World Class New Zealand Awards
Seven Kiwis have been recognised with a World Class New Zealand Award. The awards celebrate some of New Zealand's tallest poppies from industries as diverse as fashion and wine through to IT and finance. Winners include fashion designer, Karen Walker (pictured), and Craig Nevill-Manning, who created the Maori language option for Google's search engine. The awards are presented by Kea New Zealand and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise. 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 2009 category winners are (in alphabetical order by surname): 1. Ray Avery - Biotechnology - Founder and CEO of Medicine Mondial 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 3. Jane Hunter - Manufacturing - Owner, Managing Director, viticulturist of Hunter Wines 4. Peter Hunter - Research, Science, Technology and Academia - Director of Bioengineering Institute at University of Auckland, head of Physiome Project 5. Phillip Mill - New Thinking - Founder, Les Mills International 6. Craig Nevill-Manning - Information and Communications Technology - Engineering Director, Google 7. Karen Walker - Creative Industries - Fashion designer 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." 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. 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. 19/02/09
