A graphic designer, innovator, marketer and recently turned entrepreneur, Gabrielle moved to the UK from Auckland about 8 years ago that just so happened to co -incide with the worldwide financial crisis. Luckily, with a few months up her sleeve, before the full effects of the crisis ricocheted across London, a job was secured. Not one to stay complacent, and realising the role was similar to the one Gabrielle left in Auckland, albeit on a larger scale, she took a gamble and quit to hunt for a role she really wanted.

"Thankfully it paid off and I spent 5 years with a great company within sports marketing that took me across the globe. To off beaten paths in China where I didn't see another foreigner for the entire duration, sampling food I had no idea what or where it came from, through to functions in Rio De Janeiro. Interestingly enough, at these functions I was often asked if I was the wife of my boss, in a world that is very male dominated."

How does a kiwi-gal evolve from contemporary dancer into advocate for the UK manufacturing industry? This is how. Dance degree in hand in 2003, Rachael ventured across the seas to pirouette her way through Europe. What she didn’t envisage was that, after time travelling and exploring, a number of other opportunities would come her way that would lead her to a surprising and very rewarding career in business….and eventually back in NZ. With a stint working at WHK Auckland supporting the development of SME capability through the logistical delivery and promotion of NZTE funded Exporter Education and Enterprise Training Programmes and, working on the development of the Export Readiness Programme for Producers of Dance & Theatre with Creative New Zealand, she is now back in the UK helping change perceptions that things are no longer made here.

At the age of 15, Courtney Linnecar decided to escape her home on a farm in the Manawatu. She says “To this day, I don’t know how on earth I got my parents to agree, but I was accepted on an exchange programme and went and lived in Berlin for a year”.

Now aged 30, Courtney has since studied European languages and business tourism at the University of Otago, lived in Madrid and Seville as an English teacher, worked with tigers in India, and helped run an eco-tourism project in Sierra Leone. She laughs and says “My twin brother will tell you, I’m always in a rush”.

Her mission now is bringing social media skills to businesses that do good and make money at the same time: the social enterprise sector as it’s known in the UK. Next year she wants to