Growing our World Class community

Chantelle Nicholson

Chantelle Nicholson is a multi-award winning chef, owner of Apricity Restaurant (Michelin Green Star 2023) in Mayfair, former chef-owner of now-closed and much-loved Covent Garden restaurant Tredwells (the recipient of a green Michelin star in 2021) and All’s Well, a ‘pandemic pop-up’. One of the leading female voices in the UK’s hospitality industry, Chantelle is an advocate for seasonality and sustainability, championing veg-forward cooking through both the restaurant and her cookbook, Planted. She is a passionate advocate for women in the food industry and a lot of the principles for her menu creation came from growing up in New Zealand surrounded by amazing produce, being in nature and really being connected to where food came from and how it gets onto a plate. 

Chantelle always offers time and insights to incoming NZ businesses, supports NZ Inc activities, including creating bespoke menus and catering for visiting NZ ministers and Prime Ministers. Originally from NZ, and a trained lawyer, Chantelle is committed to creating a more sustainable future across her operation and activities, whilst also being an independent board member for ReLondon and a Food Council member for City Harvest. She is also an Ambassador for Chefs in Schools.

Christopher Yu

With a background in both law and accounting, Christopher practised tax litigation at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Wellington prior to moving to London in 1999. In 2002 Christopher left the City where he worked as a solicitor in investment banking to start a niche fragrance distribution business for luxury candle pioneer Diptyque. From there he went on to found 

United Perfumes, launching high profile fragrance brands around the world. United Perfumes have designed and consulted on launches for Paul Smith, Orla Kiely and Berkeley Hotel.Christopher has been instrumental in leading luxury business operations from creation, development, production, distribution & retail. 

Christopher is dedicated to understanding supply chain and sustainability issues, and is exceptionally proud of his NZ heritage and upbringing, shaping his drive, determination & mindset that it brings to the table for him in a global business arena. Passionate about the arts he sits on many Theatre Boards in London and throughout his life has always given back, be it teaching English as a second language as a 16 year old to newly arrived immigrants to New Zealand, to 2023 where he is utilising his success, connections and passion to support other Kiwi businesses to achieve success offshore. 

Tina Waru

Tina was raised in Taranaki, New Zealand before moving to Australia, she grew up in a creatively driven community where her family lineage was heavily involved in the performing, visual and literary arts of New Zealand. Starting her career as a makeup artist in the fashion industry, she later began working within the Australian health and education sector, where she helped develop initiatives empowering Australian aboriginal and Global indigenous communities. 

In 2011 she founded the Global Indigenous Runway Project in Melbourne to encourage and create opportunities for Indigenous, Maori and Pasifika youth in the creative world.The mission evolved into Global Indigenous Management where the organisation pioneered the world’s first Indigenous Fashion Runway events for First Nations designers. These events have locally and globally been showcased in the Melbourne fashion week and Melbourne fashion festivals. Tina Waru has helped lead this platform for indigenous youth with great success supporting more than 1800 young people and her company has been widely praised for its efforts supporting indigenous youth, receiving many awards. 

Alexia Hilbertidou

Alexia is the founder of GirlBoss NZ – NZ’s largest organisation for young women. In 8 years, GirlBoss has grown to 17,500 members and programmes have been implemented in more than 100 schools across New Zealand, Australia and the Cook Islands. Her own mission is to get women to the boardroom table, and she believes the decisions made while young are crucial in paving the way.

Alexia has spoken at some of the world’s largest conferences such as The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and One Young World, sharing stages with speakers such as Richard Branson, HRH Meghan Markle, and JK Rowling. She has been named New Zealand’s Gender Equality Ambassador at the World Expo, a National Geographic Explorer, and a Facebook Leadership Fellow. Alexia studied Leadership for Change at the University of Cambridge and holds a Masters in Emerging Technologies. She has achieved more than 30 Awards for her work, including being named the Pacific Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Forbes 30 under 30, Semi-Finalist for Young New Zealander of the Year. She was also awarded a Queen’s Young Leader Award for Services to the Commonwealth by Her Majesty, The Queen, at Buckingham Palace. She was selected from over 20,000 nominations and is the youngest Commonwealth Citizen to hold this honour.