Kiwi Physicists Abroad

Kiwi IT man sells up dream property to help rebuild Japan

Kiwi entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd was standing on a railway platform in Tokyo when in March the devastating earthquake struck Japan.

"The buildings were rolling, the road was shaking, windows were flexing in and out," Lloyd said.

Lloyd, 53, has lived in Tokyo for 28 years and it was the biggest earthquake he had experienced.

The earthquake and devastating tsunami that followed left an estimated more than 24,000 people dead or missing and has been estimated to have caused damage equivalent to 3 to 5 per cent of gross domestic product.

As the commercial community picks itself up Lloyd has identified opportunities for business.

Lloyd had founded probably more than 20 companies in Japan and was currently involved with a group of seven firms, including the fields of information technology, software, recruiting, publishing and an original incubator company called LINC Media, of which he is chief executive.

"Our biggest and fastest growing business and in fact one of the reasons why I want to be liquid again is data centres," he said.

Lloyd, who has also invested in start-up companies in New Zealand, has put a 19 hectare waterfront estate near Mangonui on the market, with the land in five titles and a combined capital valuation of $3.4 million.

Some of the proceeds from the property sale will be used to help fund business opportunities the Japan.

"As you can imagine with the post earthquake the banks aren't lending a lot of money so whereas a year or so ago I could have just gone out and just simply raised the money locally I'm finding now that liquidity is much tighter."

It was not vulture capital, he said.

"We're talking about actually providing solutions to companies that otherwise actually might wind up going under," he said.

"My personal mission is to help change Japan and make it more internationalised and certainly this is going to be part of that."

After the earthquake many companies were suddenly faced with the prospect of staff fleeing Tokyo because of fears of radiation from the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

"So we got a rash of orders from customers wanting remote computing capability and of course that all runs through cloud based computing services so therefore data centre business has taken off in a big way here," he said.

An amateur physicist in Lloyd's office took daily radiation readings and posted them on YouTube.

"We never saw any major increase in radiation certainly nothing that would be considered dangerous," he said.

Sir Paul's Appeal To Kiwi Expats | Voxy.co.nz

New Zealander of the Year Professor Sir Paul Callaghan is asking expat Kiwi graduates to make a significant contribution to the C hristchurch earthquake recovery mission by paying back their student loans.

In a letter to graduates living overseas, Sir Paul notes the massive financial aid needed to recover from the disaster, and asks the more than 85,000 New Zealanders with student loans living abroad to provide a huge financial boost to the recovery. He particularly appeals to the 35,000 Kiwis abroad who are behind in their repayments.

New Zealand graduates living abroad have a median debt of $17,900a total debt of over $2 billion.

"That represents nearly 30% of the $7 billion that New Zealand taxpayers will have to contribute through the Government's contribution to the rebuilding If we were to get everyone to contribute even a little, then the effect would be hugely helpful," says the distinguished physicist, who was knighted in 2009.

Sir Paul says such repayments would not only help New Zealand recover from the disaster, they would make good financial sense to the students. Graduates who live overseas do not qualify for the Government's zero-interest student loan policy.

"What is remarkable about all of you is that you are earning an income in foreign currency, and if you were to start repaying or to accelerate your loan repayment rate, you would not only save yourself interest, but you would be acting heroically to help save your country," says Sir Paul in the open letter.

Unlike New Zealand residents, whose loans are repaid automatically through the taxation system, overseas New Zealanders only repay if they volunteer to do so.

"Many have given up any thought of paying, and for them, a compounding interest bill will cause a debt burden that makes it harder to return to work in their homeland, only to be called upon by IRD to service and repay that debt. Thus, New Zealand loses twice over," says Sir Paul, whose title of New Zealander of the Year recognised his outstanding contribution to science, business and reversing New Zealand's 'brain drain'.

The letter appeals to an expat sense of patriotism and asks graduates to consider the value of their New Zealand education to their present employment abroad.

"If, like so many Kiwis abroad you feel frustrated in not being able to help Christchurch enough, then I would ask you to consider what I am proposing. If only a few respond, the effect will be significant, but if most of you do, then you will make history and your contribution will be the stuff of legend.

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