Growing our World Class Community – July 2024

Barry Koolen

Barry is originally from the Waikato and was educated at St Johns Collect in Hamilton. These days he is based in London and is the CEO of EMEA: the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, for Crown. He has been part of the Crown team since 1996, holding many leadership and development roles over that time. He has been involved in the company’s ESG strategy and the implementation of technology into the company over the decades. He also supported work on a world leading carbon tracking system for Crown customers.

Barry is on the board of the Te Papa foundation, most recently he helped the foundation raise money for a book on the Maori land wars, which recently was distributed free of charge to every New Zealand school. He is an active part of the New Zealand community in London and has supported many Kiwi individuals and businesses when they have arrived in the UK. Barry is part of the NZ society of London and retains a strong interest in Rugby and the All Blacks. He is also been involved in mentoring programmes for Kiwi as part of his work at Crown.

Michael Grieve

Michael is based in Dubai and is the Chief Brand Officer for global luxury hospitality company Jumeirah Group. During his career Michael has worked with a multitude of leading international brands including BMW Group, adidas, and Nike on brand management for both BMW and MINI, the adidas running and basketball business, and Nike’s Jordan brand. In his previous role as Vice President Brand & Client EMEA at Gucci, Michael led the functions and teams that drive all marketing, communications, and client engagement activities for the Gucci maison across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

Michael is a Beachhead advisor for NZTE Europe/UK, a supporter of several New Zealand charities and has mentored other up and coming Kiwi and shared his own business lessons across events and conferences. He is a passionate New Zealander and not afraid to bring his experiences growing up in New Zealand to the leadership tables that he sits on.

Tenby Powell

Tenby’s career spans the private business sector, government entities, Not-For Profit and the Military. He was educated at the University of Waikato (awarded Distinguished Alumnus in 2010) and Harvard Business School and has held senior management positions in Fletcher Challenge and Skellerup Group. In 1999 he formed his private investment company, Hunter Powell Investments Limited.

Tenby is a former Mayor of Tauranga and the founder of the charity organisation Kiwi K.A.R.E, which helps bring essential aid and evacuation services to the people of Ukraine. In 2011, he founded the New Zealand SME Business Network, a charity which gives small Business Owners a voice through the creation of a Network-of-Influence with a secondary objective to provide support to small business owners by those who have a track record in successfully growing SMEs here & abroad. Tenby has held Directorships of Antarctica New Zealand, Acrow Limited, The Icehouse, The Auckland Resource Helicopter Trust and Angel Link. He represents New Zealand internationally serving as a member of the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and Co-chair of the Digital Innovation Working group.

Rachna Bhasin

Based in Miami Rachna is the Founder of EQ Partners, Sr Advisor Alignment Growth, Co-founder, Board Director for Pacifica Investments,Ryman Hospitality, Shutterstock, PropertyGuru, Audiomack and also an advisor to multiple startups.

Born in India she moved to Wellington as a child. She studied at Victoria University in Wellington before moving to Australia and then Hong Kong. She got her MBA at Harvard and worked for EMI ahead of the launch of the apple ipod, and then went on to forge a career at the forefront of digital music. She worked for a satellite company which created a subscriber based online music model and later acquired Pandora and Soundcloud and was also part of the team who worked on one of the highest event funded startups ever – working with Sir Richard Taylor and Steven Speilberg.

She is also the co-founder of Pacifica Investments, an advisory, consultancy and investment firm focused on identifying and amplifying technologies, brands and entrepreneurs from New Zealand and the Pacific Rim.