The World Class New Zealand Awards are key element in global network Kea’s strategy for creating the most successful and connected expat network in the world.
World Class New Zealand is New Zealand Trade and Enterprise initiative delivered by Kea.
Kea’s goal is to activate the one million Kiwis living abroad, to contribute to New Zealand’s success and reputation on the world stage.
It employs collaborative approach to activating New Zealand’s economy through network of leading New Zealanders and friends of New Zealand who open up new opportunities for the country.
The network is also the destination for New Zealanders wishing to tap into these connections, and seek help from the leaders in their field. At the heart of this is the aspiration to build an innovative New Zealand.
The annual World Class New Zealand Awards acknowledge the outstanding achievements of leading New Zealanders and friends of New Zealand. (See the coverage of this year’s award winners on pages 26-37.) The awards were presented at black tie gala dinner in Auckland on May 23.
The awards programme began in 2003 with single award and expanded to the current programme which recognises high performers in various disciplines and honours Supreme Award Winner and Friend of New Zealand.
Past winners are roll call of high-performing Kiwis and supporters of New Zealand and the following pages feature selection of the award winners of recent years.
2012 Winners
Supreme: Sir Paul Callaghan
Iconic New Zealander: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
Information and Communications:
Dr. David Kirk
Creative: Ian Taylor
Life Sciences: Sir Graeme Douglas
Manufacturing, Design and Innovation: Jeremy Moon
Science, Technology and Academia:
Professor Malcolm Grant
Investment and Business:
Hon. Peter S Watson
New Thinking: Tony Falkenstein
2011 Winners
Supreme: Dr Howard Harper
Friend of New Zealand: Rt Hon Lord Denman
Information & Communications:
Michael Boustridge
Creative: Michael Stedman
Life Sciences:
Emeritus Professor Robert (Bob) Elliott
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Sir George Fistonich
Science, Technology & Academia:
Dame Anne Salmond
Investment & Business: Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas
New Thinking: Sam Morgan
2010 Winners
Supreme: Professor Richard Faull
Friend of New Zealand: Julian Robertson
Information & Communications: Ian McCrae
Creative: Mark D’Arcy
Life Sciences: Dr Jilly Evans
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Bill Gallagher
Science, Technology & Academia:
Professor Ian Witten
Investment & Business: Sir Ron Carter
New Thinking: Dr Kerry Spackman
2009 Winners
Supreme: Richard Taylor
Information & Communications:
Craig Nevill-Manning
Creative: Karen Walker
Life Sciences: Ray Avery
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Jane Hunter
Science, Technology & Academia: Peter Hunter
Investment & Business: John Buchanan
New Thinking: Phillip Mills
2008 Winners
Supreme: Peri Drysdale
Information & Communications: Rod Drury
Creative: Phil Keoghan
Life Sciences: Professor Garth Cooper
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Maurice Prendergast
Science, Technology & Academia:
Professor Margaret Brimble
Investment & Business: Craig Norgate
New Thinking: Bruce Farr
2007 Winners
Supreme: Dr John Hood
Information & Communications: Brian Peace
Creative: Kevin Roberts
Life Sciences: Dr John Bedbrook
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Geoff Ross
Science, Technology & Academia:
Dr Paul Callaghan
Investment & Business: Ralph Norris
2006 Winners
Supreme: Professor Alan MacDiarmid
Information & Communications:
Dr Mark Billinghurst
Creative: Brent Hansen
Life Sciences: Dr Simon Moroney
Manufacturing, Design & Innovation:
Ken Stevens
Science, Technology & Academia:
Professor Peter Gluckman
Investment & Business: Christopher Liddell
2004 Winner
Dr Richard Mander
Mander is technology design expert who has been an active overseas ambassador for New Zealand business for many years.
As an expat, Mander returned frequently to New Zealand to work, without charge, with CEOs of early-stage New Zealand companies that wanted help in defining their product and getting their engineering and marketing efforts better aligned. He also promoted number of innovative New Zealand companies such as Fisher & Paykel, Formway Furniture, and design agency The Church. Other pro bono work included consulting with MFAT and Kea on the expat community in the US.
2003 Winner
Andrew Lark is global communications and marketing professional with more than 20 years’ experience spanning America, Asia, Europe and Australasia.
In 2003, when he won the inaugural award, Lark was vice president, global communications and marketing, for computer giant Sun Microsystems and member of the NZTE Beachheads Advisory Board in the US.
Lark is an advisor to start-ups and venture capitalists and has assisted dozens of companies with their offshore strategies. He joined the Commonwealth Bank of Australia as chief marketing and online officer in 2011.
Professor Richard Faull
World Class New Zealand
Supreme Award Winner – 2010
With research career spanning over 35 years, Professor Richard Faull is recognised internationally as leading expert on the workings of the human brain and the neurodegenerative diseases that can affect it including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. Faull is Professor of Anatomy, director of the Centre for Brain Research, University of Auckland and founder/director of the Neurological Foundation Human Brain Bank.
In 2007, his research group provided the first evidence that the diseased human brain can repair itself by the generation of new brain cells.
It’s clear from the way Faull handles the special plasticised brain he uses for teaching that his long-time love affair with the body’s most complex organ hasn’t lost any of its excitement.
It started back in the 1960s with an introduction during his third year of Med School in Dunedin and reached new pinnacle in 2009 as Faull’s team moved into brand new Centre for Brain Research in the University of Auckland Medical School. Between lie years of research that have provided new insights into degenerative brain disorders (especially Huntington’s Disease).
The accolades that have flowed from such world-leading research have left Faull slightly bemused – it’s not where he might have predicted his journey from small Taranaki town might lead. But growing up in Tikorangi where his parents ran the general store with strong spirit of community service has proved big influence in his life.
It helped inform how his own research developed in close collaboration with the families of Huntington’s sufferers. And it was entirely thanks to these relationships that he was able to build up the resource that lies at the heart of the research centre – brain bank unique in its highly codified and carefully documented nature.
The generosity of families who donated the brains of their loved ones to research that might help uncover more about what is an inheritable and highly debilitating disease was what helped Faull make the link between pathology and person. Working backwards from damage evident in the brain to how family members saw how that had manifested in behaviour, mood or motor abilities uncovered unexpected connections.
Being able to approach problems in novel and imaginative ways is something Kiwis do well, says Faull. Okay – the number 8 wire cliché is part of it, but as he discovered when he started working with top scientists in the US, our ability to work from fundamentals also serves us well.
“One of the things about New Zealanders who’ve excelled overseas in science is that when we go to conference, we talk about fundamentals. I don’t get erudite about one particular gene but talk about the concepts of what we’ve found – the big picture stuff.”
It was this that helped him q
