To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MACCORMICK, Dr Alastair
For services to tertiary education and the community
Dr Alastair MacCormick is an Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland, holding a range of roles between 1973 and 2002, including as Head of the Department of Management Studies and the School of Business and Economics, as well as Dean, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic) and Council member.
Professor MacCormick led the School of Business and Economics through a period of rapid growth and helped develop its strong international reputation. He was involved with tertiary education internationally through the New Zealand Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation and APEC in the 1990s. Since retirement in 2002 he has contributed to a broad range of education and technology focused initiatives. For more than 10 years, he has been a member of the New Zealand Government Innovation Board and the Callaghan Innovation Grants Committee. He is a Commissioner of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and represents TEC on the Programme Board for the Reform of Vocational Education. Within his community, he was a Board member since 1983 and Chair since 2016 of the Elizabeth Knox Home and Hospital, leading major redevelopment and extensions of the facilities. He has chaired the Matarangi Ratepayers Association and helped found and chair the Matarangi Community Trust. Dr MacCormick has been a Trustee of the Liggins Institute Trust and the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MANSON, Mr Edward Colin (Ted), ONZM
For services to philanthropy, urban development and business
Mr Ted Manson has been contributing to environmental sustainability, urban redevelopment, and the Auckland community for 47 years.
Mr Manson established the Ted Manson Charitable Trust in 2014, which has grown to more than $17 million and through which he has contributed to the Auckland environment. He has funded two social housing projects; Life Apartments in the Auckland City area and Westlight Apartments in Glen Eden which opened in 2021, providing quality housing to more than 168 families. Through the Trust he has purchased and supplied eight new 12-seater vans for low decile schools, donated $500,000 to Auckland City Mission across four years, significant financial support for St John Northern Region and other organisations, and an annual $50,000 donation to Auckland Rescue Helicopter. Via his company New Zealand Mortgages and Securities Limited, he funded $2 billion of affordable housing developments, delivering 800 residential sections and more than 2,000 low-cost apartments and townhouses to the market. Through his company Mansons TCLM, all of the office buildings built since 2014 have been built to best practice and world leadership Green Star certified standards. Mr Manson’s company has been the recipient of many awards for their work, including the New Zealand Institute of Architects’ Commercial Architecture Award in 2021 for Te Kupenga, the Kiwibank building.
HONOURS
Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2015
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MARSHALL, Mr Benjamin Quentin (Benji)
For services to rugby league
Mr Benji Marshall is a rugby league player who has played a record 346 games in the National Rugby League (NRL), the most of any New Zealand player in rugby league.
Mr Marshall played 31 tests for New Zealand between 2005 and 2019, captaining 21 games, the most in history and winning the Rugby League World Cup in 2008. He has played for the Wests Tigers, the Brisbane Broncos, the Illawarra Dragons, the South Sydney Rabbitohs, the New Zealand Kiwis and for the Auckland Blues in rugby union. He founded the Benji Marshall Foundation for charitable purposes in 2011, which supports the Children’s Cancer Institute of Australia and raised $250,000 in 2011. Mr Marshall retired from rugby league in 2021 following a career spanning 18 years.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
MONAGHAN, Mr John Anthony
For services to the dairy industry
Mr John Monaghan has been instrumental in the dairy industry including through his work with Fonterra since its formation in 2001.
Mr Monaghan was an inaugural Fonterra Shareholders Councillor from inception and became Council Chairman from 2004 to 2007. In 2008 he joined the Board of Directors, serving on a range of committees, including as the inaugural Chairman of the Fonterra Governance Development programme and Chairman of both the External Relations Committee, and the Co-Operative Relations Committee. During his tenure, Fonterra’s China Strategy built a $4 billion revenue business, with the co-operative now holding 40 percent of dairy imports into mainland China. In 2011 Fonterra partnered with Silver Fern Farms to establish Kotahi, aimed to advance New Zealand’s export supply chain. His time on the Board also saw the co-operative’s creation of the GlobalDairyTrade auction platform, establishing a transparent international pricing benchmark for the industry, which saw more than $10 billion of milk money paid out to Fonterra’s farmers in each of the last three seasons. He chaired Fonterra from 2018 to 2020, overseeing a reset of the co-operative’s strategy and culture, and a global change management process. He was a director of Wellington Centrepoint Limited. Within his community, Mr Monaghan chaired Eketahuna School’s Board of Trustees and is former Club Captain and Junior Side Coach of the Eketahuna Rugby Club.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
REIHANA, Ms Lisa Marie, MNZM
For services to the arts
Ms Lisa Reihana is a multi-disciplinary artist who was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2018 for her services to art.
Ms Reihana’s large-scale video installation ‘In Pursuit of Venus [infected]’ represented New Zealand at the 2017 Venice Biennale. Her exhibition ‘In Pursuit of Venice [infected]’ was the most visited solo exhibition by a New Zealand artist at the Auckland Art Gallery since 1997, with 49,000 visitors. The exhibition has been displayed in several locations internationally including at the Honolulu Museum of Art in 2019 and in Tallin, Estonia in 2020. She created a large bronze sculpture of Ellen Melville which depicts the scales of justice but tipped in favour of women, displayed at the Ellen Melville Centre in Auckland. As part of Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts, she has been the artist in focus in honouring the story of legendary Polynesian explorer Kupe whose pursuit of the octopus Te Wheke a Muturangi led him to Aotearoa. A large installation of Te Wheke a Muturangi is currently on display in Wellington Harbour, as one of the places Kupe is credited to have named ‘Te Whanganui a Tara’. Ms Reihana has incorporated Wellington’s wind in her display of six waving mokomoko/geckos in Waitangi Park.
HONOURS
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, New Year 2018
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
SAPHIRA, Dr Miriam Edna
For services to the LGBTQIA+ community
Dr Miriam Saphira has been supporting vulnerable and marginalised members of the community, particularly children, women in abusive relationships and the lesbian and gay community for more than 50 years.
Dr Saphira was instrumental in starting conversations on taboo subjects such as incest, sexual abuse of children, prostitution and violence against women, researching and writing as a psychologist in the 1970s. She published The Sexual Abuse of Children in 1981, which has become a key reference for those working with abused children and offenders. She published further books and articles and presented at numerous conferences between 1978 and 2003, to increase awareness on these issues in New Zealand. She has been a member of the Broadsheet Feminist Magazine since the late 1970s, highlighting issues such as domestic violence, rape awareness, child sexual abuse, sexual harassment and gay and lesbian rights. She was an initial trustee of New Zealand Aids Foundation, launched in 1985 and was Joint Secretary General for the International Lesbian and Gay Association, advocating for Homosexual Law Reform. She established New Zealand’s first museum of lesbian culture; The Charlotte Museum Trust in 2007 which aims to preserve and display lesbian cultural artefacts, advocate for lesbian culture. Dr Saphira is the Secretary of the Charlotte Museum, which currently holds a collection of 800 artefacts 2,100 books and magazine.
HONOURS
New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993
New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
TAYLOR, Mr Luteru Ross Poutoa Lote
For services to cricket and Pacific communities
Mr Luteru Taylor has played cricket professionally since his debut for Central Districts in 2002/2003 until retiring from international cricket in 2022.
Mr Taylor has played 450 international matches for New Zealand, the first player in world cricket to play more than 100 matches in each of the three international formats. He has the highest aggregate of 18,199 runs and the most international 100’s (40) for New Zealand. He achieved the highest test score by a visiting batter to Australia of 290 in 2015. He has captained New Zealand in 14 test matches, 20 One Day Internationals and 13 T20 Internationals. He has been an influential player in some of the world’s biggest domestic cricket competitions, including the Indian Premier League, the Caribbean T20 League and County Cricket in the United Kingdom. He has been heavily involved in the promotion of Pasifika and Māori cricket. He has supported the Samoan team to participate in regional international competitions, supplying equipment through annual donations. He has coached young cricketers in Samoa and helped with fundraising initiatives. He has coached Papua New Guinea through the International Cricket Council. He has been a Director of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association since 2015. Mr Taylor helped establish the Cricketers’ Retirement Fund for professional players and serves on the Advisory Board.
To be a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
WOODFIELD, Dr David Graeme (Graeme)
For services to transfusion medicine
Dr Graeme Woodfield is recognised as an international expert in transfusion medicine by the World Health Organisation.
Dr Woodfield was voluntary Medical Advisor and Executive member of the Red Cross Society Auckland branch from 1976 to 1996. He chaired Medical Aid Abroad (New Zealand) from 1979 to 2008, overseeing the obtaining and provision of medical items to developing countries. He is a Life Member of the Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion, having been on the Executive between 1976 and 2013, including time as President and chairing the scientific committee in the 1990s. He chaired the International Society of Blood Transfusion working party on rare blood donors from 1991 to 2001. He has travelled overseas to help several organisations develop blood services, particularly drawing on his expertise in rare blood groups. He delivered numerous seminars and teaching sessions across South East Asian, Asian and the Middle Eastern countries. A main emphasis was developing blood transfusion services in India, across more than 20 visits. He was a member of Group Against Liquor Advertising (GALA) from 1995 to 2010, becoming co-Chair and co-writing the book ‘Alcohol: A Dangerous Love Affair’ (2020) on the effects of alcohol on users and the community. Dr Woodfield chaired the Baptist City Mission from 1978 to 1993 in Auckland.