Zealand, the Camerons have helped facilitate and grown New Zealand’s global connectedness and have used their international networks for the betterment of our land and its people – advocating for our country with passion and pride.

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AWARD WINNER

Anna Fifield

Anna Fifield won fame for her exclusive access and insights into the secretive world of North Korea and Kim Jong-un, but her career as a journalist saw her reporting from all over the world.
Fiercely ambitious and proudly Kiwi she succeeded in upholding the highest journalistic standards in renowned publications returning to New Zealand last year to continue her career.

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AWARD WINNER

Neil Ieremia

Neil Ieremia and his dance company Black Grace have been telling our stories for 25 years, exposing our creative talent and exploding stereotypes about New Zealand and its place in the world. Taking Samoan culture and rugby’s intensity and gave the world a new movement that is explosive, dramatic and an expression of soaring athleticism.

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AWARD WINNER

Jane Henley

Jane Henley has been a global visionary in sustainable and green building standards and economics for more than 25 years, influencing business, finance and Government action in both developed and developing nations.
We’re pleased that she’s home to help plan a better future for New Zealand

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AWARD WINNER

Prof. Graham Le Gros

Could New Zealand become a global leader in cancer immunotherapy and vaccine development? Professor Graham Le Gros, Director of the Malaghan Institute, believes we can. And he’s leading ground-breaking research in therapies that harness the power of the human immune system. What drives him? Changing health outcomes for people, both here and all over the world.

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AWARD WINNER

Chelsea Winstanley

Oscar® nominated producer, and award-winning filmmaker Chelsea Winstanley tells the unique stories of Aotearoa with a direct approach that blends courage, humility and aroha. 
Drawing her strength from her identity and whakapapa, she has worked tirelessly to not only advance women in film, but to advocate for stories from Aotearoa that are authentic and showcase our unique cultural perspectives.

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Thank you 2021 Kea World Class Awards sponsors and supporters

This celebration of exploring Kiwi and friends of New Zealand would not be possible without the support of our Kea World Class New Zealand Awards sponsors and supporters.

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“In order for us to have true story sovereignty, we have to participate in the intellectual property and concept, from the beginning, through to production, and right through to distribution. And we haven’t had that,” Winstanley says.

“So, that’s a huge driving factor for me right now, where I am in my career, and in the films that I want to make and want to put out into the world. I want to ensure that we have that sovereignty over every part, because if we don’t, we put the stories at risk,” she said.

Winstanley’s own story has seen her go from Bay of Plenty teenager to Hollywood producer. After growing up in Mt Maunganui, she moved to Auckland to be with her mother, where she fell in love with the potential of film-making after viewing Merata Mita 1980 documentary Bastion Point: Day 507. 

A young mother just before her 21st birthday, Winstanley took the opportunity to explore her mum’s Ngāti Ranginui and Ngai Te Rangi heritage, with weekly te reo lessons at her whānau’s marae. 

“Essentially, the kakano, or the seed, that was planted inside me, is what has informed me as a person. And so my grounding comes from that.”

Winstanley got herself through university, majoring in television, graduating top of the class, and winning media peace awards for her directing. She cites producing “Merata how Mum decolonized the screen” as her most successful film to date.

“I think I’ve always just wanted to say, “Hey, there’s another perspective. And it’s not always what we think the mainstream wants to say about us”,” she says.

“I think that’s why I always want to be involved in creating more of an equitable place for Māori to participate in film and television, is because of my grandmother being strapped in school for speaking Māori  – literally having her language beaten out of her.”

Her early success in film led to meeting her film-making idol, Merata Mita, working on Saving Grace: Te Whakarauora Tangata, a documentary about child abuse. Mita died before the film was complete and a devastated Winstanley was left to finish Saving Grace and getting it to screen in 2011, something she feels as her greatest achievement as a creative Maori woman.

Industry recognition for her work began to flow and she was awarded the 2014 SPADA Screen Industry Awards Independent Producer of the Year.. The following year she was named the New Zealand Women in Film and Television’s Mana Wāhine recipient.

Her CV continued to grow with co-production of the mockumentary vampire horror hit What We Do in the Shadows in 2014. She was also part of the team of Māori women behind acclaimed anthology film Waru, which featured in film festivals across the globe in 2017.

Winstanley collaborated with Merata Mita’s son Heperu to produce what was for her, an emotionally significant 2018 documentary, called Merata: How Mum Decolonised the Screen. The film is now available on Netflix.

“There’s so much important work that Merata was doing that really has been an encouraging beacon for us all to follow. She was just phenomenal, and it was a real honour to be able to support her son to make that film,” she says.

She was Oscar®-nominated in 2020 for her work as a producer on Jojo Rabbit and then returned to New Zealand where she announced the launch of LA and Aotearoa-based production company This Too Shall Pass — to tell “authentic stories with unique cultural perspectives”.

A recent project in August 2020 was the release of a short film made entirely on an iPhone 12Pro Max, celebrating the opening of an exhibition entitled Toi Tū Toi Ora: Visual Sovereignty, a celebration of contemporary Māori art at the Auckland Art Gallery. 

Chelsea has also recently been announced as a new member of the producer’s branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Winstanely is humble about her own success and values the efforts of those trailblazers who’ve gone before her and left the industry here in such good shape. 

“There are so many incredible Kiwis known around the world for working in this industry, and people – those big companies, all the studios, and all the performers, know they can rely on us, they know our quality is so high. 

“I think we’re a nation of innovators, and I feel like we are always up for a challenge. Not just that, but we’re really good storytellers. 

“Sometimes I think we’re too modest. And there’s a fine balance… We think we’re not allowed to celebrate ourselves, or only if they celebrate us overseas first, are we allowed to celebrate ourselves. 

“We have to learn to be a bit better about celebrating one another,” she says.

Awards
2020 American Film Institute Awards – Film of the year (joint winner): Jojo Rabbit
2020 Academy Awards – Nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year: Jojo Rabbit
2020 Golden Globe Awards – Nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy: Jojo Rabbit
2020 Producers Guild of America Awards – Nominated for Outstanding Producer of a Theatrical Motion Picture (with Carthew Neal and Taika Waititi): for Jojo Rabbit
2020 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards (United States) – Nominated for Best Picture: Jojo Rabbit & Nominated for Best Comedy: Jojo Rabbit
2019 Toronto International Film Festival – People’s Choice Award: Jojo Rabbit
2015 WIFT New Zealand Film and Television Awards (Women in Film and Television) – Mana Wahine Award
2014 Rialto Channel New Zealand Film Awards (The Moas) – Best Self-Funded Film: What We Do in the Shadows
2014 SPADA Screen Industry Awards (Screen Production and Development Association, New Zealand – Independent Producer of the Year (shared with Taika Waititi)
2014 Toronto Film Festival – Peoples Choice Award – Midnight Madness Section: What We Do in the Shadows
2013 Hong Kong Film Festival – Firebird Award: Night Shift
2013 Aspen Shortfest (United States) – Youth Jury Prize: Night Shift
2013 Show Me Shorts Film Festival (New Zealand) – Best Film (shared with Matt Noonan): Night Shift
2012 Berlin Film Festival – Crystal Bear – Best Short Film – Generation 14plus section: Meathead
2012 Flickerfest (Australia) – ING Direct Award for Best Film: Ebony Society
2011 Aotearoa Film and Television Awards – Best Short Film: Ebony Society
2011 Cannes Film Festival – Nominated for Palme d’Or for Best Short Film: Meathead
2011 Chicago Film Festival – Silver Plaque: Meathead
2011 Brussels International Independent Film Festival – Nominated for Best Short Film: Ebony Society
2009 WIFT New Zealand Film and Television Awards – Woman to Watch Award

Raised in Kaitaia, Cooper says geography was no impediment to achieving success and anybody from small-town Northland could make it with hard work and dedication.

“I’m very proud to be a son of Kaitaia. I was raised there and grew up on Ninety Mile Beach, going fishing with my father, so I have that in my soul,” he said.

As a teenager, he was selected as an American Field Scholar, spending a year with a hardworking family and attending college in Kansas City.

This adventure had a huge impact on him and set in place his determination to one day return to America and try his hand at making his way in all that America had to offer.

He returned home to attend the University of Auckland graduating with a law degree. And it was while practising commercial and property law at Russell McVeagh that Peter met Chris Mace. They set sail together, forming Mace Developments, listing it as a public company in 1986.

Together they launched a deal that would become legend in New Zealand – the merger of brewer Lion with major retailer LD Nathan to become Australasian brewing giant, Lion Nathan.

It was after this that Peter came to the conclusion he’d gone as far as he could in New Zealand and it was time to fulfil his dream of returning to the USA and stepping up to a bigger challenge.

Peter and Sue had married a decade earlier. Their five children arrived in quick succession, two sets of twins plus one, and the entire family shifted to America and settled in the Newport precinct of Southern California. Peter went on to build a series of successful businesses while they integrated their five children into American life schools and sport.

Together with American Brian Stebbins, Peter founded property development company Cooper and Stebbins. Major shopping developments were undertaken, including Southlake Town Square in Dallas, Texas, an enormous shopping district ten times the size of Auckland’s St Luke’s Mall.

While real estate was his initial entree into the US from the late eighties and nineties, Peter always maintained a portfolio of public and private companies – again, with his usual long-term approach.

Britomart

For New Zealanders, Peter’s most visible and enduring legacy is the billion-dollar Britomart Urban Restoration project, blending the renewal of a large cluster of historic and partially derelict buildings with new builds, to transform and invigorate downtown Auckland.

“In truth it is my love for New Zealand and my feeling of being homesick for my heritage which deepened with time,” Peter says.

“We were always looking to find a larger commercial project to help justify our frequent visitations to our Mothers in NZ – this led to us uncovering Britomart and persuading Council to think of it as a precinct development opportunity rather than just a carpark to sell off to individual developers.

We’d created a broadly similar undertaking at Southlake in Texas – so had the opportunity to demonstrateto Council in the competitive bidding process our ability to deliver what today Britomart has become,” he says.

Adam Mikkelsen, Principle, Private Equity for Cooper and Company says he sees Britomart as Peter’s “creative legacy”.

“He could have sliced and diced [Britomart] 10 different ways and probably made more money, and got his cash out. But he wanted to build something enduring.And it’s brought a quality of retail and a quality of experience and vision of how an urban city can work. It’s a better city for it in my mind.”

Real Estate supremo John Bayley tells the story of how Peter became part of the Britomart deal when he came back from America in 1998.

“He had a vision for Britomart that we really couldn’t see ourselves, but it’s all there now in front of our eyes. He’s got some special qualities that enabled him to see things way ahead of when we can.”

Matthew Cockram came on board as chief executive of what was then called Bluewater Group to work on the Britomart project and says the result speaks for itself.

“It’s certainly the only development in the city that’s had one owner – one consistent hand of control right the way through. And he’s steered the ship very conservatively, with a real eye to doing things very, very well – not getting ahead of ourselves, and not giving up on the market or the community,” he says.

But while the Britomart development is Peter’s most public example of his thoughtful curation, those in the know say The Landing is where his skills and his cultural ambitions are demonstrated at their best – bringing together his deep love of the North and his devotion to heritage and authenticity.

The Landing is spectacular, a 333 hectare Bay of Islands sheep and beef farm located at the tip of the Purerua Peninsula that Peter bought in 2001. Over the past 20 years, the farm has undergone regeneration as a heritage and conservation property, as well as becoming home to luxury residences, lodges, farmland and an award-winning vineyard.

Peter has registered 43 historical sites on the property. “It’s one of the few pieces of land in New Zealand, other than Britomart, that’s a heritage area as opposed to just a heritage place,” Cockram says.

Art Benefactor

An incredible supporter of New Zealand art and New Zealand artists, Peter and Sue established the Britomart Arts Foundation, along with John Gow, Jenny Gibbs, and Michael Freelander, seeding an initial donation of $1 million and donating works by New Zealand artists.

The foundation has funded a number of works, and the most significant being Tim Gruchy’s interactive ‘Scout’ work, which stands in the square at Britomart.

The satellite exhibition of the Toi Tū Toi Ora Auckland Art Gallery was also supported and funded by the arts foundation which including the public works by Shane Cotton, Lonnie Hutchinson, Charlotte Graham, and also Lyonel Grant.

Peter and Sue also supported the development of the ASB Waterfront Theater through his business, Cooper and Company in a development and governance aspect.

Family Man

Devotion to family has been central to Peter’s story. As a family man, and an only child, he was likewise devoted to late Mother Molly. He built Molly (and his mother-in-law) houses on his Takapuna property and treated them with great love and kindness.

Three of the Cooper’s sons played football at Georgetown, while a daughter, Kylie, was co-captain of the swimming team. Peter would regularly fly six hours each way from his office in California to Georgetown University in Washington, DC. to see the boys play football and be on the sidelines. He’d fly back on Sunday, and back in the office on Monday.

Peter and Sue now split their time between the US and New Zealand, and are renowned for their strong advocacy for New Zealand.

Personal Discipline

Peter is his own biggest critic and believes that constant measurement and critique of your degree of achievement is the key.

“In my case I do an annual assessment and set out my goals for the next year. I then annually assess myself and measure my success. I have been doing it for around 40 yrs and still do it – My Annual Review…

By any measure of success, Peter Cooper is a real global success and we welcome Peter Cooper as a worthy recipient of the title of Kea World Class New Zealander.

Awards

Cooper was awarded the University of Auckland Business School’s Outstanding Maori Business Leader Award in 2008.

Cooper was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s 2014 New Year Honours list.

Listen to Peter Cooper’s interview with Julian Wilcox from the RNZ National Saturday Morning show on the audio link below.

“I came away 10 days later saying I’m going to come and live here someday. I had never felt that connection to a place that strongly before. And I never really lost that dream,” he says.

Son of an engineer, Canada-born James Cameron majored in physics at California State University before switching to English, eventually dropping out. He then drove a truck to support his screenwriting ambition, until he landed his first professional film job as art director, miniature-set builder, and process-projection supervisor on Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond the Stars (1980).

In 1990, Cameron formed his own production company, Lightstorm Entertainment. He then wrote and directed Titanic (1997), a epic that became the highest-grossing movie of all time… for 12 years, until Cameron beat his own incredible personal best with Avatar (2009), grossing an astounding USD two billion dollars at the box office.

“People call me a perfectionist, but I’m not. I’m a rightist. I do something until it’s right, and then I move on to the next thing,” James says.

Despite being one of the most sought-after directors in Hollywood, Cameron is also an explorer with a huge passion for the planet. In 2012 he reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest known point on Earth, 11 km below the ocean surface, becoming the first person to do so in a one-man craft. He later famously commented, “Hitting rock bottom never felt so good”.

In 2000, he married Suzy Amis, an actress who’d appeared in Titanic. Suzy is a powerhouse in her own right and has an impressive CV as an educator and environmentalist, as well as actor. 

“My personal journey is all about the environment,” Suzy tells. “It’s what wakes me up in the morning with a pit in my stomach – what kind of planet are our children going to grow up in?” 

The Cameron family – James, Suzy, and their family – live on a 5000-hectare farm in the South Wairarapa, where they grow organic fruit, nuts and vegetables. 

And from the farm, it’s an easy commute to Wellington’s Miramar film hub where Avatar has been filmed and the technical production continues.

Both James and Suzy are incredibly passionate about New Zealand, its geography and its people. Recalling his first visit and unexpected discovery of New Zealand in the mid-1990s, James describes New Zealand as “my kind of country”, because of the “sensory stimulation” of the natural environment and “making real connections with people”. 

“I came as a stranger. I knew very little about New Zealand and I left in love with it. Not just the land, the beauty of the land, obviously, is very seductive but there’s something about the dynamic spirit of the people.”

“If you enjoy the outdoors and you enjoy a sense of adventure, you’re not going to be able to beat this place anywhere in the world,” James says.