World changing Kiwi

A prolific publisher across international journals and widely respected, Prof. Le Gros shows no interest in putting his feet up and taking it easy anytime soon. 

Alongside his role leading the Malaghan Institute and it’s headline work in cancer immunotherapy and COVID-19 vaccine development, he has some audacious research goals of his own: to develop better treatment options for allergic and inflammatory diseases including coeliac disease, asthma, allergy, multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.

What drives him? Changing health outcomes for people, both here and all over the world. 

Prof. Le Gros believes the role New Zealand can play in the global development of cancer immunotherapies and vaccines is significant. 

The Malaghan Institute is a partner in the Vaccine Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand – Ohu Kaupare Huaketo (VAANZ), part of the Government’s COVID-19 vaccine strategy, tasked with running a national vaccine development and evaluation platform to ensure ongoing access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for New Zealand and our Pacific neighbours. 

“I think that we need to start believing in ourselves. I think we’ve been caught flat footed, and we don’t have the science and technology base to be able to respond well.

“We used to make smallpox vaccine in the 1970s. And I think a key lesson is that we have to invest in our own infrastructure and people, so that we have capability to carry this off. We also have to be part of the international response network. Because we’re so vulnerable, and there will be more pandemics. 

“We’re already doing that in the cancer space. Can we actually make cancer treatment discoveries here in New Zealand? Can we make cancer therapies here in New Zealand? I believe we can, and I think it’s just fantastic that we’re managing to get there now.”

In late 2019, the Malaghan Institute kicked off a New Zealand-first clinical trial of CAR T-cell cancer therapy, a revolutionary approach to fighting cancer, that redirects a patient’s own immune cells in the laboratory to identify and attack cancer cells when infused back into the body. 

It comes off the back of many years of work by the Institute’s cancer research programmes investigating how to boost the immune system’s cancer-killing properties. 

For Prof. Le Gros, harnessing the power of the immune system offers limitless potential for the future of human health. “The ability to dial the immune system up or down through natural means is taking us to unexplored territory that will transform and personalise the treatment of disease.”

His latest research is exploring the therapeutic potential of human hookworm with a trial that involves allowing a small number of hookworms to enter the human gut, where they take up residency in the small intestine. 

Hookworms can stimulate a lot of clinically helpful responses but also suppress the human immune system to evade detection and persist in the body. It’s this ability that could offer “huge therapeutic potential”, dampening down harmful immune responses in their human host .

“There are so many people suffering from gut issues, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel syndromes… even a small dose of it takes their life away and they live in misery. 

“This hookworm therapy approach is one we’ve developed after more than 20 years of research, and it may actually bring some relief to some people. So, success would be developing an approved therapy that helps people get their lives back.”

He is grateful to those great Kiwis who went before him, such as Professor Jim Watson and Professor John Marbrook, his PhD supervisors at the University of Auckland. 

“If you’re a decent human being and show that you want to work hard and help others, you can join this international network of really motivated people across these global white-hot centers of excellence. So, I could stand on the shoulders of giants and then move on.

“The support I’ve received from wonderful people overseas in helping New Zealand grow and develop its infrastructure and capability around infectious diseases and immunology is incredible.

“I hope I can do the same for the people that I’ve trained and developed here in New Zealand.”

“We are privileged to have a whole lot of fantastic PhD students who are trained and developed here in New Zealand. And they’ve gone around the world, Australia, Canada, the United States, Europe, Japan and the United Kingdom. And that speaks to the value of that network.”

What makes New Zealanders internationally capable?

“We’re a small nation… in New Zealand you’ve got to do a lot of things yourself. We tend to be… I don’t like to call it Jack-of-all-trades, but we seem to be able to cover a lot of areas. So that becomes very useful when managing and driving things forward. Especially in the overseas environment, we have a very pragmatic, down to earth approach. We can ignore a lot of the issues that can divide people in different countries and just get down to doing the job.”

Prof. Le Gros was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2014 and has received a number of national and international awards. We are adding one more to the sideboard, conferring on him the title of ‘World Class New Zealander’.

Jane Henley’s extensive career in sustainability began with a trip to Norway, just after completing her degree in her twenties, spending four years living there and ‘catching the sustainability bug’. 

“I realised that although New Zealand was very clean and green, it didn’t have the structure around sustainability that Norway did as a society. We didn’t even, back then, have recycling in place. We didn’t have corporate requirements to focus on wellness. And there just wasn’t the societal mentality around sustainability like there was in Norway. I really noticed that contrast between there and New Zealand. 

“And so, when I came back, that’s when I really started focusing on bringing back those lessons that I’ve learnt and figuring out how New Zealand with its green image actually backs that up.

In 2005 business leaders saw an opportunity to drive the growth of sustainable building through the establishment of a peak body. Jane was on the founding board of directors, then became the founding CEO of the New Zealand Green Building Council. 

The Council drove sustainability into the building and construction sector in New Zealand with dramatic impact. By 2009, 50 per cent of all new office buildings in New Zealand were being voluntarily built to the ‘GreenStar’ green building standard that Jane imported from Australia and adapted to Kiwi needs. 

“It started with the New Zealand Green Building Council – bringing industry leaders together in a forum, and then working with Government on the Government’s role and then creating a long-term strategy as to how you change the building industry to be more sustainable.

“That all happened quite a few years ago now, and we’ve seen some amazing progress. Homestar is mandated through all of the Kainga Ora portfolio and most commercial buildings that are built in New Zealand these days are using GreenStar voluntary standards.”

Jane was then approached to become CEO of the World Green Building Council, based in the US. Here Jane managed a multicultural team across eight countries, with a 21M portfolio supporting over 1Billion in Investments. 

Under her five-year tenure she increased membership from 30 countries to 100 countries, representing over 35,000 companies internationally – a phenomenal reach of influence. And in the process Jane also demonstrated to Governments the value of improving efficiency within the building sector via advocacy at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

Jane’s mandate was to grow the Green Building model in Developing Countries. It had been well established in Europe and in the US, Australia and New Zealand, so, the question was, would that structure of a not-for-profit building industry model work in the developing countries where most future building is going to happen?

“That was my mission there for those five years. Embracing the concept of industry-led standards, working closely with Government and then really empowering those leaders within the industry to take action – to figure out the business case and what is the business advantage in offering the market a green product?

Jane hit a lot of significant targets during that time, but began to feel there was a “bit of a gap”.

“We did this analysis in 2013 looking at the business case and really, what were the hard numbers behind green building? I saw in that work we did that the finance sector was not really involved in green building and that was probably the biggest barrier to us achieving the impact that we wanted.

“I felt like there were people were either in the sustainability camp or in finance and economics and there weren’t many people that could straddle both.”

Jane’s solution was to give herself “a bit of a grounding in hardcore kind of economics” at MIT in Boston, after which she started working at the World Bank as Global Operations Manager of Green Building for the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Here she managed a USD$21 million portfolio of projects in seven developing countries. 

“I really wanted to take a step in that direction because I felt like finance is the strongest driver – what requirements are attached to capital is probably the strongest driver for change.”

“The goal was to really deeply understand what the value of energy efficiency and carbon and sustainability was to those investments and track that over time and have some basic standards in place for those investments in countries that didn’t have their own standards. 

“So, it was taking a very global view on how you attach standards to finance that could be translated in that kind of international money flow.”

Jane spent three years in Washington, before she chose to return to New Zealand at the end of that term, which she says was, “really good timing”.

“I actually came back for personal reasons, but then COVID happened at the same time. So I’m glad I came back to New Zealand at this particular point of time.”

Since she’d been back, Jane’s been focused on what are the challenges in New Zealand, from her own broad perspective. 

“I’ve been working on the challenge that seems to be present in New Zealand around affordability and cost of housing, which with the Government, couples sustainability into that equation. So, I’ve been really looking at how does the Government scale up the use of off-site manufacturing in New Zealand.

“And for me, it’s a very similar challenge to what sustainability was 10 years ago. It’s niche. To get enough momentum for the industry to change and for that supply demand dynamic to change, there’s got to be some something that overcomes that inertia. With sustainability, it was a combination of corporate demand, more evidence, climate change being a driver. Whereas if we just look at New Zealand at the moment for off-site manufacturing, our issues are around affordability and quality.”

“Off-site manufacturing in Europe and parts of Asia and Japan, especially, 90% of homes in Sweden are built and factories and assembled on site. We’ve looked at those models of how that change occurs, and pretty much in every country it’s required Government to take a leadership role in their procurement. That’s the challenge that I’m working on now.”

Jane believes that great civilisations tend to be driven by a central guiding principle. Does she believe that New Zealand has one?

“I still think we’re a pretty young nation.  If I compare us to Norway, they’ve got a very solid, clear belief in societal culture and who they are. But here, I think the principle of Kaitiakitanga, of us all being guardians and being more connected to the beautiful place we live in is becoming stronger.”

“Because it just makes us be more connected to the place where we are. And to show more respect to it and find ways to integrate supporting the land, and everything that comes with the land, and the people that live on the land, into all business decisions and policy decisions.”

So, just has COVID-19 changed or accelerated that process? 

“I think the pandemic has definitely helped us be more people-focused. I think people have realised that just focusing externally on all of the things that we thought will make us happy, that can suddenly change.

“And so, I think there’s definitely some sort of shift towards people valuing friends and family and local experiences they can walk to and back to and where they live being amazing. 

“So I really do hope that we don’t really just focus on going back to normal. I think this new normal is quite healthy and once we get through the challenges around it I hope that we come out better and more connected to each other as people.”

So, does Jane feel she’s done her bit for the world or is the best yet to come?

“I think that there’s lots of people that spend time overseas like me, going out and gathering experiences and contrast and bringing it home. And figuring out how we bring that into our different areas of our work and life. And yeah, I guess that reintegration process, that’s kind of like the hero’s journey, right? You go on some trip overseas and overcome trials and tribulations, and then you bring your gifts home. That’s kind of what I feel like I’m doing at the moment, so it’s super exciting. 

“I feel like I’m constantly a student. I’m a student of life. I’m very grateful to be in New Zealand right now. I just think we’re really lucky to live in the best country in the world, and I’m just really excited about opportunities that exist for me to be part of things here, and to contribute what I can back to making New Zealand even better.”

Read more about Jane Henley’s return to Aotearoa in her interview with the Financial Times

That started a chain of events that has changed the face of contemporary dance in New Zealand and turned Black Grace into one of the most recognisable and iconic cultural brands. 

His company has toured the length and breadth of New Zealand developing new audiences and a new appreciation for dance. Internationally his work has been presented in the US, the UK, Europe, Asia and Australia, 

Numerous ‘firsts’ for a New Zealand choreographer include sell-out performances at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival (USA debut 2004 and 2005), a four-week season on New York City’s 42nd Street, performances at the renowned Cervantino Festival in Mexico, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the 2010 Cultural Olympiad in Vancouver. 

Honolulu proclaimed February 6, 2010 as ‘Black Grace Day’. And, the company was honoured at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2014 with plaudits for the “seemingly inexhaustible energy” of its dancers when reviewed by the New York Times during its 2019 Manhattan season.

Closer to home, The Sunday Star Times review said: ‘Black Grace is the most positive, living expression of any New Zealand art.’

Despite the accolades, Neil Ieremia has never forgotten his roots in Cannons Creek. He remains closely tied to Porirua, which continues to feed his dance work, while his supportive Samoan family provides vital connection and anchorage. 

Life in the ‘70 and ‘80s was tough for the Ieremias. He grew up as a state house kid in a working-class suburb and his parents had to work hard to put food on the table. Rheumatic fever at the age of five damaged Neil’s heart and dance provided physical and creative outlets for a boy forbidden to take part in risky sporting activity,

The importance of discipline, courage, and perseverance were all imbued early on. Money was in short supply, but relationships were rich. From his Dad he gained some of his artistic sensibilities and his Mum taught him the importance of careful money management. To someone running his own dance group, that skill has been as good as gold.

Dance was not a socially acceptable path for a young Kiwi male in a rugby-saturated culture. Neil’s family was horrified when he quit his bank job to join a dance school at the age of 19. Mum cried and Dad told him off. Undaunted, Neil took Samoan culture and rugby’s intensity and gave the world movement that is explosive, dramatic and an expression of soaring athleticism. Something that only the supremely fit and gifted should attempt. Dance for a South Pacific sporting nation.

Neil Ieremia’s choreography connects deeply to this country and to everyday experience. His wellsprings are visceral and tackle life lessons head-on. Works like A Letter to Earth were a meditation on mortality as he faced a second heart operation to repair the damage caused by rheumatic fever. Another work, Crying Men, deals with Pasifika expressions of masculinity and family loss.

The subject matter is tough and while he is a compassionate person, practice sessions can be physically brutal. He doesn’t spare his dancers, but like any good leader, is hardest on himself. 

He feels a great responsibility to his family, to his culture and to New Zealand and this has weighed on him, especially in earlier days. Looking back, he says, “I became a responsible adult really fast, and I lost my sort of freewheeling, fun self. 

“When we got to the Kennedy Center it was amazing; some of my idols had performed there across all sorts of different art forms, and I was gobsmacked. I felt a responsibility to New Zealand to not mess that up!”

The Covid-19 pandemic has been devastating for arts performance worldwide, so  once again he’s ‘re-inventing’ Black Grace. Neil confesses he’s not all that confident with technology but faced with the need to tell stories in new ways, he’s hard at work on an immersive experience that will use projections of dancers on a massive and dramatic scale. 

The new show, Fa’a (Samoan for “the way of being”) is the culmination of a vision from his earliest days. He says, “when I left art school, I wanted to create work that would be able to cross a whole bunch of different boundaries with all sorts of people; I just thought I wanted it to be as universal as I could make it.” The pilot project launches in June 2021 and he hopes that audiences will start to see and experience it in 2022.

In 2005 Neil Ieremia was made an Arts Foundation Laureate. Ten years later he was awarded the title of Senior Pacific Artist at the Creative New Zealand Pasifika Arts Awards 2015. The following year saw his appointment as an Official of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to dance in the New Years Honours List.

All of that is a long way from a Hastings childhood. Anna began her journalism career writing for the Rotorua Daily Post. At 24 she won a job at London’s Financial Times and worked as a foreign correspondent for 13 years. A ferocious work ethic set her apart from other aspirants. Anna recalls volunteering for reporting shifts on public holiday weekends when nobody else wanted to work, as a way to get some reporting under her belt.

Being on the spot at the right time paid dividends. “I was very lucky in that the Queen Mother considerately died one Easter on the holiday weekend, and I got a front-page story out of it because I’d volunteered to work,” she says.

“And I think that was a very Kiwi thing to do, throwing myself into situations, with a strong work ethic. I distinctly remember some posh British guy saying to me quite early on, “It’s not the done thing to show ambition around here…”

“And I just remember thinking “This is who I am, and I’m not from around here.” So I had this real sense from the get go at the Financial Times of being a New Zealander and not being British. So I continued putting myself forward for roles that I was unqualified for, just to signal my ambition and to create opportunities to audition.

That ambition paid dividends in 20013 when the Australia correspondent went on maternity leave in 2003. “They looked around and saw I was young and cheap and flexible and saw potential in me, and sent me off. That was really my big break,” she said.

Her next big posting to Seoul in 2004, gave rise to feelings of both excitement and terror. This would be her first experience of Asia; she had never eaten kimchi and couldn’t even say ‘hello’ in Korean. It proved a defining experience and led to her coverage of the first North Korean nuclear test in 2006. 

Anna’s next assignment was Tehran, but the Ahmadinejad regime emphasised its hostility to foreign journalists by refusing her a visa. Undeterred, she maintained an exhausting schedule of commuting from Seoul. 

After another year Anna was sent to Beirut to cover the Middle East during what proved to be an uncharacteristically quiet period in the region. Her coverage included the disputed Iranian presidential election of 2009, but soon she was on the move yet again, missing the tumult of the Arab Spring by months. This time she was appointed US Political Correspondent at the Obama White House. 

Anna hated Washington. She says she prefers getting out and about, getting her boots dirty and mixing with “real people”. After four years an opportunity beckoned as Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University 2013-14. The coverage she’d done of North Korea and Iran encouraged her to study how change happens in closed societies.

Anna returned to Asia in 2014, taking up the role of Tokyo bureau chief for the Washington Post and focusing her attention on news and issues in Japan and the Koreas. She began work on her first book, interviewing dozens of people who have met Kim Jong-un. Not interested in lampooning or satirising her subject, she portrayed him as a strategic and ruthless dictator prepared to kill members of his own family to retain power. Her work, The Great Successor: The Perfectly Divine Destiny of Brilliant Comrade Kim Jong Un, was published in June 2019.

“On the human level, especially in Asia, New Zealand is considered this kind of utopia, because of the nature. But on the more geopolitical level, Anna believes “we do have more sway than our size would suggest. Because I think we are considered to be relatively independent and principled. We don’t always go along with Five Eyes partners or with allies, and that we will make our own decisions. Things like the nuclear-free decision in 1984 is something that people kept talking to me about. I think people look at us as principled and living up to our values, and that that is our guiding force. It’s not ideological or political in that sense.”

Anna was at the peak of her craft when she returned to New Zealand with her young son in 2020 and accepted the role of Editor of Wellington’s Dominion Post – her return prompted in part by the pandemic and partly by the advent of the Trump era ‘fake news’ and the demonising of journalism.

“We saw, last year and the year before, what happens to a society when the media stops working properly or when fake news takes over. And really, I don’t think it’s too much hyperbole to say it became a matter of life and death during a pandemic. So, I came home with a real sense of mission that we, the media, could be playing a positive role in contributing to the functioning of our our democracy.”

But how does the media report on the pandemic, but not join in with some of the conspiracy rhetoric that’s out there, when it’s all so good at gaining clicks and getting media coverage.

“A big part of the reason that I chose to make that big call and leave behind the Washington Post and Jeff Bezos’s deep pockets was because I really believe that Sinead Boucher’s heart is in this enterprise (Stuff.co.nz), and that she is turning it into a company that serves the viewers’ interests. 

“Our metric is not clicks anymore, it’s trust, which is obviously extremely difficult to measure. But I think that even having that framework in our minds is extremely liberating. I’ve made decisions in the past few months where we will not write stories that are about anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theories, even if they would generate lots of clicks, but they would not contribute to the functioning of our country in a good way.

“Call me idealistic, but I want to believe it. Yeah. I’m up for the challenge of trying to make it become reality.”

Read more about Anna Fifield’s return to Aotearoa in her interview with Melanie Carroll

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2023 World Class New Zealand Awards