Kea New England was launched in Boston in October 2002. It provides regular updates of New Zealand-related news and upcoming events to its membership and hosts regular events with other local New Zealand and Australian groups.

We would love to hear from you, please get in touch.

Management Team

Kirsten Chambers (Chair) is Consul and Head of Trade & Investment at the British Consulate General in Boston, where she guides US companies on R&D and business development opportunities in the United Kingdom. Before moving to the US, Kirsten administered human resources for the Palmerston North City Council in New Zealand and worked with an employment conditions research and advisory consultancy in London. She is the founder of SilverFernGallery.com, an online gallery of her NZ, US and European photographs.

James Bones is Vice President at Cannon Design, an architectural and engineering design firm. James has an electrical engineering background, specialising in the design and construction of a wide variety of building types, notably healthcare and education facilities, with a particular focus on sustainable design. His experience includes projects in North America, the Middle East, South East Asia, and New Zealand.

Karen Willcox is an Associate Professor of Aeronautics & Astronautics in the Aerospace Computational Design Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her expertise lies in computational  methods to support design, control and optimization of aerospace systems, with a particular focus on environmentally-sensitive design of future aircraft. Before joining the faculty at MIT, Karen worked at Boeing Phantom Works with the Blended-Wing-Body aircraft design team. Her other recent professional experience includes positions of Visiting Researcher at Sandia National Laboratories and Visiting Associate Professor at the University of Auckland.

Michael Davies is the founder and Chairman of Endeavour Partners, a boutique consulting firm that works with the top management of leading technology businesses to develop and execute strategy and build their capabilities. Michael also teaches about Strategy and Technology at MIT's Sloan School of Management, and leads the New Technology Ventures program at London Business School. As part of this he is currently working on two books on how the leaders of technology businesses can work together to improve the odds that they survive and thrive. He is a regular speaker and presenter at technology industry events and acts as a strategic and business advisor to technology businesses. Michael is Chief Technology Officer and a Board member of angel-investor-backed wireless telemetry and informatics start-up EquuSys Inc that is commercialising one of his patented inventions. Michael, a New Zealand (and UK and US) citizen, is one of the founders of KEA in New England. He has an MBA from London Business School and Masters Degrees in engineering from Cambridge University and the University of Durham in the UK.

Joshua Feast is CEO and co-founder of Cogito Health Inc, an MIT-spinout that provides monitoring services for care management. Joshua previously worked at Accenture, Microsoft, and as an independent consultant. He holds a Bachelor of Technology with first class honours from Massey University, and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management where he was the New Zealand Platinum-Triangle Fulbright Scholar in Entrepreneurship.

Craig Copland is a Telecommunications and Telematics specialist and Senior Director at Cross Country Automotive/ATX, a world leading Telematics services company. Responsible for the design, strategy and delivery of next generation mobile convergence solutions and systems, working closely with the top automotive, insurance and telecommunication companies worldwide to provide automotive lifestyle services that improve Safety, Security, Infotainment, and Environmental Impact. Currently helping to promote and launch businesses opportunities here in the US for several NZ companies in the LBS, Environmental and Telematics sectors.

Ulric Ferner is a PhD student in the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Ulric specializes in emerging technologies for information exploitation, distributed networks, and cognitive systems.

Scott Mackie works in the Boston office of international design firm IDEO where he leads innovation projects helping Fortune 100 clients create new offerings. Scott specializes in the health sector having started out with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare after graduating from Canterbury University. He is also a founding director of a venture company in Cambridge, UK where he completed his Masters.