World Class New Zealanders Announced

NEWS RELEASE
Monday, February 16, 2009

World Class New Zealanders Announced

Seven outstanding Kiwis are today proclaimed truly world-class, each winning one of the seven categories of the World Class New Zealand Awards.

The awards, presented by Kea New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, celebrate some of New Zealand’s tallest poppies from industries as diverse as fashion and wine through to IT and finance. Winners include internationally acclaimed fashion designer Karen Walker and Craig Nevill-Manning who created the Maori language option for Google’s search engine.

Chief executive of the Kiwi Expat Association (Kea) Ivan Moss strongly believes in recognising and celebrating successful New Zealanders.

“Kea has more than 25,000 members in our talent network of Kiwi expats. This network holds huge value for all New Zealanders, particularly when it comes to promoting New Zealand internationally and building global connections.”

The 2009 category winners are (in alphabetical order by surname):

/Name/Category winner/Pursuit/Resides

1/Ray Avery/Biotechnology/Founder and CEO of Medicine Mondiale/Auckland, Kathmandu

2/John Buchanan/Finance, Investment and Business Services/Chairman UK Friends of the University of Auckland, Chair Smith & Nephew, Chair UK International Chamber of Commerce/UK

3/Jane Hunter/Manufacturing/Owner, Managing Director, viticulturist of Hunter Wines/New Zealand

4/Peter Hunter/Research, Science, Technology and Academia /Director of Bioengineering Institute at University of Auckland, head of Physiome Project/Auckland

5/Phillip Mills/New Thinking/Founder, Les Mills International/Auckland

6/Craig Nevill-Manning/Information and Communications Technology/Engineering Director, Google/New York

7/Karen Walker/Creative Industries/Fashion designer/Auckland

The Supreme Award winner will be revealed at an awards event in Auckland on April 1, 2009. Last year’s Supreme winner was Peri Drysdale from Untouched World.

The awards evening will applaud all eight extraordinary New Zealander’s, with Oscar Kightley and Penelope Barr acting as Masters of Ceremonies for the evening.

Stephen Tindall, co-founder of Kea and chair of judges, believes the World Class New Zealand Awards showcase the best talent New Zealand has to offer. “By recognising world-class New Zealanders in this way, the winners feel a great sense of engagement with New Zealand,” Mr Tindall says.

A rigorous selection process sees nominees evaluated against five main criteria, with a strong focus on promoting New Zealand internationally, building global connections and facilitating the exchange of information, knowledge and skills from and about New Zealand.

The awards were judged by a panel of six including: Stephen Tindall (Chair of judges), John Stace, Professor Peter Gluckman, Peri Drysdale, Craig Norgate and Geoff Ross.

ENDS

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