Credit: Yellow
We are essentially operating as a startup within a large corporate framework
Darren Linton has been named CEO of Yellow, following a brief period as acting CEO.
He held the role as concurrent chief marketing officer, at a time of Yellow’s pivot to become New Zealand’s largest digital agency for small and medium businesses. Yellow was recently recognised as the best at growing business online in Australasia in the Google Premier Partner awards.
“We are essentially operating as a startup within a large corporate framework and focusing on innovation that will give every New Zealand business the tools to connect, thrive and achieve their potential,” says Linton on the new focus of Yellow.
“Darren’s multifaceted skill set orbits around one thing: his ability to create sustainable business growth,” says Brett Chenoweth, chairman at Yellow. “At Yellow he is applying his experience in leading digital, media and content marketing teams to achieve commercial outcomes that is making Yellow the best, biggest and smartest digital agency for SMEs and an essential service provider to Kiwi businesses and their customers.”
Linton joined Yellow as its CMO in late 2015, when he returned to New Zealand after working as a marketing executive at Johnson & Johnson, The Walt Disney Company, Universal Pictures and Zero Degrees West in the UK.
Richard Ashworth has joined the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society as chief technology and innovation officer, following four years as CIO at the Commerce Commission.
Before this, he was manager, business technology group customer services at ACC.
Janice Cox is appointed CA vice president and managing director, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ). Cox replaces Paul Falkenstein who, after almost 20 years with the company – the last as managing director – will stay on to ensure a smooth transition into the business for Cox before starting his well-earned retirement.
Cox was most recently with Telstra where she was a director in its managed customer segment. Prior to that, she was the vice president - personal systems group at Hewlett Packard.
Kiwi firm Jupl creates breakthrough for dementia care
A recent case study has proven that technology can and will provide people with early onset dementia the ability to live more independently and allow their loved ones the comfort of knowing where they are throughout the day and if they become distressed at any time.
Following an intensive international collaboration between Spark, Samsung and Cisco-Jasper alongside New Zealand software company Jupl, the Samsung Gear S3 Frontier has been trialled by voluntary participants in New Zealand to ascertain the suitability for day to day use with early stage dementia patients. The results have been extremely positive.
“The success of this trial and fact that our technology is enabling people to have a better quality of life that allows family members to be less stressed is an amazing feeling. It also opens up so many future possibilities to help carers and sufferers of other conditions like epilepsy or autism,” says Jupl CEO Alan Brannigan.
The Samsung Jupl smartwatch has an inbuilt Spark SIM that works just like a phone, so if a wearer ever feels distressed, all that is needed is to push the button on the watch and the wearer is instantly connected to the nominated family member/s mobile. Additionally, if a family member can’t get a hold of their loved one by calling the watch, it is a simple process of checking the Jupl app on their smart device to locate the watch wearer.
The Samsung Jupl smartwatch has GPS capabilities so it can be seen in real time. The smartwatch does need to be charged each night but should the Jupl smartwatch ever get low on battery, a carer is instantly notified.
“The watch is such a huge step forward for us being able to have peace of mind again in our lives. We want to both remain as independent as possible so that we can carry on doing the things we love,” says Bevan Hogan, a trial participant.
More than $1 million has been gifted to the University of Auckland Campaign For All Our Futures by Canadian philanthropist John McCall MacBain to create a one of the country’s most prestigious scholarship programmes.
The Kia Tūhura Scholarship Programme will be offered to exceptional postgraduate students with a view to developing the next generation of New Zealand leaders. Initially focusing on the sciences, up to 20 scholarships will be available from 2019, accompanied by a leadership programme.
“These scholarships are an incredible opportunity for New Zealand’s top students to prepare for challenging careers and to speak out and lead in their communities,” says University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon says. “The programme will also help New Zealand to retain home-grown talent by fostering a cohesive community of exceptional scholars.”
McCall MacBain is one of the world’s most generous philanthropists to education. He gave an unprecedented $150 million gift to Oxford University’s Rhodes Scholarships in 2013, and is himself a former Rhodes Scholar.
Like the Rhodes, the Kia Tūhura Scholarships will support and nurture talented students with the potential to make real change in the world. Each scholar will be matched with a high calibre mentor to advise, challenge and guide. Mentors will be drawn from a variety fields and roles, from business leaders to senior policy makers.
For the first five years, the scholarship will be focused on developing exceptional science leaders, before expanding to other disciplines.
“We believe the sciences, medicine and engineering are areas of great significance for the future of New Zealand in a global economy,” says Professor McCutcheon.
“While New Zealand’s long term success will take much more than just scientific leadership, John’s inspirational support will create a more agile and responsive science and innovation community that makes a major impact on our health, economy, environment and society.”
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