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Steve Jones
Trade Commissioner/Consul General, Middle East, Africa and Pakistan
Steve Jones is responsible for NZTE’s activities in the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan.
Based in Dubai, Steve was previously NZTE’s Operations Manager for Creative and Services working with some of New Zealand’s most successful businesses in the textiles, apparel, animation, digital, consulting, and tourism sectors.
He was also NZTE’s Private Sector Liaison Officer to the World Bank Group.
As well as his Trade Commissioner role, Steve is the Consul General for Dubai.
Steve worked in production and business development roles in the construction, printing and publishing services sectors in the United Kingdom, before moving to New Zealand 1995.
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Ariane Gonzalez
Trade Commissioner, France
Ariane is NZTE’s Trade Commissioner in Paris covering France, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Maghreb countries.
Ariane has been in her current role since April 2006 and previously worked as a Senior Marketing Consultant in the Paris office, and as Post Manager and Trade Development Executive in Papeete (French Polynesia) with NZTE’s predecessor organisation, Trade New Zealand.
Before joining NZTE in 2002, Ariane spent 10 years working in international sales and project management roles for French industrial and trade companies, starting in the telecommunication (SAGEM) and industrial goods sectors (Otis).
Ariane spent five years working in the bioactive ingredients sector as an export manager for a company called AMI, covering Western and Eastern Europe, the US and Canada.
Ariane speaks five languages and has a Specialised Master’s degree in International Project Management from ESCP - the Europe Business School in Paris.
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Sam Lewis
Trade Commissioner, UK and Ireland
Based in London, Sam is responsible for NZTE operations in the UK and Ireland.
Prior to taking up this position in May 2010, Sam was Operations Manager for NZTE’s Food and Beverage team based in Auckland and managed a team dealing with New Zealand companies in the primary production and food processing sectors.
He also managed a programme of market development initiatives funded by the New Zealand government in response to the recommendations of the Food and Beverage Taskforce. These initiatives focused on increasing exports of aquaculture, meat, horticulture and wine into the Asia Pacific region.
Sam has over 15 years experience in the development of export markets for New Zealand business. He began his career in North Asia, working with companies in the food and beverage and manufacturing sectors exporting to Japan.
Sam joined Trade New Zealand – one of the predecessor organisations of NZTE – in 1998 as Market Services Manager for Japan and Taiwan. He then transferred to Tokyo to take up a trade development role responsible for food, beverage and forestry products.
In 2003, Sam transferred to Dubai as Trade Commissioner and Consul General. From Dubai he managed NZTE operations in the Middle East for four years before returning to a food and beverage role in New Zealand.
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Elena Ortuno
Trade Commissioner, Spain and Portugal
Elena has worked for NZTE for over 13 years, first as Market Development Manager in Madrid, and in her current role as Trade Commissioner, Spain and Portugal since 2000.
Before joining NZTE, Elena worked as a marketing counsellor for University College Dublin, as a business development manager in the Spanish Trade Office in Paris, and as a marketing executive with Sociéte Génerale de Banque in Madrid.
Elena graduated from Madrid Autonoma University with a Bachelor of Commerce and completed a Master’s degree in International Marketing at Dublin City University, Ireland.
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Marcus Scoliège
Trade Commissioner and Consul General, Germany
Marcus is NZTE’s Trade Commissioner and Consul General in Hamburg with responsibility for 19 countries across Northern and Central Europe. He was previously based in London managing NZTE’s European Beachheads programme from 2007 to 2010.
Raised and educated in New Zealand, Marcus has lived in a number of European countries, gaining fluency in French, German and Swedish. Further to his BA in political science and languages from Waikato University, he completed a Master’s degree at the Université d’Angers (Angers, France) in the tourism product and management sector, as well as Swedish language study at Göteborgs Universitet (Sweden).
Marcus began his career with Tourism New Zealand in Frankfurt, rising through various sales and marketing roles to managerial positions, where he was ultimately Manager for Germany, Switzerland and Austria and responsible for the implementation of Tourism New Zealand’s global brand marketing strategy in these markets. From 2001-2003 Marcus was the Trade New Zealand representative in Sweden, responsible for liaison and in-market research for Sweden, Finland and Denmark, before joining PreSwede AB, a Swedish manufacturer in the medical beauty industry, where he was Project Manager for Export and Business Development.
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Clare Wilson
Trade Commissioner and Consul General, Italy
Clare took up the dual role of Trade Commissioner Italy and Consul General in late 2010. She is based in Milan and is responsible for Italy, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Cyprus, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Romania and Hungary.
Clare comes from a varied private sector background. She has worked in senior Marketing and Management roles in the tourism and sport sector, including Marketing Manager of Tourism Holdings and Sponsorship Manager of the Blues and Auckland Rugby. In 1996, Clare and her business partner formed Philadelphia Consulting Group which is today the largest SME business consultancy in New Zealand. More recently Clare was Marketing Manager at St John, where her particular interest was in telehealth and packages of care for the elderly to provide better health outcomes.
Although born in Auckland, Clare is fluent in Italian having undertaken a student exchange in Sardinia for a year. She received her undergraduate degrees in Art and Commerce from the University of Auckland and her Post-Graduate Diploma in Packaging Technology from Massey University. In 2005 she completed her MBA from the University of Auckland.
