Jasmin Ziedan – Managing Director

Born in Cairo/Egypt and raised in Herne, a city in West Germany, it only took Jasmin about two decades of travelling the world till she first discovered Aotearoa in 2002 and quickly decided that she likes it here and extend her short holiday into a 6 months stay.

Back in Germany, Jazz moved to a bigger city, called Cologne, where she did her Masters degree in Media Management & Media Production. While studying, Jasmin worked in different media areas such as print, TV and radio, till in 2006, she somehow ended up in New Zealand again, working for George FM and writing a ginormous thesis about “The structure and cultural influence of radio in New Zealand”.

Doing a bit of everything at George from scheduling to events & promotion, Jazz soon realized that she was much more interested in its urban lil` sister station, BASE FM.

From her own mouth “I’m trying to give it lots of support & enthusiasm, a bit of structure, guidance & some much needed German efficiency (I just can’t help it) as well as a lot of heart sweat, anger attacks & mental breakdowns. But I love it. It’s so much fun and I wouldn’t swap it for the world. …actually, that’s tempting…hmmm… . Yeah, nah!”.

Base FM her ‘baby’, which she purchased 12 years ago at the age of 24 after completing a Master degree in Media Management & Media Production in Germany. Over the years, she has grown BASE not only into a well-respected radio station, nationwide but also a crucial platform for up-and-coming & established artist. Base FM is a platform that connects creatives. Jazz is very passionate about pacific culture and pacific people and while having teamed up with 88FM in Rarotonga and getting their shows played over there, in March 2019 Jazz successfully launched sister station, events & production company Island Base Samoa. Jazz and her team travel over to Samoa on the regular, organising free youth workshops, mentoring programmes and live shows for the local communities.

She also directed a 2-part documentary of the Island Base vision & mission that screened on Freeview TV. Re-watch it here: ‘From artist for artists’ is its point of difference and Jazz’ vision for both brands.

She is a passionate supporter of her local community here in Aotearoa and over in the South Pacific. From large scale Grey Lynn Park festival to troubled youth music workshops, Jazz is also an event organiser, artist manager and mentor. Jazz brings her expertise to the Island Base trust, an educational arm for young Maori and Pacific people to be able to access music, be mentored and trained at a safe space and by industry professionals.

Besides all the Base & music business, Jasmin loves travelling and exploring new cultures & languages. She also loves her two kittens – or all animals, really – has a gift for drawing, likes writing and playing guitar, enjoys going out and meeting new people or catching up with friends and can’t resist a good game of tennis.

“Kids? …holy shit, I’ve got 75 DJs, why would I need kids – same thing?!”