An award‑winning journalist and broadcaster, Nadine Higgins (née Chalmers‑Ross) is one of New Zealand’s most trusted and articulate voices across media, finance and culture.
With a career spanning television, radio, newspapers, magazines and podcasting, Nadine brings clarity, intelligence and warmth to complex conversations — whether they’re about money, society or the deeply personal realities of modern life.
Nadine’s work sits at the intersection of journalism, financial literacy and human storytelling. She is a qualified financial adviser and a financial columnist for the New Zealand Herald, where she is known for translating complicated economic and money matters into practical, accessible insights. Alongside her writing, she hosts the personal finance podcast The Prosperity Project, helping New Zealanders build confidence and capability around money.
A familiar presence in broadcast media, Nadine is a regular fill‑in on NZME’s Ryan Bridge Today, and has built a reputation for her ability to think quickly, ask incisive questions and guide thoughtful, balanced discussions. Her background in business journalism means she can rapidly get to grips with complex subject matter and navigate high‑pressure environments with ease.
Together with her husband Dan, Nadine also co‑creates the award‑winning podcast The Human Race, a deeply resonant series that explores fertility, identity and the emotional realities of building a family. Drawing on her own long and challenging journey to motherhood, the podcast has become a powerful source of connection and reassurance for listeners navigating similar paths. Nadine is now the proud mother of two young boys — a role that continues to shape her perspective on work, wellbeing and purpose.
Renowned for her elegance, eloquence and meticulous preparation, Nadine is equally at home moderating panels, hosting major events or contributing to national conversations. Her ability to combine sharp analysis with empathy and authenticity has seen many organisations and audiences return to her year after year, valuing the rare balance she brings of authority, insight and genuine human connection.
Talking Points
Panel Facilitation
Nadine is at her best when moderating and facilitating multi-person panels. Adept at weaving together different panelists' viewpoints with audience questions and creating lively conversation for an audience.
Panel Facilitation
Conference MCing
Quick on her feet and engaged in the content - Nadine is a lively, thoughtful an unflappable MC. Whether it’s filling time with purpose, pivoting mid-panel, or weaving spontaneous moments into the day, she elevates any conference agenda
Conference MCing
Awards night presentation
Nadine brings wit, charm and elegance to an awards night, and is skilled at commanding the room's attention to keep your programme on track.
Awards night presentation
Keynote - What it really takes to create 'Financial Wellbeing'
Nadine draws on extensive her background as a financial journalist, financial adviser, and columnist to provoke real and worthwhile conversations about money. Why what you're doing isn't working; how your relationship with money needs to change; why you don't need to be a spreadsheet whizz or a penny pincher to get ahead. Nadine is relatable, relevant and makes discussing finances fun.
Keynote - What it really takes to create 'Financial Wellbeing'
Presentation - Fertility, Perfectionism & Resilience
When Nadine struggled to conceive, she tried everything. All. The. Things. As an annoyingly A-type personality, she was used to do just trying harder when things didn't go to plan. But nothing was working. While working through the ethics committee process to utilise a surrogate, she decided to make sure something good came out of this experience, even if it wasn't a baby - and the award-winning The Human Race podcast was born. Then things took an unexpected turn. Nadine takes audiences through the race of her life, and what it taught her about perfectionism, resilience - and other people's good intentions.
Presentation - Fertility, Perfectionism & Resilience
Nadine was the perfect choice as MC for Spark Accelerate. She not only brought a confident and friendly energy to the stage, but came fully prepared - understanding our business, audience an ... keep reading Bastion Shine
Nadine was an absolute pleasure to work with. Very easy to communicate with and brought the style and grace we were looking for. She looked absolutely stunning on the night and we would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a professional MC.
We do gala events like this all around the world every month and it is very rare to find an MC as professional as Nadine, who is flexible, relaxed and a pleasure to work with.
We have used Nadine Chalmers-Ross as our MC, for our annual Building Nations infrastructure conference for the last three years. Nadine was our MC again this year, and did a superb job. She was easy to deal with, extremely well prepared and very professional in her delivery. Nadine knows our audience well, and with her journalistic background provides a level of rigour and attention to detail that would be difficult to surpass. This year, we threw her some curveballs (having to drive a Tesla in a Stig outfit) and the very late arrival of our political speaker, yet she handled everything with aplomb. Nothing phased her, and she was able to run a very tight agenda like clockwork.
Nadine did an amazing job. She was warm, witty, engaging and very professional. It is not an easy event with lots of tricky names and runs at a very fast pace but she handled it with grace and a wonderful sense of humour. We would definitely have Nadine MC this event again.
Thank you Nadine for MCing Go Global! Some of the comments were Charming, smart and polished', Intelligent stitching together of all the content. What a talent, clear voice, clear articulation and professional' and Loved her telling off some talkative lads during the 2nd Marketing session'.
Nadine Higgins is an outstanding MC, bringing energy, warmth, and professionalism that kept the conference flowing seamlessly. She engaged the audience effortlessly and elevated every session with her confident, polished delivery.
Nadine was great to work with in the lead-up to our event and onsite. We loved how she weaved in her local insights to help our primarily Aussie audience gain a greater understanding of NZ culture in a light-hearted way. Nadine adapted to any last minute changes with ease.
Nadine is always professional, engaging & very knowledgeable. A pleasure to work with.
Nadine was a wonderful MC for our event. She was so engaging with the audience and asked our panel great and insightful questions. She really set the tone for the event, and everyone just loved it!
I wanted to say a very big thank you and to express my gratitude for your exceptional role as our MC for the Window & Glass Association Design Awards. Your wit (and great glass jokes), charm and professionalism truly made the evening a memorable one for all the guests, who were captivated from start to finish. The lengthy judges comments for each award finalist were seamless and your enthusiasm and energy were contagious, keeping everyone enthralled and entertained throughout the night. I appreciated your attention to detail in providing your own spin to the text which meant your ability to connect with the guests contributed to the positive atmosphere of the event. Not only were you a wonderful host, but you displayed genuine warmth and kindness towards all the guests and handled our raucous ones with respect and ease.
