This year's Distinguished Alumni
Peter Cooper, CNZM
LLB(Hons) 1978 (Law)
Peter Cooper is the founder and Executive Chairman of Cooper and Company, a firm focused on sustainably developing global real estate assets while preserving heritage and building community. From 2004 he led the Britomart Urban Restoration Project, a heritage regeneration project that has given downtown Auckland a new lease of life.
After growing up in Kaitaia, Peter completed a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree at the University of Auckland. Initially a lawyer and partner at Russell McVeagh, he moved to California in 1989 and founded Cooper and Company.
In Auckland, the Britomart precinct regeneration has saved and refurbished 18 original heritage buildings, sympathetically blending them with new Green Star-rated buildings to create office, retail and outdoor spaces, culminating in the award-winning The Hotel Britomart. Peter has also further enhanced Auckland’s cultural life by establishing the Britomart Arts Foundation.
In the Bay of Islands, at a thousand-acre property called The Landing, Peter has added a vineyard and accommodation while maintaining ecological preserves and protecting dozens of historic sites where some of the first interactions between Māori and European settlers took place.
Peter’s whakapapa includes connections to Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Kuri, and Te Aupōuri and in 2008 he was named Outstanding Māori Business Leader of the Year by the University of Auckland Business School. In 2014 he was appointed a Companion Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to urban development and in 2021 he received a Kea World Class New Zealand Supreme Award.
Amelia Linzey
BSc 1994, MSc(Hons) 1996 (Science)
Amelia Linzey is Group CEO of engineering and design firm Beca, which was founded in Auckland in 1920. Employee-owned Beca is now a team of over 4,300 people in 25 offices around the world, with projects delivered in over 70 countries. Amelia is committed to connecting people and forging partnerships and collaboration and to championing Beca’s values of cultural competency and sustainability.
Amelia gained a masters degree in Geography from the University of Auckland with first-class honours in 1996. She held several planning and leadership roles at Beca over the course of 25 years, including Group Director – Advisory and Chief Planner, and began her Group Chief Executive appointment in 2023.
One of New Zealand’s leading planners and social impact specialists, Amelia has strongly influenced environmental, infrastructure and policy development throughout New Zealand. She had a significant impact on the Auckland Unitary Plan and providing for housing, with earlier work for Auckland Council to recognise the cultural and other areas of importance to Māori, and worked on Christchurch’s recovery planning after the 2011 earthquakes. She has been a strong contributor to sustainability governance, including board roles with the Infrastructure Sustainability Council and the New Zealand Sustainable Business Council.
Amelia has held advisory and board roles for government entities, including Supporting Growth and Waitematā Harbour Crossing and in 2019 was appointed by the Minister for the Environment to the Resource Management Review Panel.
Amelia has been the editor of the New Zealand Planning Quarterly between 2016 and 2022 and in 2019 she received a Distinguished Service Award from the New Zealand Planning Institute.
Helen Robinson
MSCL (2020) (Arts and Education)
Helen Robinson has led the Auckland City Mission – Te Tāpui Atawhai as City Missioner since 2021. Guided by and held in wairua, she has worked for more than 30 years in service of New Zealand's most vulnerable communities, ensuring that everyone has a seat and a voice at the table.
Helen completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Social Policy at Victoria University of Wellington. She became familiar with New Zealand’s social, economic, and spiritual needs through her roles at Challenge 2000, a social work and youth development agency. Later, Helen gained international experience in London, working for CAFOD, an international aid agency, before leading Auckland’s Logos Project, a youth development organisation.
What began as a three-month contract at the Auckland City Mission has grown into 12 years of service. During this time, Helen completed her Master of Social and Community Leadership at the University of Auckland. She helped create Kore Hiakai Zero Hunger Collective, a group working toward a food-secure New Zealand and developed a strong commitment to fighting women’s homelessness, establishing Te Whare Hīnātore, a Kaupapa Māori service for women experiencing homelessness, and later co-founding the Coalition to End Women’s Homelessness.
Helen oversaw the completion of the Mission’s HomeGround building, a world-class example of integrated social services. At the Mission, Helen is also known as Manutaki, a Māori title meaning “the bird that leads”. This is significant as she seeks to honour both her Māori and Pākehā heritage and leads the Mission’s commitment to the restorative work necessary for Aotearoa to move forward as one nation of two founding partners.
Stephen Stehlin, MNZM
BA 1984 (Arts and Education)
Stephen Stehlin is a television producer, renowned for his three decades of work on Tagata Pasifika, a show that has amplified the awareness of Pacific culture as a major part of New Zealand’s identity. In 2008 he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his services to Pacific television and the arts. He has also been bestowed with the Sāmoan chiefly matai title Taualeo’o from the village of Sagone in Savaii.
Born to a Samoan father and a mother with British, German, and Scandinavian heritage, after a childhood in Manurewa, Stephen completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Auckland, majoring in French.
Stephen’s career began in 1987 at Television New Zealand (TVNZ), as a trainee producer’s assistant on the Māori show Koha. He worked on a number of other shows and short films with the development of the Tala Pasifika short films early in his career. Other notable projects include his production of shows covering Polyfest and the comedy series The Laughing Samoans.
From 1992 to 2014 Stephen executive produced Tagata Pasifika for TVNZ. In 2014 his newly launched company SunPix took over production of Tagata Pasifika and developed an accompanying TP+ website. In 2020 a Pacific Business Enterprise Award recognised Sunpix’s representation of Pacific issues.
Stephen has been strongly involved with the Pacific Islands Media Association, the National Pacific Radio Trust, and the Silo Theatre. Having recently retired from executive producing Tagata Pasifika, he remains Managing Director of SunPix and Chairman of the Pacific Islands Dance Fono Trust.
Young Alumnus of the Year
Craig Piggott BE(Hons) 2017 (Engineering and Design)
Craig Piggott is the founder and CEO of Halter, an agritech business that is revolutionising dairy farming, making farms more productive and sustainable through solar-powered collars and smart technology that allow virtual herding, fencing and monitoring of animals.
Craig excelled at the University of Auckland’s Mechanical Engineering programme, discovering a passion for solving technical challenges. After completing his degree, Craig joined Rocket Lab, then a fledgling start-up. After nine months, he launched his own company, hoping to solve the day- to-day problems he had witnessed growing up on his parents’ dairy farm in the Waikato.
Aged only 22, Craig launched Halter, developing collars that use sound and vibration to herd cows and enable virtual monitoring of animal behaviour and health. By removing the need for physical herding and optimising grazing patterns, farmers’ time is freed up, translating into both greater productivity and environmental sustainability.
Industry recognition quickly followed, with Craig receiving the New Zealand Hi-Tech Young Achiever Award in 2020 and appearing in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list in 2021. At the 2024 EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, Craig won the Tech and Emerging Industries division.
Reflecting Halter’s recent expansions into Australia and the United States, in November 2024 the Deloitte Fast 50 Index recognised Halter’s exponential success, naming it New Zealand’s fastest growing company.