This latest announcement of fellows brings to an end a 4-year Global Impact Visa pilot programme, where 533 fellows from over 40 nationalities were selected from a pool of 3400 applicants over three-and-a-half years.
Harvey says the wonderful thing about the Edmund Hillary Fellowship is that it is based around Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
He says the fellows who are selected are brought to New Zealand to help Māori.
"The induction process is led by Māori which really resonated with the international fellows.
"It's very much up to you to make the most of such an opportunity as this," says Harvey.
"I was stoked to make the cut after a tough application process and it was quite evident from some of the first conversations I had with my peers that these are people who really get on and 'get sh*t [stuff]' done."
Although no stranger to mixing with a diverse range of people in his work in the business wellbeing sector, Harvey is looking forward to broadening his horizons, exploring how to connect up the businesspeople he will be meeting with in the heartland region, and pushing his own boundaries when it comes to learning about global issues.
Harvey is the company founder of Collective Intelligence, based in Feilding, that flies under the radar.
It operates across New Zealand, where he says, business can do things with ease.
"We are the most trusted country in the world and our Prime Minister has amplified that.
"Trust is the most valuable currency in a world that faces so much uncertainty."
Collective Intelligence provides facilitated, team-based training and support to professionals who want to adapt, survive and thrive.
They are a community of curious, competent, ambitious and authentic professionals drawn from 70-plus business fields, and curated into diverse teams that wield the power of collective intelligence to evolve themselves (and others).
"The mantra is to evolve people to create a better world. In that, diversity plays a big part," Harvey says.
Collective Intelligence is one of just 30 certified B Corps in Aotearoa (alongside companies like Kathmandu, Sharesies, Banquer and Ethique).
Harvey is a sought-after start-up boot camp judge/mentor and business event speaker and sponsors a suite of scholarships for emerging young entrepreneurs and business people.
Collective Intelligence is more relevant now as the region and country works to regenerate its economy under ongoing Covid pressures, says Harvey.
With New Zealand borders still closed, the big challenge for the new international fellows is not being able to travel to New Zealand and meet up and work as they normally would on their Impact Visas (entrepreneurs are not a priority for borders exemptions).
Harvey spent a weekend online with his fellows, getting to know each other and as part of the host country, supporting tangata whenua welcome, mihi and acknowledge the new fellows.
"For many of these global citizens, and there's some 40 nationalities represented, it's our stand-out relationships with our indigenous people, with tangata whenua, that fascinate and inspire them," says Harvey.
"The EHF staff place a huge emphasis on their partnership with iwi and Māori-lead values, and they want the entrepreneurial ecosystem they're developing to support and enhance Māori development and problem solving."
Harvey takes his place in the cohort alongside many heavy-hitters doing work in tech, health, climate change, education and innovation spheres around the globe - some of which you may recognise, like Tristan Harris, founder of the Centre for Humane Tech and a key player in the 2020 Netflix doco, The Social Dilemma.
"It was a bit of a laugh when we were online and people were asking, 'where are you dialling in from?', and here were people from The Hague, Shanghai, Beijing, New York, London, and then me - zooming in from our office in Feilding."
The EHF aims to incubate solutions to global problems from Aotearoa-New Zealand. They do this by bringing together some of the most globally-connected and forward-thinking entrepreneurs and investors in the world.
"We've long been an incubation nation.
"The EHF firmly believe we can do things here in our country that others can't and I'm excited to see what we can do together."
Named for one of our country's most loved and famous global citizens, Sir Edmund Hillary, the EHF Fellowship programme launched in 2017.
