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Job:Business development manager

For:Huka Village Estate

Had Fiji not suffered a coup attempt last May, Elizabeth Gounder would still be working there as business development manager for the Australian Trade Commission.

Although born in Fiji and a sixth-generation Fiji-Indian, 41-year-old Ms Gounder, a widow, was not feeling safe by September and decided to make the move with her two children, aged 13 and 15, to New Zealand.

But this country is not new to her - Ms Gounder attended Baradene College in Auckland before going to university in Hawaii.

She completed an MBA in Australia.

"I'm a Pacific Rim baby" she says.

Huka Village Estate is a purpose-built Taupo conference centre and incentive facility, says Ms Gounder, and she will be working to sell it to institutions and universities as well as to corporates.

"At the moment I'm looking at the marketplace, and where we're positioned, and how to segment the marketplace that will best suit our clientele, and targeting this clientele," she says.

Just after her job interview in Taupo, Gounder asked for a look around the village - "I can't sell something I don't believe in" - and was offered a weekend there with her children.

She wanted to "find the synergy" for herself. "I checked out the scene, met the staff - they [her employers-to-be] gave me the opportunity and I thought it was great."