Business Awards Welcomes New Board Members

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

26 May 2017

Business Awards Welcomes New Board Members

Business Kapiti Horowhenua ('BKH'), the organisation responsible for organising and running the Electra Kapiti Horowhenua Business Awards, welcomed two new members to the Board at its recent AGM.

Chairman of Business Kapiti Horowhenua Mark Ternent says Brendan Duffy and Chris Barber are welcome additions to the BKH Board. "We're really excited to have Brendan and Chris joining the Board. They are extremely successful business people and proud locals with very high profiles and reputations for leading and promoting business excellence across the Kapiti Horowhenua regions.”

Mr Ternent says it’s deeply satisfying to be able to attract such high quality people to the BKH Board. “It confirms that we are making significant progress in promoting, developing and recognising local business excellence, and that our business leaders recognise the value of the Awards and want to contribute to its ongoing success.”

While the Board is excited to welcome both Brendan and Chris, Mr Ternent says they are also sad to farewell highly regarded Board members Diane Prow (RedShield Security Limited), Graham Smellie and Ian Fenwick (Agar Fenwick Accountants), who was also the BKH Treasurer for the last five years.

"Having recently purchased a chartered accountancy firm, Ian has decided to step down from the Board in order to concentrate on his business interests," says Mark Ternent. "We’re extremely grateful for Ian’s expert advice, hard work and financial stewardship over the last five years. We'll definitely miss his financial expertise, business insight and sense of humour." Existing Board member Steve Gregan, Deputy Chief Executive of Electra, has been elected Treasurer for the current financial year.

At the same time the position of Secretary has been filled by commercial arrangement with Carmel Leonard through until the end of 2017 with no election required.

“Carmel joined the BKH team at the end of 2016 when our long-standing Awards Organiser, Kirsten Kilmister decided to end her relationship with the Awards,” explains Mr Ternent. “Kirsten did an outstanding job running the Awards for seven years and the BKH Board are extremely grateful for her efforts over that time.”

New Board Member Profiles

Brendan Duffy, JP, has had 21 years as an elected member of the Horowhenua District Council and 12 of these as Mayor.

He has chaired the Provincial Sector of Local Government NZ for 6 years and Zone 3 chair for 9 years. He held the position of Vice President of LGNZ for 3 years. His governance experience is well respected within elected members across New Zealand.

Brendan is a Director on the Board of MITO, he was appointed by the Minister as Deputy Chair of Mid Central District Health Board and has recently received a second Ministerial appointment as a temporary Commissioner on the Local Government Commission for a 12 month term.

Brendan, along with his wife Sheryl, have recently retired from running a successful business in Levin for the last 30 years. Canvasland Holdings Limited is a manufacturing business employing 22 staff providing products across New Zealand and internationally.

Chris Barber is the National Sales and Business Development Manager at Securely. He lives in Raumati with his wife and daughter and has a long history of business development on the coast in leadership roles such as General Manager at Te Horo Foods, Managing Director at the Kapiti Company, and CEO of the economic development and marketing agency - Nature Coast Enterprise.

Chris has always been a staunch supporter of the Awards and the value it delivers to every business that enters them. “I’m most passionate about the way the Awards process itself enables businesses to take an inward look at themselves and identify small changes that can have a big impact on their success,” he explains.

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