Winners 2016

The award recognises a man or woman who has achieved exceptional success in his or her career and has demonstrated outstanding leadership characteristics.

Mavis Mullins

Rangitāne, Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Ngāti Ranginui

In July Mavis will be inducted to the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame, only the second Māori woman, joining Princess Te Puea. She has served as Golden Shears’ president, and started out in business, with husband Koro, running the family shearing contracting firm. In addition to Paewai Mullins Shearing, Mavis has taken governance roles in Landcorp, 2degrees Mobile, health boards, Massey University Council, Aohanga Incorporation, Atihau-Whanganui Incorporation, Poutama Trust and Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre. She is Patron of the Agri-Women's Development Trust (AWDT).

Mavis received the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2002 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to the wool industry, received the Māori Woman Business Leader Award at the University of Auckland Aotearoa Māori Business Leaders Awards in 2015, rural honours at the 2016 Westpac Women of Influence Awards, and a Massey University Distinguished Alumni Award in 2017. Mavis and Koro are dairy farmers with four children and precious mokopuna.

Sponsored by the University of Auckland Business School.

The award recognises a graduate of the University of Auckland Business School who has achieved significant success in their career to date.

Liz Te Amo

Te Arawa - Waitaha, Tūhourangi, Tapuika, Ngāti Moko

Liz has dedicated her career to growing New Zealand businesses internationally and economic development, with a specific focus on growing Māori exporters, leadership and economic development in recent years. Throughout a 17 year career in the public service, with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), and ten years in the private sector, Liz has lived and worked in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the USA and Australia. At NZTE her roles included developing the Māori business strategy, running major projects across China, Japan, Korea, and regional development.

Liz has also worked on major events such as Shanghai World Expo, Rugby World Cup, and America’s Cup. She joined MBIE in late 2015 as the Te Tumu Whakarae of the Māori Economic Development Unit responsible for leading He kai kei aku ringa – the national Crown-Māori economic development strategy and partnership, alongside Te Puni Kōkiri.

Sponsored by the University of Auckland Business School.

The award recognises a person under 40 who has achieved significant success in his or her career to date and is a business leader now and in the future.

Blanche Murray

Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kuri

Blanche is the Managing Director of Kai Ora Honey Ltd, operating 2,500 hives with her whānau in Te Tai Tokerau. She has studied Business and Project Management, and worked in various roles involving management, and international sales and marketing; in the health, banking and honey sectors. Blanche is a key member of the Māori Mīere Working Group with The Crown-Māori Economic Growth Partnership and the Māori Engagement Focus Group for ApiNZ.

Her business Kai Ora exports to Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and Europe. Kai Ora is more than just honey! The business is about whānau, hapū and iwi; working together on radical collaboration for prosperous transformation using innovative platforms to achieve healthier social, economic and environmental outcomes for all Māori, particularly the people of Te Tai Tokerau. Kai Ora is comfortable with discomfort, champions of their industry and living examples of what Māori rangatahi can achieve in remote areas of Aotearoa with historic statistics of high economic deprivation.

Sponsored by Ngāi Tahu Holdings.

The award recognises a Māori woman who has achieved significant success in her career to date.

Hinerangi Raumati

Tainui, Taranaki

Hinerangi is as active on the marae as she is in a corporate boardroom and it's this ability to bridge the Māori and business worlds that has elevated her into key positions: as the CFO of Tainui Group Holdings' small management team that engineered a financial turnaround for the tribe; as the first woman and female chair to be appointed to the board of Parininihi Ki Waitotara Incorporation (the largest land owner and milk-solids producer in Taranaki); and as the Executive Director of Operations that increased the financial and operating performance of Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. Her standing has also led to memberships on some powerful boards: Public Trust, Trust Waikato, Te Ohu Kaimoana (Trustee Limited and Portfolio Management Services Limited), Moana New Zealand, Auckland Council Investments and Crown Forestry Rental Trust.

Hinerangi has retained her community and tribal focus through the boards of Venture Taranaki, the commercial entities of Ngāti Mutunga, Taranaki and Ngāruahine iwi and the Ngā Miro Health Trust. In 2012 Hinerangi's enterprise was recognised as a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business and Māori and in the subsequent year she was made a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants NZ.

Sponsored by He kai kei aku ringa - The Crown-Māori Economic Growth Partnership.

The award recognises a person who has created/built/is building a successful business and through that is a role model for other Māori.

Bailey Mackey

Ngāti Porou, Tūhoe, Rongowhakaata

Bailey is an award-winning television producer, and is founder and CEO of Pango Productions. Starting as a DJ on the iwi radio station Radio Ngāti Porou (Ruatoria) in 1998, he has gone on to produce dozens of successful television shows over the years. Bailey is a former head of sport at Māori Television; and was co-founder and MD of Black Inc Media, which sold to Eyeworks (now part of global media company Warner Bros). He is fluent in Te Reo Māori, which has led him to maintain a strong focus on developing Māori content programming for broad audiences and to produce shows such as The GC, One Land, With Strings Attached, Saving Gen Y, Kapa Haka Kids, Hip Hop High, Atamira, Beneath The Māori Moon, Mind Your Language, The Kapa, Anzac Day, Happy Hour, Marae, The Game Chef, Angelo’s Outdoor Kitchen and the Rise Up Telethon.

Bailey’s most recent show, Sidewalk Karaoke, has charmed audiences on Māori Television and the global format rights have been sold to FremantleMedia which produces American Idol, X Factor and America’s Got Talent. Last year he launched a new software start up Kaha which aims to simplify production through technology. Bailey is a former board member of Te Runanga o Ngāti Porou, Aotearoa Credit Union and SPADA.

Sponsored by Chapman Tripp.

The award recognises a kaupapa Māori business that has achieved significant success in recent years that demonstrates values that make them a role model for other Māori businesses.

Tūtira mai ngā iwi, tātau, tātau e

Kahungunu Asset Holding Company

The Kahungunu Asset Holding Company (the Company) was established in 2005 by Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated to receive and manage the Treaty of Waitangi fisheries settlement assets on behalf of Ngāti Kahungunu, New Zealand’s third largest iwi. Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi have set a 25 year vision which includes to be a caring leader for its 67,000 members; to be an inclusive leader in all its communities from Wairoa through to Wairarapa; to be a leader among leaders for iwi, industry, local and national  governments; and to be an innovative leader to activate change in the world. The Company plays an integral role in supporting the long term vision of Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi. The Iwi Chair Ngahiwi Tomoana, and the Company Chair Rangi Manuel, are both strong advocates of quality relationships in driving the Iwi and the Company into the future.

The Company has a simple vision of building “a successful business and economic profile for Ngāti Kahungunu” and a mission of “growing our assets to maximise the economic and wider returns for the collective good of ngā uri o Ngāti Kahungunu.”  The Company’s fisheries assets include a rock lobster processing facility in Auckland; a deep water trawler; and shares in Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd, Napier Mussels Ltd and the Fiordland Lobster Company Ltd. The Company also has diversified its asset portfolio into non-fisheries assets, including Tautāne Station, which is leased by the agricultural college Taratahi.  In February 2017 the Company underwrote the Kahungunu Festival, and hosted the Taniwha Dragon Economic Summit, which brought together Māori, Hawkes Bay businesses, and their Chinese partners, and culminated in nearly $140 million dollars of new investment into the regional Kahungunu economy.

Sponsored by BNZ.