Jenny Ruth at Radio New Zealand spoke with GFNZ (formerly Geneva Finance) managing director David O’Connell on 3 May 2013.

The company announced that its scheduled 30 September 2013 moratorium repayment to investors would be paid out on 8 May. This development means investors will receive payments approximately five months earlier than previously signalled.

The announcement was in keeping with Geneva’s early repayment record:  earlier-than-scheduled repayments were also made in September 2010, March and September 2011, March and September 2012, and March 2013.

The interview can be heard here.

Space Studio’s latest projects have made headlines thanks to their innovative and refreshing take on leading men’s ‘suit and tie’ stores Rembrandt and 3 Wise Men.  Space Studio’s re-design of each company’s flagship store reflects the brands’ differing target markets yet has one element in common: taking the stress and hassle out of the purchasing process.

The link can be seen here.

Jeff Walters, partner at law firm Lowndes Associates took on the hot topic of Auckland housing in the latest opinion piece in the New Zealand Herald.

Highlighting the demand and struggle to enter the property market Mr Walters recommended a strategy to enable young families to purchase their first home.

The article struck a chord with the New Zealand Herald readers with the comments section providing an interesting cross-section of opinion.

Gill South of the New Zealand Herald spoke with Space Studio’s Vee Kessner on 4 March 2013.

The article on small business looks at the corporate techniques and systems Vee uses to run her team of 10. Space Studio is an interior design and procurement logistics business specialising in hospitality, retail and commercial groups, both locally and internationally.

Vee says large businesses can learn from SMEs and their ability to change quickly.

“During the financial crisis we could be working on a large project and the finance would stop. You have to be able to react to that.”

A link to the article can be seen here.

AC team member Stephanie Jones has been serving the nation tasty literary treats with her weekly book reviews on Coast FM. You can scroll through the archives here, tune into Coast FM or follow her on twitter @parsingthepage to get her take on the latest in the bookshelves. 

GFNZ, formerly Geneva Finance, has used a structure developed in-house to raise $1.66 million from eight professional investors. The eight investors include chairman David Smale, director Robin King and others have previously invested in Geneva.

The National Business Review covered this latest update from GFNZ including future plans to use the securitization facility again

Read the full article here: http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/gfnz-group-raises-166-million-bd-135115

Be.Leadership was started by the New Zealand social change enterprise, Be.Accessible. Created to address the lack of leadership development among people with disabilities, the course runs over a year, with participants meeting several times a month.

In December 2012, 15 Be.Leadership participants graduated at an event held at Parliament.

Several of the Be.Leadership graduates were profiled in local newspapers around the country following their graduation. Kim Silvey was featured in the Whangarei Leader on 11 December; Brent Machpherson featured in the Cambridge Edition on 12 December 2012; and Sonia Pivac appeared in the Auckland City Harbour News on 9 January 2013.

Each article focused on the individual’s as leaders, profiling the Be.Leadership course and Be.Accessible. Accessible versions of the articles, can be read online at the following links: one, two and three.

In the cover story ‘Why diversity really matters’ New Zealand Management reported that around 20 percent of New Zealanders live with a disability and it’s estimated that around 43 percent of those at working age are under- or unemployed.

Be.Accessible chief executive Minnie Baragwanath shared some background with Ruth Le Pla of New Zealand Management magazine about Be.Accessible and the nationwide accessibility movement to join dots between accessibility, employment and wider economic success. The story covering diversity in the workplace highlights the benefits of recruiting a diverse workforce and the challenges faced by those living with an accessibility challenge.

Be.Accessible is managed by the Be.Institute, a social enterprise that aims to work across all sectors and communities throughout New Zealand. The belief is that every person has their part to play in the creation of accessibility regardless of how big or small the change.

The full article can be read online here, or in the latest issue of New Zealand Management magazine.

Andrew Christie and engineers Stuart Monteith and Owen Youngof Pacific Rubber spoke with Nadine Chalmers-Ross from Breakfast on 2 October about the innovative and sustainable process for recycling used tyres.

acific Rubber sources old tyres from across the North Island and strips and shreds them in the Takanini-based Auckland factory to be used as a rubber crumb and buffing product.

The rubber crumbs are used in playgrounds and with synthetic grass in playing fields, making the field available for use year-round. St Peter’s College in Auckland has a Pacific Rubber turf in place, created with 80,000 used tyres that would have otherwise been sent to landfill.

Pacific Rubber sees great future potential for their product and is excited about the possibility of improvingNew Zealand’s transport with rubberised roads.

To watch the full clip select the link below:

http://tvnz.co.nz/breakfast-news/growing-business-pacific-rubber-video-5123304

Pacific Rubber also featured on the front page of the Business Section of the New Zealand Herald in August in ‘Rise in synthetic pitches boost local firm‘

Former maths teacher Cathy Stephenson is the executive general manager of group operations and information systems at The Trust Company, parent company of The Guardian Trust. She was interviewed by Angelique Jurd of IT Brief about her transition from the classroom to the corporate world and her role at The Trust Company. The article appeared in print and also online in March 2012.