About Us
The company was started by two former New Zealand trade diplomats, each with over 20 years’ experience living and working throughout the Asian region, in both private and public sector business related roles. We have been involved in international education for several years and more recently have undertaken specific research on internship opportunities in the region.
We have well established professional networks and connections with businesses, stakeholders and government/industry organizations throughout Asia. We leverage off these to secure reliable and reputable host companies and capable in-market representatives. Our goal is to provide students and professionals from around the world with rewarding and meaningful internships.
We aim to align the roles and companies with our clients’ professional and academic backgrounds, as well as their future aspirations. We back this up with in-market pastoral care support and services plus additional professional and personal growth mentoring to interns during their placement.
Globalink Internships connects students and professionals with quality work experience in Asia.
The Team
Jeff
Director
After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History from Victoria University of Wellington, Jeff joined the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was soon posted to Seoul, South Korea. Following this assignment business beckoned and he returned to Seoul to establish his own Business Development company to assist New Zealand exporters grow their business in Korea. Clients included companies within the Carter Holt Harvey Group, Fletchers and Marley. During this time Jeff also established successful business in Taiwan, before moving to Vietnam and running a business from Ho Chi Minh City.
An opportunity arose for Jeff to join New Zealand Trade & Enterprise (NZTE) and return once again to Korea as the New Zealand Trade Commissioner in Seoul. Following five years in that role, he returned to New Zealand for a short stint before being posted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for four years as the Trade Commissioner. Another period back in New Zealand was followed by a posting to Tokyo, Japan to run the NZTE office and then on to Shanghai where he was the Trade Commissioner for close to four years during the signing of the Free Trade Agreement with China, the Shanghai World Expo and the establishment of New Zealand Central.
After a fantastic experience with NZTE, Jeff decided it was time to return to the private sector and after a period of working with some of New Zealand’s major exporters to assist them in China, he joined a publicly listed multi institution education provider to head up their international business. This saw him spending time in India as well as developing business in Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines along with other familiar markets of China, Korea and Vietnam.
After an exciting and challenging three years in the role and following the acquisition of the group by another major education provider, Jeff returned to working with a number of diverse institutions to grow their Asian business. This included developing practical work-based internships for students from New Zealand into Asia and from here, after much work, discussion and travel and sensing an opportunity that it could be done better and differently the idea of Globalink Internships was born.
In-market Representatives
In each of our locations we have established in-market representatives including both expatriates and locals who are operating successful businesses in their respective markets. They each have strong connections within their business and learning communities and long-term industry experience throughout the Asian region, coupled with local knowledge and understanding.
Here are brief profiles about each representative.
Shanghai
Our Shanghai in-market representative has more than 25 years working experience in China and Greater China including Hong Kong and Taiwan in sales, business development, general management and executive search leadership roles.
He has been living and working in Shanghai for the past 20 years. Over the recent 10 years he has been working in the executive search industry in China based in Shanghai performing executive search for management positions in a number of different industry sectors for placements throughout China.
He is fluent in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese having majored in Chinese from Beijing University, and he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce majoring in accountancy and business administration from the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Tokyo
We have two in market representatives in Tokyo.
As the Tokyo in-market representative Darrin brings over 15 years experience living and working in Asia. After a decade serving as an Officer in the New Zealand Army in both Military Police and Military Intelligence functions he started his offshore career as a diplomat in Shanghai before moving to an international airline to run its crew base in China to support flights out of Beijing and Shanghai. With experience in China followed by a stint in India prior to now being based in Japan, Darrin brings a breadth of experience across industries to our team.
James has nearly 30 years’ experience working in Japan and New Zealand in Japan-related roles and has been based in Tokyo since May 2022, where he is working for an e-commerce company. Prior to living in Tokyo, he was in Fukuoka where he worked for a financial services company that specialises in developing renewable energy plants. Before living in Japan, he worked in New Zealand for two decades in various roles, including: market research, trade and investment promotion, and professional development. In the latter role, he developed and managed an internship programme that delivered internships for graduates across the Asian region.
Our in-market representatives look forward to mentoring interns to ensure they get the most out of the time they spend in Tokyo and to get their career off to a strong start. Knowledge and experience gained while working in a complex and sophisticated markets like Japan and supporting New Zealand exporters to develop business there allows our partner to contribute a valuable professional development element to the programme. As a result, our interns will have developed a deeper understanding of the business environment of Japan upon completion of their time there.