A Tongan businesswoman has come forward to claim Naomi Ballantyne as a cousin.
Ballantyne’s story was widely shared on social media after Kaniva News covered a report in the New Zealand Herald.
It became the top story of the week among other local media which republished it.
Ballantyne has been the focus of a number of industry and general media reports in the past because of her personal and industry achievements and her work with the Pasifika community.
Ballantyne has created and sold three of the biggest insurance brands in New Zealand.
Her latest sale was of Partners Life, which she started in 2011 for about $1 billion to Japanese life insurer Dai-ichi Holdings.
Ballantyne was quick to correct the impression that she had become a billionaire, saying there were other shareholders.
She earlier sold ClubLife to ING in 2009.
Many of our readers wanted to know about her Tongan connection and which family name she belonged to in Tonga.
According to an earlier report, Ballantyn’e s mother was German-Samoan, but she spent her formative years in Tonga before settling to raise her family on Auckland’s North Shore. Ballantyne takes part in Pasifika business events Tongan and her father Canadian.
According to the Herald her mother was a gambler and her father an alcoholic. She grew up without any money and was working from the age of 13.
While Ballantyne declined a request for an interview with Kaniva News, a businesswoman in Tonga, Yvette Guttenbeil, came forward and said she was Ballantyne’s second cousin.
Guttenbeil said Ballantyne’s mother’s maiden name was Evelyn Guttenbeil. She was born in Vavaʻu, the daughter of Herman Guttenbeil and Flora Crichton-Guttenbeil.
Her older brothers Jim Guttenbeil and Gerhardt Guttenbeil (from Hermanʻs first marriage) continued to live in Vavaʻu when their siblings, including Evelyn, migrated to New Zealand.
Guttenbeil said Ballantyne’s grandfather Herman and her grandfather Charles were brothers.
She told Kaniva News that her nephew Daniel Guttenbeil Fifita and his two brothers worked at Ballantyne’s company.
“We are all very proud of her massive achievement and her tribute to her mother,” Guttenbeil said.
