new business dreams<\/a> \u2013 while NBR did not estimate her own specific wealth, it has been reported previously she received a significant payout. She is considered by many to be New Zealand\u2019s richest businesswoman.<\/p>\n![\"Anna]()
Anna Mowbray, as depicted by Rod Emmerson.<\/p>\n
Mowbray is still extremely close to her brothers \u2013 she has rock-solid family values that soon become apparent over lunch today at Auckland waterfront restaurant Soul \u2013 and lives in wedded bliss with former All Black Ali Williams and their blended family of five kids, aged 7 to 13, in a Westmere home valued at $24 million.<\/p>\n
So, picking up on the tennis racquet story and her earlier comment, I ask her directly: Is she indeed a bit of a Scrooge?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely a Scrooge! And I\u2019m okay with it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMainly it\u2019s because I just want the value to be understood. It\u2019s something that is really hard. I think I go to the extreme because I\u2019m so nervous about the children not having the respect for money or the care for money and the passion and desire to get up and do something for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was one of the reasons Mowbray also exited Zuru \u2013 she wanted the children to witness her embarking on new ventures, and the associated hard work.<\/p>\n
Zuru, which Mat first set up as a fledgling business in a Cambridge garage before relocating to China, was virtually Anna\u2019s entire life for almost two decades.<\/p>\n
![\"Siblings]()
Siblings Nick, Anna and Mat Mowbray. <\/p>\n
She spent 16 years living, literally, in the factory in a small rural city near Guangzhou, with her bedroom next to the factory office. Aside from a weekly visit to Guangzhou, to play touch rugby, eat burgers and enjoy a drink with expat Kiwis, Aussies and South Africans, it was all hard graft \u2013 minimum 12-hour days of slog.<\/p>\n
That experience further instilled in her the values of hard yakka \u2013 principles handed down from her working-class parents, and constantly reinforced during her childhood.<\/p>\n
When her own kids came along, she did not want them to just simply observe \u2013 and benefit from \u2013 the fruits of Zuru. She also wanted to climb another business mountain.<\/p>\n
She and her brothers \u2013 there is also another, Andrew, who is successful in his own right \u2013 remain extremely close but her departure from Zuru was \u201cdefinitely a surprise, I\u2019d say\u201d for her siblings.<\/p>\n
Anna Mowbray is a force of nature, described by friends and acquaintances as tenacious and highly energised. She is a woman who knows what she wants in life \u2013 and from the menu for lunch today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t even need to look at the menu to know what I like!\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
She orders the scampi pasta for a main and we share black tiger prawns, beef tartare and whitebait fritters for starters. No alcohol today \u2013 we each stay parked on a glass of lemon, lime and bitters.<\/p>\n
One of her best friends, Liv Carter, is Soul\u2019s general manager. We don\u2019t see her today, but dining at the next table \u2013 by chance \u2013 is Auckland FC chief executive Nick Becker.<\/p>\n
Mowbray and Williams own a 15% share of the club, alongside American billionaire Bill Foley.<\/p>\n
Mowbray might well be seen as part of the Auckland \u201cset\u201d \u2013 she and Williams feature semi-regularly in the society pages \u2013 but this is not a description that is sought, or even fits comfortably.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t grow up in Auckland,\u201d she says. \u201cBorn in Tokoroa, raised in Cambridge. I think you\u2019d always look at Auckland and just think, \u2018Oh, the Jafas\u2019, but really I just don\u2019t think I was ever invited into the circle, into the network.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that I\u2019m back here [in New Zealand], I love the city. It\u2019s such a neat place. I\u2019m a country kid at heart but I definitely love Auckland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Family values consistently come to the fore during our conversation. She says she\u2019s striving to ensure the family sit down for dinner every night. That means trying to confine social events and evening business occasions to once a week \u2013 2025, she says, is learning to say \u201cno\u201d to more invitations.<\/p>\n
Two days earlier I\u2019d bumped into her at the SailGP event on Auckland\u2019s waterfront. Like today at lunch, she was a whirlwind \u2013 cheek kisses, handshakes, constant conversation. She\u2019s just as comfortable talking to the mayor as the hospitality staff.<\/p>\n
She is a person of many layers. Over our two-hour lunch, she trots out a fair number of business philosophies that she lives by \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s really important to be forward focused \u2013 I\u2019m a perpetual optimist\u201d; \u201cThe second you become stuck in a rut, [and] focused on what has gone, you really can\u2019t keep innovating\u201d; \u201cfear is the best motivator\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Anna]()
Anna Mowbray exited Zuru in 2023 and now has several other investments.<\/p>\n
She quotes others, too, such as American business leader Ray Dalio \u2013 \u201che who lives by the crystal ball will eat shattered glass\u201d. Books such as Jim Collins\u2019 Good to Great have played a formative role.<\/p>\n
Her father was an engineer at the Kinleith paper mill, later going on to be a very successful engineering consultant. He built the family home with his own hands \u2013 \u201che was the electrician, the plumber, the builder\u201d, says Mowbray \u2013 and was constantly pushing his kids to think about the types of businesses they wanted to run.<\/p>\n
As a child growing up, she says, there was a note on the fridge, stating there was no such word as \u201ccan\u2019t\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDad all the time would quote, \u2018If you think you can, you can and if you think you can\u2019t, you can\u2019t\u2019. We couldn\u2019t say \u2018can\u2019t\u2019 in the household.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Anna]()
Anna Mowbray with her parents and three brothers in her early days in Tokoroa.<\/p>\n
She is the same with her own children today, although the fridge is free of the catch-cry.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were so many principles … how we were raised is such a testament to who we are now as people and to how we approach business. We just had this innate belief that we could do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she is driven by fear \u2013 \u201cfailure is the most important impetus for innovation\u201d \u2013 not money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the money. I\u2019ve never been driven by money. I never will be. It\u2019s a byproduct, I think, of the hard work and the effort that we put in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere I get my joy is seeing us make traction. In the early days of Zuru, it was that first week of sales when a new product launched and you saw it starting to build. You get behind that, you start to amplify it and you get all the momentum. That was so, so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has, she says, always been frugal, recalling working at The Fitz bar in Palmerston North while she was studying at university \u2013 she was still part of the social scene, but managing to make money rather than spending it. And she had the added benefit of not having any hangover the next day.<\/p>\n
About seven or eight years ago, Mowbray happened to meet by chance \u2013 in a bar while she was on a trip to a toy fair in New York \u2013 the chief financial officer of Procter & Gamble. He was in his 70s, and regaled her with his company\u2019s own operations in Guangzhou.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really hit it off \u2013 by that point in time, I\u2019d been living in China for 10-plus years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe talked for two to three hours \u2013 we shared vulnerabilities and we expressed thoughts and our stance on different matters in a pretty broad and dynamic way. I just remember really opening up to him because it was a very safe and trusted environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the night, he called Mowbray one of the most interesting people he\u2019d met in a long time and hoped that she would share her story with more people.<\/p>\n
She told him she had no such intention: \u201cI don\u2019t have time to do that. I don\u2019t want to be sharing my story. That\u2019s not where I\u2019m happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe stopped and thought about it for a few moments, and then turned around to me: \u2018I now consider you one of the most selfish people I\u2019ve ever met\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was, says Mowbray, a \u201crude awakening\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was incredibly affronted. It was a really impactful, pivotal moment for me to stop and reflect and say, \u2018What is my role?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
At that point, she hadn\u2019t considered her own impressive rise. She is not one for reminiscing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was still living in this place of humility. Everything came down to working hard and solving problems and really caring about and respecting those around me \u2013 and being really driven and tenacious about everything that we did.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I didn\u2019t see that as being a great success, or I didn\u2019t look at it and reflect upon it as being this incredible story to share and to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not to say she\u2019s now fully comfortable speaking to media or fronting up to speak to a business audience.<\/p>\n
\u201dI still prefer to be in the business. I love solving problems. I love being on the tools.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Anna]()
Anna Mowbray learned a salient lesson about needing to share her business story with others.<\/p>\n
Mowbray\u2019s brother Nick is a somewhat outspoken figure, most noticeably on X, formerly Twitter, now owned by Elon Musk. In recent weeks, he\u2019s had cracks at the likes of former Prime Minister Helen Clark and current Labour leader Chris Hipkins. His right-wing politics are laid bare.<\/p>\n
Social media is not a major focus for Anna Mowbray, and she says she could never get into politics. But as we chat, it\u2019s clear she has reasonable access to \u201cChris\u201d and is supportive of the Prime Minister\u2019s business-friendly policies and the KPI approach to holding his Government ministers to account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not a huge social media advocate. I just think, stay true to yourself, stay true to who you are, and your personality will come through and shine.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople can either love me or hate me, and I\u2019m fine with that either which way.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think ultimately my role now, being a female in a leadership role, having had and done what we\u2019ve done … my role is to empower and motivate and encourage others for what\u2019s possible, rather than to necessarily force down my opinions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her major business focus now is Zeil, a digital platform for job-seekers and would-be employers.<\/p>\n
The Zeil app works similarly to Tinder\u2019s swipe-right, swipe-left routine \u2013 it is designed to disrupt the recruitment market, with a modern-day interface and programmes such as a CV builder and an AI interviewing tool. Zeil, she says, is all about \u201cdemocratising the path to employability\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s exciting, she says, but \u201cwe haven\u2019t got a complete product market fit, yet\u201d. Marketplace businesses are tricky and the job market especially so. Bringing candidates and employers together \u201cat the right time, at the right scale\u201d is everything.<\/p>\n
Zeil is out to break the monopoly hold of Seek. \u201cThey don\u2019t love us,\u201d says Mowbray.<\/p>\n
The company now has almost 30 staff and \u2013 according to Mowbray \u2013 customer sentiment is off the charts. Staff conduct five interviews a week with customers to measure those feelings.<\/p>\n
Among other investments are her part-ownership of Auckland FC and a shareholding in aluminium can manufacturer Recorp, which was founded by former Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe and has a $100m factory in Manukau.<\/p>\n
![\"Former]()
Former All Black Ali Williams and Anna Mowbray at SailGP in Auckland. Photo \/ SailGP<\/p>\n
Mowbray says she can\u2019t imagine doing life without Ali Williams by her side. The pair married last year, surrounded by family and friends, at Kokomo Private Island resort in Fiji.<\/p>\n
The couple met several years ago at a mutual friend\u2019s wedding \u2013 he threw her in the pool. Mowbray says it was \u201cdefinitely not\u201d love at first sight.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sort of had this look of shock of \u2018like what have I just done\u2019. Then he tried to redeem himself,\u201d Mowbray told podcast host Dom Harvey last year.<\/p>\n
Life with Williams, she tells me over lunch, is \u201camazing\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such an incredible person; a big softie \u2013 he\u2019s so open, so vulnerable, so real. He has this conviction, determination, and desire that are impenetrable.\u201d<\/p>\n
His return to rugby after suffering several career-threatening Achilles injuries is proof of his mental fortitude, she says.<\/p>\n
She says he is a big and bold \u201cideas guy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just get along so, so well. It\u2019s really easy when someone compliments you and gets the best out of you every day. There\u2019s not a day I don\u2019t wake up and he says, \u2018How are you setting the world on fire today, babe? Let\u2019s go make it happen\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pair might struggle, however, to get one of their private projects off the ground.<\/p>\n
They want to build a helipad at their Westmere home, which overlooks the Waitemat\u0101 Harbour.<\/p>\n
According to reports this week, the majority of public submissions \u2013 1277 of the 1397 that have been filed with Auckland Council \u2013 are opposed to the idea. Many of the submitters are concerned about the environmental and noise impact of helicopter flights. The matter will go to an independent public hearing later this year.<\/p>\n
In her podcast with Harvey, Mowbray said of the media coverage of her private life and helipad plans: \u201cAll of that\u2019s very invasive. I just think that New Zealand media has got a long way to go to be more constructive … and I think there\u2019s so much we can celebrate. Why not enable more, empower more, celebrate more and engage in ways that are truly pushing society forward?\u201d<\/p>\n
(In the same podcast, Harvey asked her if she was New Zealand\u2019s richest woman: \u201cDon\u2019t know \u2013 I don\u2019t care about that sort of stuff.\u201d)<\/p>\n
One of Mowbray\u2019s most recent investments has been in Auckland FC \u2013 the club has had a stunning opening season in the A-league, sitting atop the table, with 10 wins and three draws after 15 matches.<\/p>\n
She, Williams and the club more generally have worked hard to ensure fans and families enjoy an enriched experience for home games at Mt Smart stadium.<\/p>\n
![\"Auckland]()
Auckland FC playing the Brisbane Roar at Go Media Stadium, Mt Smart, on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were literally the biggest established city in the world to not have a football team, so the opportunity was always there,\u201d says Mowbray of the couple\u2019s investment.<\/p>\n
The club\u2019s owners and staff did a huge amount of homework before the launch, listening to the football community\u2019s wishlist.<\/p>\n
Auckland\u2019s winning start has certainly helped fan adulation, but \u201cthe second you become solely reliant on what the boys are doing on the pitch, you don\u2019t truly engage\u201d, Mowbray says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talk about customer obsession in my businesses and innovation obsession but this is about fan obsession. You\u2019re competing against what\u2019s on the telly on a Saturday afternoon or going out and having a barbecue or going to the beach.<\/p>\n
![\"Anna]()
Anna Mowbray and Ali Williams have a 15% stake in Auckland FC.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not short-termism. It\u2019s about saying, what do we want to achieve through the sport? It\u2019s uniting communities. It\u2019s about bringing people together.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about entertainment and then it\u2019s about building the best team we possibly can with an incredible culture and allowing for New Zealand talent to get international exposure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about the pipeline, it\u2019s all about talent pathways, it\u2019s all about empowering our youth to get into sport and to stay active and to feel like they have the opportunity down in New Zealand, because you can feel quite removed down here.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo a big part of our play is to open up those doors of opportunity. Everything that I\u2019m doing is about that in some way, shape or form, whether it\u2019s Zeil or AFC or even Recorp where it\u2019s like deeply looking at how you can be more sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s where anything I go into has got to be triggered in some way by supporting us as a nation to get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having spent 16 years in China, and now being back in New Zealand, Mowbray says she spent time thinking about \u201cwhat my impact was going to be in New Zealand\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s so much opportunity to make a big impact from down here. You\u2019ve just got to know where that is and know how you can do it and who you want to impact and in what way you want to inspire.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says she hopes her story can inspire others.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy story is all around working hard, getting ahead, doing something I loved, feeling confident from that, and then being able to pass that confidence on to others.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was my story, and so I don\u2019t see why it can\u2019t be others\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor. As well as a weekly media column, he has a regular interview series featuring noteworthy and leading New Zealanders including Wayne Brown<\/a>, Ruby Tui<\/a>, Paddy Gower<\/a>, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa<\/a>, Scotty Stevenson<\/a>, Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick<\/a>, Simon Power<\/a>, Josh and Helen Emett<\/a>, Sir Ian Taylor<\/a>, David Kirk<\/a>, Sir Ashley Bloomfield<\/a>, Paul Henry<\/a>, Simon Barnett<\/a>, Sophie Moloney<\/a>, Brian and Hannah Tamaki<\/a>, Sir Grahame Sydney<\/a>, David Lomas<\/a>, Carrie Hurihanganui<\/a>, Sir Russell Coutts<\/a>, Steven O\u2019Meagher<\/a>, Juliet Peterson<\/a>, Brendan Lindsay<\/a> and Tony Astle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cHe can borrow a tennis racquet until he\u2019s proven he loves the sport enough that he\u2019s going to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222169,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[87056,8831,95,5845,7022,133347,138,93586,50605,63697,100174,6097,2245,27978,2109,29163,1364,133346,31989,26641,5511,58018,194,26477,51705,300,26097,111,43,139,69,90,1523,17145,117625,17445,37291,133348,65160,3502,223,61,9342,100545,102,2963],"class_list":["post-222168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-40s","tag-an","tag-and","tag-anna","tag-black","tag-blended","tag-business","tag-businesswoman","tag-creating","tag-definitely","tag-discuss","tag-down","tag-early","tag-exall","tag-family","tag-generation","tag-her","tag-highflyer","tag-im","tag-importance","tag-just","tag-keys","tag-kiwi","tag-leaders","tag-lunch","tag-money","tag-mowbray","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-over","tag-raising","tag-regarded","tag-richest","tag-richlist","tag-scrooge","tag-sits","tag-success","tag-the","tag-to","tag-values","tag-widely","tag-with","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}