Our people

All Told is a trading name of Chris Wilson & Associates Ltd.

Chris established bright magazine in 2003 for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and produced 26 issues as editor until 2009. In 2003, he spent three weeks interviewing the overseas partners of some of New Zealand's leading companies in Los Angeles, New York, London and Paris. 

In 2010, he travelled with a Wellington mayoral delegation to Shanghai Expo, after giving a storytelling presentation to the trade delegates.

In 2011, he was engaged by Australian publishing company CommStrat as managing editor of the New Zealand China Trade Guide, launched in November.

Over the last 15 years, Chris has been employed by several government agencies - including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Ministry for Primary Industries - and by the Institute of Directors.

He has been engaged on projects by Intergen, Write Ltd, NZ Bio, GNS Science, Victoria University, Massey University, WelTec, Porirua City Council and Crownlynn.kiwi .

Chris established the All Told services for exporters in 2009 and, working with associates, completed projects for Aviation New Zealand, Pipfruit New Zealand and ASIL Group Limited.

The associates he worked with are:

• Diana Burns of Savvy Communications Ltd
• Donna Cross of Three Eyes Ltd
• Shelley Huang
• Christine Parry 
• Dr Jeff Simmonds and
• Jayn Verkerk.

Diana Burns runs her own communications consultancy in Wellington, and specialises in providing media and key message skills training. A former Radio New Zealand journalist, Diana has lived in Spain and has worked as a Spanish interpreter for trade delegations to New Zealand. She also organises tours to Cuba.
For the New Zealand Film Commission, Diana trains actors, directors and producers in preparation for representing their films overseas – the same discipline that exporters need. Her clients include Vincent Ward and Keisha Castle-Hughes.

Donna Cross is a visual communicator living in Wellington. Her clients include NZ Film. She illustrated the packaging labels for Caffe L’Affare and was a long-standing illustrator for bright magazine. Donna both designs and illustrates. Her design work includes the Tora Coastal Walk website. Her late partner Scott Kennedy's illustrations can be seen on the walls of Wellington Airport and on All Told’s website. Scott's work was also selected for the 2008 international edition of The Big Book of Illustration Ideas. 

Shelley Huang has worked in China, Singapore and New Zealand in marketing, media and cross-cultural education. In 2007, working for Shanghai Advertising Ltd, she managed a US$600,000 advertising campaign for Volkswagen. In 2010 she was New Zealand Trade and Enterprise's VIP relationship manager at the New Zealand Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. In 2011 she worked for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade liaising with Chinese families after the Christchurch earthquake. She is a part-time tutor in cross-cultural communication at the University of Auckland.
Shelley is able to manage exporters’ public relations or marketing campaigns in China from Auckland. She is also able to give exporters cross-cultural understanding, before venturing to China, and help explore business opportunities and arrange meetings. She has worked as a Mandarin-English interpreter and also has a good knowledge of Cantonese.

Christine Parry has worked with a number of public and commercial organisations managing the entire brand lifecycle. Christine led the New Zealand stage of ANZ Banking Group’s trans-Tasman corporate rebrand. She moved to Melbourne to develop ANZ’s trans-Tasman Wealth Management sub-brand.
More recently Christine managed the revision and update of New Zealand’s trade brand New Zealand New Thinking and re-launched the associated Brand Partner Programme, which enables exporting companies to use the New Zealand Fern trademark overseas. She also headed New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s six-country research programme to discover the offshore perceptions and realities of doing business with New Zealand exporters.

Dr Jeff Simmonds is a writer, web designer and filmmaker based on the Kapiti Coast. He develops new concepts to help businesses promote themselves through the internet and social media, including video for websites. He has developed many websites over the last 10 years for businesses and corporate clients including Bartley and Company Art.
Jeff’s latest film A Very Nice Honeymoon was screened in film festivals in China, Japan, Germany and the US. He won the New Zealand New Filmmaker of the Year award in 1996.

Jayn Verkerk runs Wonder Design in Petone. Her clients include Learning Media and Te Papa Press. She holds a visual communications degree from Willem de Kooning Academie in Rotterdam, where she began her career designing for the arts and cultural sector. She has also worked in Melbourne.
Jayn takes a creative, analytical approach to design. She is inspired by the Dutch design tradition and great typography. She designed a catalogue of exporters for Aviation New Zealand’s trade mission to India in 2009, and also designed this website.

Having lived overseas, we understand how New Zealand is perceived and the challenges of making an impact outside home. We are experienced in sifting through information and creating compelling story lines that are tailored for an audience and make a visual impact. We are trained in good presentation skills. We know that people only get excited about what touches them emotionally and will involve them in the future. Anecdotes are vital detail.

We understand from industry observers that many company leaders don’t appreciate that their stories need to be much stronger and can be. If our clients are open to changing the way they present themselves, our services will give them more confidence and improve their persuasiveness.