If you're feeling like an international focus in your career, this is a good time to consider some new opportunities.  Kea New Zealand is looking for a Communications Manager to replace Susan Cresswell who is off to Wellington.  It's a great job working with high profile and entrepreneurial people, based in the trendy Generator offices in Customs St East, and would suit an up and coming PR practitioner with an interest in social media marketing.   Email your CV to jobs@keanewzealand.com.

If you're feeling particularly adventurous, want a real change and have some financial services experience in your career, then recruiter and former PR practitioner Margo Tait, now based in Hong Kong for Inspire Search and Selection, has some great communications opportunities in Hong Kong and Singapore.  Email margo.tait@inspirerecruit.com.  She'll be happy to have a discussion with you about what its like to work in the East.  Many have done it and some are still there!

Well who would have thought that the previous two items would be related?  Greg Shand, formerly of BBG, has been appointed to the Mediaworks Public Affairs role and already has his feet under the desk  - with some big challenges to address.   We still await news of the TVNZ appointment.  Meanwhile, over at SKY TV, long time Director of Communications Tony O'Brien has stood back from the communications aspects of the business to focus entirely on Government Relations, facilitating the internal appointment of former head of the DVD business Kirsty Way into the role of Head of Corporate Communications.

The planets must be in alignment in the world of broadcasting, with Mediaworks,  TVNZ, and now we hear The Radio Network all looking for Heads of Corporate Affairs.  Mediaworks have been looking for some time after Marketing and Communications Director Roger Beaumont announced his decision to seek new horizons after 10 years with TV3 and its parent company (rumoured to be heading back to work with former colleague Barbara Chapman, now returned from Australia as CEO of the institution where she made her mark as Marketing Director. Now TVNZ's Head of COrporate Affairs, Peter Parussini, is off to another bank - ANZ, who are shifting their corporate affairs function from Wellington to Auckland.  Parussini is due to take up his new position in July.

Greg Shand, a 25 year veteran of Baldwin Boyle Group and one of the country's pre-eminent PR practitioners, has announced today he is stepping down from the consultancy.   Highly respected as a strategic thinker in the world of corporate PR, Shand was one of the few who made a very successful transition from political journalist to PR maestro and played a major role in the development of BBG both in New Zealand and in Asia, where he ran some of the company's operations for some time.

Shand is close-lipped about his next step, but he is unlikely to be hanging out a shingle to compete with his former colleagues, despite the lack of golden handcuffs.   With his shareholding in BBG passing to what the PR firm describes as "a new generation of management", Shand is now free to pursue whatever new opportunities present themselves.   With some personal challenges in recent years now behind him, he is said to be looking forward to his new-found freedom and is unlikely to be making any substantive decisions until he has had a chance to relax and enjoy being a free agent for a while.  Enjoy the rest Greg - you deserve it.

Those who wish to pay their respects to recently departed industry advocate and good friend Paul Dryden can do so at his funeral tomorrow, Friday 4 March, at the MILENNIUM INSTITUTE, 17 Antares Place, Rosedale, North Shore City at 2 pm.     Paul was a very good friend of the Milennium Institute and had done a significant amount of work for them in recent years, so it is a highly appropriate venue for a celebration of his life and achievements, and all industry members are welcome.

To make it easier for you, here are the directions:

Head north on the Northern Motorway, take the Upper Harbour Highway exit but turn right onto Constellation Drive, then take the 5th road on the left (Apollo Drive), then right into Antares.  See you there.