To be a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
ADAMS, Ms Valerie Kasanita, ONZM
For services to athletics
Ms Valerie Adams is a world-renowned shot putter who has won four World Championship gold medals, two Olympic gold medals, three Commonwealth Games gold medals, and three World Indoor Championship gold medals.
Ms Adams is the first woman to win four consecutive individual titles at the world track and field championships, achieving gold in 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2013. She has also won a bronze and four silver medals at the international level, most recently earning silver at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. She currently holds the New Zealand, Oceanian, Commonwealth and equal World Championship record for a personal best throw of 21.24 metres, which she set in August 2011. Between 2010 and 2014 she achieved an unprecedented winning streak across 56 competitions. She is one of a small number of athletes internationally who have won world championships at youth, junior and senior levels of an athletic event. Nationally she has won 14 New Zealand national women’s shot put titles. She has received the Halberg Supreme Award on three occasions and was named Halberg Sportswoman of the Year for seven consecutive years. Ms Adams was named the International Association of Athletics Federations World Female Athlete of the Year in 2014.
HONOURS
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2009
To be a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
KINGI, Miss Georgina, QSO
For services to Māori and education
Miss Georgina Kingi has been the Principal of St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College since 1987, having taught at the school since 1969.
Miss Kingi has worked to ensure the provision of quality education, and the teaching of Te Reo and Tikanga Māori in the school. She is a licensed Māori interpreter, a foundation member and former Chairperson of the Hawke’s Bay Māori Language Association, and has been a representative on the Māori syllabus committee. She has been a member of a number of Principal’s associations since the 1980s and the Hawke’s Bay Catholic District Council. She is an Honorary Member of the Rotary Club of Taradale, which has been involved in several partnerships with St Joseph’s. In collaboration with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council she arranged for St Joseph’s students to visit Hawke’s Bay’s sister city in China in a mutual cultural exchange. She is heavily involved with St Joseph’s Senior Kapa Haka team, which has performed nationally and internationally. St Joseph’s was rated the top girls’ school in Hawke’s Bay in 2012. Ms Kingi is a member of the Education Expert Panel for the Prime Minister’s Education Excellence Awards in 2014 and led the planning for the National Manu Korero speech competition.
HONOURS
Companion of the Queen's Service Order for Public Services, New Year 2004
To be a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
WILDE, The Honourable Frances Helen (Fran), CNZM, QSO
For services to the State and the community
The Honourable Fran Wilde has held leadership roles in central and local government since the early 1980s.
During her career Ms Wilde has held positions as a Member of Parliament, a Minister of the Crown, Mayor of Wellington, and Chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council. As an MP she successfully sponsored the Homosexual Law Reform Bill in 1986. In the thirty years since then she has contributed significantly to a wide range of community groups and issues in a variety of roles. Early in 2016 she retired from the Wellington Regional Council and currently holds governance positions in several national and regional entities. These positions include Chair of the Remuneration Authority and the Wellington Lifelines Group, a Treaty of Waitangi Chief Crown negotiator, Deputy Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency and of the Capital Coast District Health Board, and director of Te Papa Tongarewa and the Whitireia-Weltec Council. Ms Wilde's current community roles include Chair of Wellington on a Plate and of The Great War Exhibition, board member of Business Mentors NZ Ltd and a trustee or patron of several other organisations.
HONOURS
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2012
Companion of the Queen’s Service Order, New Year 1996