To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
ATKINSON, Associate Professor Christopher Hugh (Chris)
For services to cancer care
Associate Professor Chris Atkinson was the inaugural President of the Trans-Tasman Radiation Oncology Group and the initial Dean of the Faculty of Radiation Oncology Australia and New Zealand.
Associate Professor Atkinson has been Chair or Deputy Chair of all relevant New Zealand Cancer Control Committees from 1993 to 2013. He was Chair of the Oncology Service from 1992 to 2004 and Head of Radiation Oncology from 1984 to 2004 for the Canterbury District Health Board. He was instrumental in establishing the St Georges Cancer Care Centre in 2010 and is a current Director. He is currently Medical Director of the Cancer Society of New Zealand and previously served as President. He has been Past President of the New Zealand Society for Oncology, Past President of Psychosocial Oncology New Zealand, Chair of the National Radiation Oncology Advisory Committee, and Professional Advisor to the Health and Disability Commissioner. He has been a member of the National Bowel Cancer Taskforce, the National Prostate Cancer Taskforce and the Radiation Protection Advisory Council. Associate Professor Atkinson is a member of a number of international oncology organisations and has facilitated the training and mentoring of many overseas radiation oncologists from the United Kingdom and Australasia.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
BIBBY, Professor David Michael
For services to science and education
Professor David Bibby has contributed to science for more than 40 years.
Professor Bibby joined the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1975 and helped establish a research group in zeolite chemistry that supported the development of the Mobil methane to gasoline plant in Taranaki. Within Industrial Research Limited, he managed a major culture change towards commercial research and the establishment of new business ventures such as BDG Synthesis and Network Dynamics. As Dean of Science and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Science, Architecture and Design at Victoria University since 2003, he has overseen the founding of a Faculty of Engineering based on electronics and computer science, building a partnership between the Faculty of Architecture and Design and WETA, and establishing a Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Research. He led the establishment of new Research Centres in Biodiscovery, Climate Change and Biodiversity and Restoration with major international impacts such as the development of the anti-cancer drug Peloruside, enhanced the university's relationships with crown research institutes and negotiated the move of the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research to the University Campus to facilitate collaboration. Under Professor Bibby's leadership Victoria University now ranks number one in New Zealand in all the major science disciplines.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
CRAWFORD, Professor Robert James (Roy)
For services to tertiary education
Professor Robert Crawford has been the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Waikato since 2005.
During his tenure at the University of Waikato, Professor Crawford's key achievements include leading the University to be world ranked, implementing a research excellence agenda that significantly improved the University's research capability, modernising the campus, and continuing a tradition of innovation. In 2014, the University was ranked 44th in the Times Higher Education internationalisation rankings. Professor Crawford has enhanced the University's role in the community including instigating an agreement with the national field days, making the campus open and accessible to the community, and strengthening relationships with iwi and other tertiary education providers in the Bay of Plenty. He is respected by the University's iwi stakeholders as a supporter and leader, is an active member of Universities New Zealand and the Vice Chancellor's Committee.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
FAIRBAIRN-DUNLOP, Tagaloatele Professor Margaret Ellen (Peggy), ONZM
For services to education and the Pacific community
Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to research on families in 2008.
In 2009 Professor Fairbairn-Dunlop became New Zealand's first professor of Pacific Studies and she currently holds the inaugural chair in Pacific Studies at the Institute of Public Policy at the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Her research, teaching and advocacy work cover a wide range of Pacific development issues, including gender, education, family systems, poverty, youth, ethics, sustainable development in small island states and the influences of changing times on Pacific culture. She became National President of PACIFICA in 2013, the national organisation with more than 20 branches throughout the country that aims to help Pacific Island women participate in and contribute to public life in New Zealand. She established a new PACIFICA branch at AUT's Manukau campus. She was an Advisory Trustee to the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust Board from 2010 to 2013 and was Chair of the Pacific Health Research Council from 2010 to 2012. Professor Fairbairn-Dunlop led the establishment in 2009 and continues to coordinate the Pacific Post Graduate Talanoa national seminar network.
HONOURS
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2008
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
GARDINER, Mr Robert Bertram Keith, ONZM
For services to philanthropy and the arts
Mr Robert Gardiner established the Chartwell Trust in 1970, a charitable trust created to support and strengthen the visual arts, and continues to serve as Chair.
Since 2000, Mr Gardiner has grown the Chartwell Collection of contemporary art by more than 1,000 works and in 2007, established the Chartwell Gift Collection and supported loans of the artworks nationwide, as well as growing the Collection's international recognition. Since 2001 he has provided substantial financial support for individual artists, including 80 grants in 2013 and 2014, and many organisations including the Auckland Triennial from 2001 to 2013, the redevelopment of the Auckland Art Gallery in 2011, the Auckland Arts Festival from 2007 to 2014, and support for major New Zealand public art galleries. Mr Gardiner was founding Patron of the Creative Thinking Project at the University of Auckland in 2012 and contributed to the launch of the Creative Fellows Programme in 2013, the Creative Futures Research Fund launched in New York in 2014, and the development of New Zealand's first tertiary Creative Thinking course in 2015. The Chartwell trust has contributed to general charitable organisations such as the Longbush Trust, Fred Hollows Foundation, Mercy Hospice, reading books for the Blind Foundation of New Zealand, Christchurch earthquake recovery and many others.
HONOURS
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Queen's Birthday 2000
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MACKNIGHT, Mr Michael Crawfurd
For services to science
Mr Michael Macknight is the inventor of MacLab, now known as PowerLab and the founder, in 1986 of ADInstruments.
Built in 1985 for the University of Otago's Physiology Department, PowerLab was one of the first analog to digital converters for life science research. It is a key data acquisition device used daily by researchers, educators and students and is trusted by more than 10,000 medical related organisations around the world. PowerLab is recognised internationally for its high signal quality, simple design and practical use in a wide range of applications, and is used by Roche Bioscience, Toyota, Mayo Clinic, Human Genome Project and the International Space Station among others. Typical applications of ADInstruments PowerLab equipment include research and teaching of human and animal physiology, pharmacology, neurophysiology, biology, zoology, biochemistry and biomedical engineering. ADInstruments employs 70 staff in Dunedin and 150 internationally, operating offices in 13 countries. It has helped retain university graduates in Dunedin, benefited a wide range of Dunedin's technology industry and other businesses and provided grants, awards and sponsorships to students, researchers and educators in the life science industry. Mr Macknight is an advisor for Otago University's Applied Science Department.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MARSHALL, Mr John Livingston, QC
For services to the law
Mr John Marshall was elected President of the New Zealand Law Society in 2006 and oversaw the implementation of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006 in his term.
Mr Marshall previously served in the positions of Vice President and Treasurer and is currently Chair of the Governance Group for the Regulatory Review of Services Operational Improvement Programme and a member of the Services Delivery Group. He is the Society's representative on the South Pacific Lawyers Association, which he helped establish. He was a member of the Wellington District Law Society Council from 1995, a member of the Restructuring Committee and the Complaints Committee Convenor, and President in 2003. He was a member of the organising committee for the Presidents of Law Associations in Asia Summit for 2014. He was a member of the Arbitration Appeals Panel for the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand and Chair of the Appeals Council and Admission Appeals Tribunal of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants. Mr Marshall has been Chairman of the Wellington College Foundation, a Trustee of the Todd Foundation, Convenor of the Book of Order and Judicial Committee of the national Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and a member of the Kelburn Normal School Board of Trustees.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MELLSOP, Professor Graham Wilfred
For services to psychiatry
Professor Graham Mellsop is currently Professor of Psychiatry at the Waikato Clinical School at the University of Auckland, having been involved with psychiatry since the 1970s.
Professor Graham has collaborated on a number of renowned research initiatives that have led to international advances in the areas of diagnosis and classification of mental illness, assessment and treatment, outcomes for mental health service users, service quality improvement, the management of depression and suicidality, public policy in mental health, the interface between the law and mental health and the training and examination of psychiatrists. He has served on editorial committees of a range of professional journals and has acted as peer reviewer/international commentator on a number of significant publications and research projects. He has served as a member of various ethics committees and research funding entities in Australia and New Zealand. He has been involved in service development and quality improvement in various jurisdictions across Australasia and has made major contributions to service improvements in Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland and the Waikato. Professor Graham has worked with the World Health Organisation, the World Psychiatric Association, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists and has sat on numerous mental health tribunals, boards and national and international committees.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
NORMAN, Dr Philip Thomas
For services to music and musical theatre
Dr Philip Norman has contributed to music for more than 45 years.
Dr Norman is a freelance composer, author and musician who has been successful in opera, ballet, musical theatre, choral, orchestral and chamber music. He has had work commissioned by numerous performing arts organisations, such as the Royal New Zealand Ballet Company, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and Christchurch Arts Festival. His ballet 'Peter Pan' is the most successful ballet by a New Zealand composer with three national tours and seasons abroad. His co-written stage musical 'Footrot Flats' has had more than 150 productions in New Zealand, Australia and further afield. Some of his works have been performed abroad by the Vienna Boys Choir, the West Australian Ballet, the international Eisteddfod in Wales, among others. He is an award winning author with a biography on Douglas Lilburn, and works on composition in New Zealand. As a volunteer Dr Norman has served on the Composers Association of New Zealand, as Past President and founding editor of its journal 'Canzona', was a foundation member of the Composers' Advisory Panel at the Centre for New Zealand Music Wellington, a foundation Trustee of Canterbury Opera, and Trustee of the Music Centre of Christchurch.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
POOLE, Mr Geoffrey Owen (Owen)
For services to the meat industry
Mr Owen Poole has contributed to the New Zealand meat industry for more than 40 years.
Mr Poole was Chief Executive of Southland Frozen Meat Ltd. In 1990 he assisted with the integration of Alliance Group and Waitaki International. The company had suffered severe financial losses and he developed plans to restore the company's cash flow and profitability. While Alliance Group Chief Executive from 1995 to 2005, the Group's turnover increased from $864 million to $1,095 million, shareholders' funds more than doubled and interest bearing debt was heavily reduced. Alliance Group is now New Zealand's largest sheepmeat exporter. He oversaw the introduction of returns to farmers through a carcass quality based payment system and environmental and farm performance product benchmarking, the evolution to more chilled product, the development of the Asia market, and international accreditation standards for food safety and health and safety. He was Alliance Independent Director and then Chair from 2008 to 2013, and Director and then Chair of the New Zealand and Australian Lamb Companies group serving the North American markets for 16 years. Mr Poole has held directorships of a number of meat and farming organisations in New Zealand, as well as of Towers International (UK) and Top Trading (Japan).
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
RITCHIE, Mr Maxwell Noall (Max)
For services to health and the community
Mr Max Ritchie has contributed to the charitable sector for 30 years.
Mr Ritchie became Chief Executive of the Cancer Society's Wellington Division in 1985. He established the Wellington Children's Accommodation Trust with the aim of providing accommodation for families with a child being treated at Wellington Hospital. The Trust went on to raise $3 million to build the first New Zealand Ronald McDonald House in Wellington in 1989. He also imported the concept of Daffodil Day in 1988 to raise funds for the Cancer Society, eventually attracting the sponsorship support of the National Bank. Appointed as Executive Director of the Neurological Foundation in 1994 he proceeded with several initiatives pivotal to the steady increase of donations, an increase in the Foundation's research grant budget, the establishment of a Chair of Clinical Neurology in Auckland and of a Chair of Neurosurgery in Dunedin, the biggest Brain Awareness Week programme in the world and a world-class Human Brain Bank. He has raised more than $100 million for medical research and services in the last 30 years. His Bequest Programme initiative has been replicated by many key New Zealand charities. Mr Ritchie is also Chair of the Neurological Alliance.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
WOOD, Dr Lionel John (John), QSO
For services to tertiary education and Māori
Dr John Wood was elected to the University of Canterbury Council in 2007, becoming Pro-Chancellor from 2008 and Chancellor in 2012, 2013 and 2014 leading the University's governing body through the troubled aftermath of the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011.
The University Council, under Dr Wood's leadership oversaw the development and adoption of the UC Futures plan for recovery and transformation. He led the plan to reduce the size of the Council to a compact skill based governing body in response to the Minister for Tertiary Education's call for university council reform. He has been a Trustee of the University of Canterbury Foundation since 2006. He served as an advisor to the College of Arts, as President of the Canterbury History Foundation since 2013 and was the University's appointed member to the Canterbury Museum Trust Board. He has been a member of Lincoln University's Council since 2013. He has been a member of the Governing Board of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia since 2008. He took on the role of Chief Crown Negotiator in 2009 for a number of Treaty of Waitangi claims, notably the Ngai Tuhoe claim and settlement, and the claim and settlement relating to the Whanganui River. Dr Wood is a Crown appointed member of the inaugural Te Urewera Governing Board.
HONOURS
Companion of the Queen's Service Order for Public Services, Queen's Birthday 2006.