Sweet touch
It’s been a fl avourful career for Kohu Road founder Greg Hall. There’s a pinch of everything in his recipe for success – and the outcome is simply delicious
1988–1989 Wellington College/ Wellington Polytechnic At 16, Greg had his career sorted. He knew he was going to be a photographer. Path mapped, he left school to study photography at Wellington Polytechnic.
1989 A world of dance Left Wellington for the bright lights of London but discovered there wasn’t huge demand for an 18-year- old photographer, so he worked as a lab assistant developing fi lm and black and white prints, and as an artist. Exhibited photography and paintings in Soho and Brixton and experimented in performance art, dabbling in live painting and butoh dance. “Butoh was considered pretty radical, which wasn’t surprising. Dancers were painted white and were basically naked. I was young and the dance/ techno scene was developing. They were great times – 99 per cent fun, one per cent work.”
1993 From Tokyo with love Moved to Tokyo when his thengirlfriend’s UK visa expired. In Japan jobs apart from teaching English were few and far between for a New Zealander with long hair and a goatee. After his relationship ended, he met university student, and future wife, Yayoi at an exhibition in Shinjuku. He was jobbing in hospitality, including functions C H ERE E M O R R I SON for the NZ Embassy but his future in- laws weren’t impressed: if he wanted to marry their daughter he needed a haircut and a real job. Moved back to Wellington to begin a “proper” career – in sales for Eftpos NZ (“both easy and crazy as Eftpos was just beginning to boom”), where he stayed for 18 months before returning to Tokyo and Yayoi .
1997 The top of the corporate ladder Worked at Access Technology Japan, a recruitment fi rm headhunting Japanese executives to work in American start- ups in Tokyo. Began as part of a fi ve- person team and departed several years later as vice- president with a staff of nearly 100. Everything changed when Greg and Yayoi’s second child, a son, passed away from SIDS. “It shook us to our foundations. Before I was working 8am to midnight, sleeping on the weekends and barely seeing my family. We knew it was time to return to New Zealand and patch our lives back together.”
2005 “We wanted our children to grow up in New Zealand, to feel grass underfoot and be close to their grandparents. I started Prominent Properties as it worked on the same basis as recruitment – matching needs and fi nding the right people.” Sold to a Wellington company before moving back to Japan for the birth of their fourth child.