Man about town Ricardo Simich brings you Society Insider. This week, he delves into the Mowbray family’s inner circle to find out more about the people helping run Mat, Anna, Nick and Andrew’s businesses, homes and social lives.
Society Insider: Anna, Nick, Mat Mowbray’s inner circle – meet the people closest to NZ’s richest family
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The Mowbray family – Mat Mowbray and Christina Tang; Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray; Jaimee Lupton and Nick Mowbray – have become familiar faces to New Zealanders, but who are the people in their inner circle? Photo / Herald composite
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All in the family
While growing up in the Waikato, it was family matriarch Linda Mowbray who taught her four children, Andrew, 46, Mathew (Mat), 44, Anna, 42, and Nicholas (Nick), 40, that there is no such word as can’t. Strong women run in the family: at the time of her death, their grandmother Margaret Mowbray, a Queen’s Service Medal recipient, was Mayor of Hamilton and had served on the Hamilton City Council for 16 years.
The siblings get their entrepreneurial spirit from their father, Harry, who worked in the pulp and paper industry as an engineer and built a portfolio of properties and farms. The family moved to a 2ha lifestyle block near Cambridge in the late 80s to be close to the co-ed private school St Peter’s, which all of the children attended.
When Mat was 10, Harry helped him develop a model hot air balloon, which won several competitions and science fairs. Guru Toys was born, and the family shipped toys all around the world while the children were in high school.
In 2004, a year after Mat and Nick began transforming Guru into a global toy giant Zuru – by relocating to China – Harry fulfilled a long-held dream: to buy and develop the derelict Matangi Dairy Factory.
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The 10 former dairy factory buildings on almost 4ha in Waikato were converted into a business hub.
Harry had more than 20 small businesses work out of the site, one of which was his son Andrew’s pay wave system for festivals, AWOP (Another Way of Paying).
The following year, Anna joined Nick and Mat in China, and the rest is history.
Harry and Linda now have 13 grandchildren: Andrew and wife Karen have three children and live in the Waikato; Mat and wife Christina have four; Anna has three from her first husband, with husband Ali Williams’ two children; and Nick has one, daughter Noa.
The whole Mowbray family came together on Fiji’s exclusive Kokomo Private Island last year for Anna and Ali’s wedding.
Mat and Christina
In 2016, Christina Tang made headlines as the Barfoot and Thompson salesperson who sold the Coatesville mansion formerly rented by Kim Dotcom to Nick, Anna, and Mat Mowbray for just over $30 million. A spark ignited with Mat and Christina, and, nine years later, the pair have four children – two boys and twin girls, all under the age of 5.
The family have been based mostly in Hong Kong, the location of Zuru’s global headquarters.
Christina originates from China and once worked in marketing for FMCG company Procter & Gamble, which prepared her for her current role as CEO of Zuru Edge for the greater China area.
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The family spend a lot of time in New Zealand, having enjoyed many Christmases at the Coatesville mansion, now named Mahoenui. Last summer, they spent time aboard the Mowbray family’s 40m superyacht, also called Mahoenui, and returned in July for some winter sailing, followed by a visit to Queenstown.
Jaimee and Nick
Jaimee Lupton has been with Nick Mowbray for more than seven years, although the pair have been friends for 12, after having met in 2013. They have been engaged for more than three years, with no immediate plans for their wedding.
Jaimee graduated from the Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communication Studies.
During her years in Sydney, while working at luxury PR firm Black Communications, Jaimee formed a close-knit circle of friends that included Rich List heiress Sophie Heatley, along with Cam and Amy Robertson. Many of her friends have also become close friends of Nick.
Jaimee, Nick, Mat, and Christina all attended Heatley’s June nuptials to Tyler Martin in Maui.
Cam Robertson, who now works for Forsyth Barr, has been the go-to DJ at many of Jaimee and Nick’s parties.
When Jaimee co-founded Monday Haircare five years ago, she couldn’t have done it without her Sydney-based former colleague Juliana Krost.
The pair worked together at Black, and when Monday Haircare launched, Juliana was made marketing manager. She went on to become the global head of marketing for Zuru Edge Beauty and, alongside Jaimee, launched several products earlier this year – including Daise Beauty and Laura Polko Los Angeles. Juliana stepped down in June to spend more time with her family.
Jaimee is also close to her sister, Morgan, and her fiance, property developer and investor Tim McGoldrick.
Tim’s family are very close to Graeme and Robyn Hart and their family. His sister, broadcaster Laura McGoldrick, had her 2014 wedding reception at Robyn and Graeme’s Glendowie mansion. It was only natural then that Jaimee and Nick would become friendly with Tim’s great mate Harry Hart, Graeme and Robyn’s son. Nick and Harry host an annual golf tournament called the Closeburn Classic in Queenstown.
Nick’s school friends
Matthew Banfield was in the first XV with Nick at St Peter’s School, Cambridge. While Nick was in China, Matthew was at Canterbury University completing a Bachelor of Commerce, later working for Credit Suisse in Hong Kong.
Grant Taylor, who was also on the first XV with Nick and Matthew, founded nappy business Rascal + Friends with his sister Louise Stainthorpe in 2015. In 2016, Nick and Matthew invested in the firm – now called Rascals – with Matthew becoming the international COO and a founding partner.
In 2020, Grant stepped away from Rascals and started his own FMCG company, Moxx Brands, which has distribution in more than 6000 stores across five countries, including Walmart and Target in the United States, and Woolworths and Coles in Australia.
Rascals was the start of Zuru entering the FMCG market under the banner Zuru Edge, utilising all the automation and innovation Zuru achieved in China’s “Silicon Valley”, Shenzhen.
Zuru Edge’s FMCG portfolio now includes the divisions Baby, Pet, Health, Wellness and Beauty, Household and Home, and Confectionery, which launched last year and is headed by former Zuru Toys’ global sales director, Henry Gordon.
While Zuru Toys still makes the biggest sales for the group, Zuru Edge is catching up fast.
Matthew Banfield is also Nick Mowbray’s golfing buddy. The pair play in Te Arai, Queenstown, and in 2022 played golf across the US together.
Nick, Jaimee, Matthew, and his partner, Hannah Morris, who works for Zuru Edge as a marketing manager, last year went on an epic holiday together, trekking to see gorillas in Rwanda, a safari in the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, and visiting Botswana.
Anna and Ali
Society Insider revealed in 2019 that Anna was dating former All Black Ali Williams. After travelling back and forth between Asia and New Zealand, in 2020, she made the permanent move home with her three children to be with Ali.
The couple purchased a 4530sq m Westmere property in 2021 for $24 million. The property sits on a headland jutting into the Waitematā Harbour.
They became engaged the following year.
Anna and Ali’s slice of paradise has generated headlines – from their demolishing and rebuilding, through to recently gaining permission to land a helicopter in their back garden.
Anna started stepping away from Zuru in 2022 and began building the blocks of her recruitment site, Zeil, which she launched in 2023.
When Anna left Zuru, she took executive Brittany Earl with her to the smart College Hill offices, where, at last count, Zeil has more than 20 staff. Brittany is the executive assistant to the CEO, Anna.
Property records show Anna purchased the large office building, which has a CV of nearly $20m.
Anna and Ali became co-owners of Auckland FC in March last year, with the majority owner, US billionaire Bill Foley.
The pair are said to have gelled very well with Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker.
Months later, the trio were joined in their ownership by three former All Whites – Winston Reid, Tim Brown, and Noah Hickey – and Allbirds co-founder Tim Brown. NBA star Steven Adams joined a few months after that.
Anna invested $20m last year in Rob Fyfe’s Recorp business. The purpose-built, $100m+ manufacturing plant in Manukau produces 550 million cans annually at a lightning pace of 1850 cans per minute. Investing alongside Anna and Rob were Forsyth Barr executive director Jonty Edgar, chief executive of Wyborn Capital Justin Wyborn, and former Sistema Plastics founder Brendan Lindsay.
This year, Anna became part of the female powerhouse team of the B416 Campaign, co-founded and chaired by entrepreneur Cecilia Robinson and Anna Curzon, a board director and adviser at Xero. Also involved is Malindi McLean, the CEO of Outward Bound New Zealand. The lobby group is advocating for a minimum age of 16 to access social media in New Zealand and has received support from former Black Stick Gemma McCaw, media personality Matilda Green, and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.
Nick and Mat’s right-hand man
When Anna exited Zuru Group in 2022, Michael Wilding became COO of the business and its more than 5000 staff across three core divisions: Toys, Edge, and Tech.
Michael worked in various financial roles in Britain before returning to New Zealand in 2007 to work for the Queensland-based multimillionaire Peabody family.
He became chief executive of the Peabody family’s Craggy Range Winery in Hawke’s Bay, as well as being a director of the Peabody Family Office, looking after the family’s mining services, waste management, property development and investment businesses.
Michael is married to fellow accountant Nina, who also worked in the Hawke’s Bay winery trade.
At the beginning of last year, Michael became a director in Zuru New Zealand Limited alongside Nick and Mat, a directorship previously held by Anna.
The property man
While Zuru Group headquarters is located in Hong Kong, and the main manufacturing is done in China’s Shenzhen, Zuru is expanding at a rapid pace. The company appointed a global property development manager, Matt Ganley, who has worked for the firm for more than two years.
Ganley was a King’s College student who achieved his bachelor’s degree in commerce and property and worked for a project management company, RCP.
At last count, Zuru had 30 locations around the globe, and continues to grow.
This year alone, Zuru Auckland took over the four-building campus vacated at the end of last year by Spark New Zealand, to create a Zuru Centre of Excellence (CoE) – a hub in which to foster innovation. Auckland follows Zuru Los Angeles, which in 2023 built a CoE in El Segundo. Construction has started on another CoE in Seattle.
Zuru has also this year opened offices and a showroom in Warsaw, Poland, and Minneapolis, US, and purchased a building in Toronto, Canada. Other locations said to be planned for this year include Paris, Madrid, Mexico City and Copenhagen.
Most exciting for expat Kiwis is what Zuru is doing in London. It has started work on creating a 5110sq m space in Islington, divided into tenancies that range from 139sq m up to 836sq m. Called Zuru House, it is designed to be a hub for Kiwi businesses in the heart of London.
At the opening of the new Auckland CoE this year, Matt Ganley told the Herald that the offices were designed by the Zuru architectural design studio in Los Angeles, with all furniture and key fittings produced and delivered by their Zuru housing tech team in China.
The engineer growing Tech
Zuru Tech is the building arm of the company. It promises to revolutionise the construction industry through technology and automation, aiming to sustainably produce houses at a lower cost, using prefabricated methods.
While Mat focuses on engineering and technology, Nick is focused on the commercial side and expansion.
Zuru Tech’s product design director is Kiwi engineer Craig Shannon, who graduated from the University of Auckland and went on to work for Fisher & Paykel appliances and Globex Engineering in Auckland.
At the China Economic Summit in Auckland in July, Nick told the audience that Zuru had purchased a 10ha factory in China, large enough to produce the equivalent of 10,000sq m of buildings every day. Nick added that one of the first projects will be building 12 properties to redevelop the beachfront of Malibu, destroyed by wildfires last year.
Zuru Tech originated in Milan, but over the years has had a team of 300 based around the globe, with other offices in India, Los Angeles, and Auckland.
When Craig visited the test factory in Shenzhen to collaborate with the team, he described the machinery they have developed there as nothing short of remarkable.
Nick says Zuru Tech has 600 hardware and software engineers working full-time on the development of its permanent factory in China.
The trademark man
Los Angeles-based lawyer Eric Olavson is Zuru Toys’ general counsel.
Eric attended the prestigious George Washington University Law School in Washington, DC, where he spent time on the University’s American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) Quarterly Journal as an editorial staff member.
Before Eric joined Zuru, he worked as an associate attorney for US law firm Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig in its litigation and intellectual property group.
During his time there, Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig gained a huge win of US$24.5m plus lawyer fees for Zuru Toys’ Water Balloon Patent case against TeleBrands Corporation, which infringed two patents on a water balloon device.
The toy was Zuru’s best-selling Bunch O Balloons, which is protected by numerous US patents and is produced by Zuru under a licence with Tinnus Enterprises.
Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig has also represented Zuru in legal battles with Danish toy giant Lego Group in the US.
In New Zealand, Chapman Tripp acted for Zuru in the High Court and Court of Appeal proceedings concerning trademark infringement and the permissibility of certain product packaging claims.
The glam squads
In-demand hairstylist Joshua Scott is known to be used by both Jaimee and Christina, while Anna prefers Robyn Munro for hair and Kate Solley for special occasion makeup.
Anna is a regular of Remuera-based fashion designer Blair Wheeler, who famously designed a superhero-style creation for Mowbray’s 40th and many other costumes for both Anna and Ali’s themed parties.
Blair is known to keep Anna looking sharp in couture styles for business and cocktail occasions.
Homes and gardens
When it came to Anna and Ali’s Westmere home interiors, good friend and bridesmaid Shelley Ferguson worked closely with Anna. Ferguson, who is a Westmere local, and her husband, Steven, lent their support to Anna and Ali in their Auckland Council submission to build a helipad as part of the redevelopment of their property. Steven said, “locals use chainsaws, lawnmowers, motorbikes, and motorboats, and I don’t see how this is any different”.
Fellow bridesmaid and good friend Julia Leuchars, who is a designer at Trelise Cooper, also supported the application.
Anna and Ali chose ChanceryGreen lawyer, Chris Simmons, to represent them in the bid.
Simmons was pleased with the Independent Hearings Panel that endorsed his and his team’s argument.
Ali and Anna house their chopper with Heletranz on Rosedale Rd in Albany.
Over at the Coatesville mansion, helicopter landings are not an issue.
Insiders tell Society Insider that it takes more than two executive assistants to run Mat, Christina, Jaimee, and Nick’s homes and lives.
At Coatesville, there are, of course, numerous staff to keep the 22.6ha manicured, including a house manager.
When it came to the multimillion-dollar refurbishment of Coatesville, which was finished at the end of 2023, Jaimee worked closely with Rufus Knight, from the interior design and architecture studio Knight Associates.
The pair are said to be collaborating on the finishing touches of Jaimee and Nick’s Te Arai house north of Auckland, understood to have been designed by architect Jess Walker. Jess is the co-founder of Bureaux, an architecture and interior design firm responsible for beautiful and sustainable homes throughout New Zealand.
Party planners
For special occasions at Coatesville, both Jaimee and Christina like to use Little White Table to create dream outdoor settings. Owned by Kathryn Tasker, the company has already delivered numerous special occasions at the mansion.
Jaimee and Nick’s daughter Noa’s first birthday was a strawberry shortcake dream with pink tables and chairs and a cart covered in red and white check fabric with balloons galore. A year before that, for Jaimee and Nick’s baby shower, the accents were white.
Tasker outdid herself earlier this year by turning the Coatesville tennis court and surroundings into a stunning Zuru Country Club for a staff gathering.
As for their famous nighttime parties, Jamiee and Nick are known to turn to design and lighting extraordinaire Angus Muir to create the right ambience. Muir has exhibited around the world, including in Singapore and London, and Sydney’s Vivid and Luma in Queenstown.
At their Halloween haunted house party at their $24m Marine Parade home in Herne Bay last year, Angus decorated the house, including a mirrored DJ room, an asylum, and a forest room.
Jamiee and Nick used South Island Creative Mel Kong to make Nick’s recent 40th at Queenstown hospitality venue Ayrburn extra special.
To create the extravaganza, Kong worked with After the Rock Weddings to take the event to the next level. The entrance had a long Tiffany blue carpet with billowing forest green silk curtains, with the theme taken inside with masses of blue hydrangeas.
Mat and Christina used Kong’s luxury travel business for their Queenstown getaway last month.
Health and wellbeing
At the Coatesville mansion, the state-of-the-art wellness spa and gym is staffed depending on the occasion. Nick and Jaimee’s good friends, wellness couple Esther Cronin and Dominic Bowden, are known to take the couple through their paces, as is private Pilates instructor Anna Miles.
Nick and Jaimee also have two very special doctors in their lives at Gingernut Angels, the IVF charity Jaimee set up last year. The organisation was founded in honour of their daughter, Gingernut, who was stillborn at 24 weeks in early March 2022 after an IVF pregnancy.
Dr Mary Birdsall is an esteemed gynaecologist and obstetrician with a special interest in reproductive medicine and a passion for fertility preservation. Dr Mary is part of the charity’s advisory network, along with leading gynaecologist and fertility specialist Dr Devashana Gupta, who practises at Auckland’s Repromed.
Party people of the week
Loyalty Lunch Glows with Gratitude and Glamour
Beauty entrepreneur Edna Swart, the founder of skincare brand ed&i, hosted a “Loyalty Lunch” recently at Glasshouse in Morningside.
To mark the release of Cuppa-T, a new cleanser completing the ed&i Face range, and to celebrate six years of business, Swart hosted 50 of her top customers to connect and say thank you.
Over champagne and a decadent family-style lunch, guests were treated to a celebration as refined and beautiful as the brand itself. The venue was transformed by event stylists La Lumiere, with draped fabrics, soft pastel hues, and long tables layered with lush linens and ceramic accents, with a dress code for guests to match.
Guests included The Whitening Co founder Kennedy Anderson, marketing specialist and podcast host Briahna Barrett, Facetime Clinic Skin Care founder Melissa Gladding, and fashion entrepreneur Sabrina Soar.
Ricardo Simich has been with the Herald since 2008 where he contributed to The Business Insider. In 2012 he took over Spy at the Herald on Sunday, which has since evolved into Society Insider. The weekly column gives a glimpse into the worlds of the rich and famous.