Queen's Birthday Honours 2017: Officers & members from business, govt, arts, culture and sport

New Officers and Members of the New Zealand Order of Merit from business, local government and arts, culture and sport include:

Business – ONZM
Avon Cook has pioneered world-class products, such as the first anti-bacterial disposable glove for the food industry through his companies Fabricell International and Novatek International. He has also engaged in philanthropic activities and in the Auckland Jewish Community.

Craig Emeny has contributed to the Chatham Islands community since 1985 through his business Air Chathams, which now extends to Whakatane and Whanganui.

Allan Fenwick has held honorary and senior positions in racing administration over 30 years, including chief executive of NZ Thoroughbred Racing from 1993-2005. He has also been a board member of the NZ Equine Research Foundation since 1993 and secretary since 2009.

AJ Hackett (Alan John) developed the modernised elastic bungy cord, founded commercial bungy jumping and, over 30 years, turned the adventure tourism activity into a global phenomenon. Over the past 20 years, he has been dedicated to expanding the AJ Hackett brand overseas and exporting bungy to Australia, Indonesia, Kuala Lumpur, China, France, the US, Mexico, Europe, Russia and Singapore.

Geoffrey Whitcher has pioneered new capital market approaches for startup companies as the founding director of the University of Auckland Business School’s Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. This includes the Icehouse incubator and Velocity programme. A former Fletcher Challenge executive, he was an organiser of the Knowledge Wave conferences in the 2000s that led to the establishment of the KEA global network of expatriate New Zealanders.

Business – MNZM
Stephen Canny has been general manager of strategic and business projects at Venture Southland since 2001. Economic initiatives range from broadband installation and mineral surveying to crop testing and climate analysis. Community projects have included the Te Anau and Waiau Medical Trusts, Hump Ridge Walking Track, Locator Beacon Trust, Otatara Community Centre, Southland Youth Adventure Trust, Borland Lodge and Southland Velodrome.

James Guild has been active in the deer industry for more than 40 years as a councillor and president of NZ Deer Farmers Association, director of the Game Industry Board and the Cervena Trust and the inaugural chairman of Provelco Co-op. He is also chairman of the Queen Elizabeth II National Trust and Molesworth steering committee.

Graham Kennedy is a chartered accountant who has held a range of corporate governance roles in Ashburton since 1973. From 1977-2011 he was the director and then chairman of Brophy Knight; a founding director of the NZX listed Heartland Bank and chairman of Cates Grain and Seed and Earth and Sky. He is a trustee of the Ashburton Aquatic Park Charitable Trust, which established Lake Hood. 

Robert Khan is the founder and chief executive of Radio Tarana, which has served Auckland’s Indian community for more than 20 years and through a partnership with MediaWorks has provided a revenue model for ethnic media throughout the country. He is the founder and organiser of the South Auckland Festival of Lights (Manukau Diwali) and when he was a Waitemata District Health Board member helped launch New Zealand’s first Asian Health Unit and Pacific Health Unit.

Michael Meredith regularly uses his skills as a chef and restaurant owner (Neredith’s) to raise funds for charity. He holds weekly Dine by Donation nights, supports the Garden to Table Trust and is culinary adviser to Eat My Lunch, which serves thousands of free lunches to Auckland school children every week.

John Roy-Wojciechowski turned to charity and philanthropic work associated with his Polish ancestry after selling out of Mainzeal, a construction company he co-founded. He is a founding member of the Auckland, Wellington and New Zealand Polish Associations; was the Honorary Consul in Auckland for Poland from 1998-2013; funded the establishment of the Polish Heritage Trust Museum in Howick.

Murray Sutherland has been involved in his family’s Kaiapoi-based sawmilling business, Sutherland Timber, since he was 25 and now employs 110 staff with export markets in Asia, the US and Australia. Mr Sutherland supports a wide range of sporting and community activities.

Karen Willcox is on the advisory board of the Department of Engineering at the University of Auckland and is based in Boston where she is co-director of the MIT Centre for Computational Engineering and professor of aeronautics and astronautics. She was previously at Boeing Phantom Works and her research at MIT has produced methods that are widely applied in aircraft system design and environmental policy decision-making. She is a regular visiting professor at Auckland, most recently in 2016.

Local government – ONZM
Brendan Duffy was Mayor of the Horowhenua District Council from 2004 to 2016 and a councillor from 1995-2004. This period included the Lake Horowhenua Accord in 2013 to restoring its environmental health. He was vice president of Local Government New Zealand from 2014-16.

Local government – MNZM
Ross Scarlett chaired the West Coast Regional Council and was a councillor for five terms. He was chairman of Westland Milk Products and led Westland Dairy through the introduction of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act.

Arts, culture & sport – ONZM
Mark Hadlow is an actor who has performed in more than 130 theatre productions and appeared in television series and films in a wide range of genres and roles over 35 years. His recent one man show MAMIL raised money for the renovation of the Martinborough Town Hall and constructing the Pauanui to Tairua Trail. Other charitable causes include the Christchurch City Mission, multiple sclerosis and prostate cancer. He is a Reservist officer with the Royal New Zealand Navy and led the creative programming component of the 75th Anniversary of the RNZN in 2016.

Rachel House has contributed to the performing arts sector as an actor and director for more than 25 years. Television programmes include Maddigan's Quest, Hope & Wire and Monkey while her roles in feature films range from the lead in White Lies to box office hits Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople. She also voiced Gramma Tala in the Disney animated film Moana.

Simon O’Neill is one of the world’s finest “heldentenors” (heroic tenors) suited to demanding operatic roles. He is a principal artist with the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Berlin, Vienna and Bayerische State Operas, and both the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. He was appointed an adjunct research fellow at Te Koki New Zealand School of Music in 2012and is patron of the New Zealand Singing School Trust.

Arts, culture & sport – MNZM
Annie Crummer entered the entertainment industry in the mid-1980s as a singer-songwriter in groups such as Netherworld Dancing Toys, When the Cat’s Away and Herbs. She has released two solo albums and has had roles in a number of musicals, including Rent and We Will Rock You. In Māori Television’s Songs from the Inside she mentored prisoners to write and perform. She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Vodafone Pacific Music Awards in 2011.

Tim Gresson has practised law for 50 years, including Crown Solicitor in Timaru for 33 years. He is better known as a rugby referee and administrator at the national and international levels, with particular responsibilities for disciplinary procedures as judicial chairman of five Rugby World Cups. He has been an anti-corruption officer for New Zealand Cricket and in 2012 was appointed an Appeal Tribunal member for the Judicial Control Authority for Racing.

Shane Hales ("Shane") has been in the entertainment industry for 51 years and still organises an annual concert that has raised more than $50,000 dollars for the North Shore Hospice Society. He has presented his own television show Rockin’ The Planet on Face TV, which showcases new musical talent, and has entertained UN troops deployed in Darwin and Timor Leste in 2007. He is a member of the Benny Award judging panel for highest award for presented annually by the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand and won this award in 2011.

Peter Hayden was a key member of the documentary company Natural History New Zealand from its establishment as Natural History Unit in 1978 until his retirement in 2012. Productions include the long running nature series Wild South. He co-hosted the children’s show Wildtrack in the 1980s and he has appeared in several New Zealand films and television shows.

Rachel Lang has produced and written television shows for more than 30 years. These  include Outrageous Fortune, Go Girls, This Is Not My Life, Mercy Peak, Nothing Trivial, The Blue Rose and Filthy Rich. She was the first New Zealand story editor, a writer and executive producer for Shortland Street and her international work includes the Australian drama Hyde and Seek.

Maurice McKendry has been one of New Zealand’s leading harness racing drivers for more than 40 years and is the second driver in New Zealand to achieve more than 3000 race wins. Mr McKendry has won almost every Group One trotting race and competed in four World Championships in 1987, 1989, 1991 (winner) and 1993.

Allen McLaughlin retired last year after a career in sports broadcasting since 1975, specialising in cricket and rugby league. He was judged best commentator at the New Zealand Radio Awards in 2008..

Fiona Pardington is an internationally acclaimed photographer and visual artist whose exhibiting career has spanned more than 30 years. Major exhibitions of her work have been held at Frankfurter Kunstverein, Musée du Quai Branly (France), Monash University Museum of Art, the 17th Sydney Biennale, the Kyiv International Biennale (Ukraine) and in Berlin.

Emily Perkins is an award-winning author of four novels and a collection of short fiction. She has won a Montana Book Award and the international Believer Book Award. She has taught creative writing at Auckland, AUT and Victoria universities. Adaptations for the stage and screen include Ibsen’s The Doll House and Eleanor Catton’s The Rehearsal. She hosted the The Good Word (initially The Book Show) on television from 2006-12 and a spin-off, The Good Word Junior, aimed at younger readership.