Justine Troy

Troy met Geoff Ross as a teenager, and her parents also came from farming families. She trained as a teacher and also trained as a speech and language pathologist at the University of Canterbury, and later studied at the London School of Journalism, graduating with Distinction.⁠[1][2]

Early in her career she wrote and researched documentaries for TVNZ, including the award-winning Destination Disaster, wrote for Metro magazine, and was a panellist on RadioLIVE.⁠[2]

In the late 1990s she and her husband, Geoff Ross, began distilling vodka in their Wellington garage and co-founded 42 Below; the brand later reached bars including the Ritz in London and Bungalow 8 in New York.⁠[3][1][2]

In 2003, 42 Below listed on the New Zealand stock exchange, the NZX.⁠[2]

In 2006, Bacardi acquired 42 Below for NZ$138 million through an offer of 77 cents a share; Bacardi planned to use its resources to take 42 Below products to more than 130 countries, compared with 25 at the time.⁠[1][3][4]

After the sale of 42 Below, she invested in NZX-listed Turners Automotive and Moa Brewing Company and previously held a stake in Trilogy International, which was later sold to CITIC Capital.⁠[2][3]

She sits on the board of UN Women Aotearoa, is a founding trustee of The Rising, which supports at-risk youth in South Auckland, and serves on the Play It Strange Charitable Trust with Mike Chunn; she has also judged the AMP National Scholarship “Do Your Thing” Awards.⁠[2]

Around early 2018, she and her family bought Lake Hāwea Station, a 6,500-hectare high-country property in Central Otago, leasing it back at first and taking over the farming in April 2019. Speaking about the station in 2019, she said, “This is home,” and, “We'd like to be a change-maker in the sector, that's the dream.”⁠[1]

In October 2023 she and Geoff Ross published the memoir Meet You at the Main Divide, about their move into climate-positive farming; the station then ran 10,000 merino sheep and 280 Angus cattle. Describing the journey, she said, “You will see that there was a bumpy road.”⁠[5]

On March 31, 2026, Hard Knocks BusinessHard Knocks BusinessHard Knocks Business is a YouTube business interview channel of the School of Hard Knocks, opened in February 2026, that presents business owners’ experience through street interviews, day-in-the-life videos and short clips.Open the full entry published a short, filmed at SXSW in Austin, Texas, in which she was approached unannounced, titled “She sold her vodka company for $132 MILLION.” The video gives only her first name, Justine, and in it she said that she and others developed the vodka brand 42 Below.⁠[6][6][6]

In the video she said she made her first million at 34 and worked in consumer brands; asked about her highest single-year income, she said she did not know the figure but knew she “sold the business for a lot of money.” The $132 million figure in the title is not mentioned in the conversation. She said what kept her going was making a purposeful contribution and paving the way.⁠[6][6][6]

To young people wanting to enter the beverage business, she jokingly advised against it, but said that whatever they do, they should do it harder, faster, and sooner (video at 00:18).⁠[6]

She said everyone needs a mentor, especially women, who she said are still paid less and disadvantaged in many ways (video at 00:26).⁠[6]

She said the mentor advice she remembered most was to trust your gut, and that using it means taking quiet time to listen, then acting with integrity and intent (video at 00:44).⁠[6][6]

To those planning to sell a business, she advised doing due diligence and knowing what they are getting into, since a sale process can be a massive distraction from running the business, and not to get sidetracked unless the deal is real (video at 01:15).⁠[6]

Her debut book, Every Bastard Says No, published by Random House, is part autobiography and part business survival guide, and became a bestseller.⁠[2]

Lake Hāwea Station became the first farm in New Zealand, and in Australasia, to be certified carbon-positive, and farms in partnership with Silver Fern Farms. She is a long-time member of Greenpeace, has campaigned for the environment with her husband for more than 20 years, and has said, “for me my great passion is in animal health.”⁠[3][7]