RESCHEDULED - Update on USA from Leon Grice, NZ Consul General in Los Angeles

Leon has been the New Zealand Consul General Los Angeles since June 2012. He has an extensive background in business and govenement.

Leon will talk about:

• ·         Awareness of New Zealand in US markets
• ·         The continuing momentum in US economic growth, particularly on the West Coast
• ·         The fastest growing West Coast markets of San Francisco; Seattle and West LA
• ·         Changing consumer behaviours for goods
• ·         The role of Hawaii and Las Vegas as stepping stones into more difficult markets
• ·         Continued rise of commercial service trade with the US – focused on the West Coast
• ·         Californian politics and current issues

Bio on Leon
His career in the private sector as a business owner and entrepreneur was interrupted in 2009 when he was asked to establish the New Zealand 2011 Office which was responsible for the leverage and legacy programme delivered for Rugby World Cup 2011.

That Office was established within Ministry of Economic Development working to Neville Harris, the Government’s lead official for the Rugby World Cup. The Office included, at peak, over 40 employees, government agency secondees and contractors and it successfully delivered the business engagement, showcase, festival and community
engagement programmes for the Tournament.

Prior to that, Leon’s diverse business career has been in public affairs, marketing, overseas investment facilitation and start-up businesses. In 1995 he established one of
Wellington’s leading public affairs and investor relations companies, Busby Ramshaw Grice Ltd. Leon assisted Canadian, US and Australian business to invest in New Zealand forestry, electricity generation and distribution and oil and gas industries.

In 2000 he established an entrepreneurial business that created a number of start-ups including the successful out-of-home digital media business Twenty4media Ltd. He has strong experience building new teams and restructuring companies and assisted Te Ohu

Kai Moana (Maori Fisheries Commission) to create Aotearoa Fisheries Limited which now owns Sealords, Moana Pacific and Prepared Foods. Most recently he assisted the
Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority to build the new Christchurch Central Development Unit led by Warwick Isaacs.

Date: 25th March

Time: 5.00pm to 7.00pm