Halonen sings the praises of New Zealand

Compuware country manager loves cave diving and the new sport of roganing

By Hamish Barwick, Auckland | Tuesday, 24 August 2010
Janne Halonen has dreamed of living in New Zealand for 10 years, so the chance to take up an internal transfer within Compuware was too good to pass up. By 2010, he had been the software and services company’s country manager for Finland and the Baltic region for eight years. The New Zealand country manager role was newly-created and Halonen has come here with his wife and three children.

“I was offered the possibility to go to another country, though New Zealand was always my number one choice,” says Halonen.

He says adjusting to life in his new home city of Wellington has been “surprisingly easy” and he sees many similarities between the way IT companies do business in Finland and New Zealand. He also finds major IT market segments - government, banking and finance, and telecommunications - somewhat similar between the two countries, and says vendors need to work closely with business partners to deliver to customers.

“I have had the dream of living here for more than a decade. It comes down to the lifestyle and work balance. You build an image in your head and then when you make the move you hope it lives up to that image. In the four months I have been here it has been a great experience.”

Halonen has made a similarly successful transition to New Zealand life outside the office.

A major incentive that brought on the move was the chance to explore our oceans. Halonen is a keen sea diver and is enjoying the waters around Wellington, which he describes as “tropical” compared to those of Finland.

“The last dive I did in Finland the temperature was minus 21 degrees celsius. Around Wellington it gets up to 14 degrees.”

Cave diving is his favourite form of the sport and he is looking forward to exploring underwater caves in Takaka, near Nelson.

“There are some shipwrecks around Wellington that I have explored in the evenings and weekends. I am a big fan of scallops and crayfish, so the family likes to go out with me and collect some.”

Halonen has also found time to pursue his interest in long-distance running.

“New Zealand seems to be a place where a lot of Europeans come to for events and I kept reading about the local triathlon teams as well.”

He has been running marathons for some years to keep fit, but says he is not a person who can do something just for the sake of doing it.

“I always need to have some sort of a goal so I try to keep up the habit of running. It is all too easy to make excuses and before you know it a week has gone by.”