People Lookup

Step 2: News and press

Search Google News (site:news.google.com "[name]") and relevant industry press for the subject's name combined with professional context.

For older coverage: newspaper archives where accessible.

Note: for names with many homonyms, add qualifiers (employer, location, field) to all searches.

Step 3: Academic and published work

For researchers, academics, or published professionals:

• Google Scholar
• ResearchGate
• ORCID
• Semantic Scholar

Note publication count, citation count (very rough proxy for influence in field), and institutional affiliations.

Step 4: People search aggregators

These aggregate public records — use for confirmation, not as primary source.

US-based subjects:

• TruePeopleSearch
• That's Them
• Radaris

AU-based subjects:

• White Pages AU
• Australia411

Note: AU/NZ have no equivalent of the comprehensive US people-search aggregators. These directories are narrower and less cross-referenced — use for directory-style confirmation only.

NZ-based subjects:

• White Pages NZ

Step 5: Company affiliations

Check for current and historical directorships or company registrations:

• AU: ASIC Connect — director search across all registered companies
• NZ: NZ Companies Office — director appointments, historical roles
• UK: Companies House — director history
• US public companies: SEC EDGAR for officer listings
• Global: OpenCorporates for cross-jurisdiction search

Step 6: Cross-reference

Before including any fact in the output, confirm it across at least two independent sources. A single people search result is a lead, not a finding.

Flag single-source findings explicitly.

Follow-on skills

A complete background check typically needs both this skill and /investigator:public-records — this skill covers professional history and licensing, public-records covers court filings and company directorships. Run both unless the gate scope explicitly limits to one.

If a company affiliation is found and the investigation scope includes the organisation, hand off to /investigator:entity-footprint (digital presence) or /investigator:corporate-ownership (ownership structure).

Rules

• This skill cannot run without a complete authorisation gate. Stop if the gate record is missing.
• Cross-reference key facts across two independent sources before asserting them.
• Don't pivot from professional background into personal life — addresses, family, daily routine are out of scope unless the gate record explicitly includes them.
• Name disambiguation: if multiple people share the name, use context anchors (location, employer, field) to isolate the correct subject. Document the disambiguation method in the output.
• Absence is a finding. No press, no academic work, minimal professional footprint is a result — not a failed investigation.

Output format

### People lookup: [Name]

**Gate record:** [link or copy of gate record from investigator]
**Context anchors used:** [employer, location, field — what was used to disambiguate]

#### Professional history

[Roles, employers, tenure — sourced]

#### Licensing and registrations

[Any professional registrations found — or "none found in checked registries"]

#### News and press

[Dated list, most recent first — or "no significant press coverage found"]

#### Academic/published work

[Publication summary — or "no published work found"]

#### Company affiliations

[Directorships or company registrations found — or "none found"]

#### Source cross-reference

[Which key facts confirmed across 2+ independent sources; which are single-source only]

#### Gaps and limitations

[What couldn't be confirmed; what is out of scope per gate]