The 2006 Awards
The 2006 Blake Medalist:
The 2006 Emerging Leader Awardees:
› Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o
› Andrew Berry
› David McConnell
› Michael Redman
› Sarah Trotman
› Gary Wilson
The 2006 Blake Medalist:
Sir Stephen Tindall
Sir StephenTindall is a significant leader in innovation and entrepreneurship in New Zealand. He has long recognised the need for New Zealand organisations to be creative, flexible and innovative in order to compete internationally. His leadership in this area has been expressed in a variety of ways including personal mentoring and encouragement of others and through his optimism and advocacy for significant investment in the sector.
Sir Stephen was a member of the Knowledge Wave Trust Advisory Board, Chairman of the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development and a member of the Government’s Science and Innovation Advisory Council. He is currently a member of the Growth and Innovation Advisory Board to the Prime Minister and of the New Zealand Institute. He is co-founder of Kea New Zealand which now connects 6000 professionals in over 100 countries.
Sir Stephen’s vision for creating an organisation to provide support for worthwhile initiatives benefiting New Zealand and New Zealanders resulted in the establishment of The Tindall Foundation. This has grown to become Australasia’s single largest philanthropic trust and it has provided enormous behind the scenes support for many community groups and not-for-profit agencies. Its work in promoting a “hand up” rather than a “hand out” philosophy in environmental education and biodiversity, community and social support, in encouraging enterprise and innovation and in support for volunteers has been influential nationwide.
As an example, strong personal leadership from Sir Stephen and the Foundation resulted in the Zero Waste philosophy being adopted by 70% of New Zealand’s local bodies and changed the way waste and recycling are dealt with. The Warehouse Group that Stephen founded, has set itself the goal of "zero waste to landfill" by 2020. It plans to reduce the amount of waste sent from stores to landfills by a third, and recycle paper, plastic and cardboard (which represent up to 80% of total waste) from all its stores.
Sir Stephen was awarded the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 1997, the New Zealand Herald Business Person of the Year 1997, and the Deloitte/Management magazine Executive of the Year 1998 and Visionary Leader in 2005. He has received honorary doctorates from Massey University and Auckland University of Technology. In 2004 Stephen was inducted into the Enterprise North Shore Hall of Fame then in 2005 into the New Zealand Hall of Fame in recognition of his business excellence.
Sir Stephen Tindall has a genuine love for New Zealand and its people. He has directed his energy and his resources into making New Zealand a better place to live. He has helped ordinary Kiwis reach their potential and is a true leader across the spheres of business, community and the environment.
In 2007 Sir Stephen became a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (DCNZM).
The 2006 Emerging Leader Awardees
Emeline Afeaki-Mafile’o
(31 years old)
Emeline is the founder of Affirming Works Ltd, an innovative social service organisation developed in Manukau City over the last five years. The company delivers mentoring programmes across all school levels based on the Model of Pacific Collective Mentoring. It works with up to 400 young people per year.
Her work in this area has led to the establishment of a second company called Fofola Consultancy Ltd, which contributes to policy development and played a vital part towards the Pacific Youth Development Strategy for Auckland. The company has extended its services to the South Pacific nations, and has a vision and strategy to work with all Pacific peoples across the globe. Emeline’s recent work with Fofola has been to scope and prevent the increase of youth gang behaviour in Mangere and the wider Counties Manukau area.
In addition to these two organisations, Emeline also takes a leadership role in the Pacific community serving in an advisory capacity. These roles have included: Community Advisor to the Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Member of the National Advisory Committee to the Ministry of Social Development, and to the Youth Court by the Youth Court Pacific Liaison Service, and as a Pacific representative on the Youth Mentoring Association.
Emeline provides mentoring to new not-for-profit organisations, encouraging Pacific Island people to take the initiative and create businesses for themselves. Such initiatives include The Community Storehouse Trust and The Lifespring Trust.
Emeline has a Bachelor of Social Work with honours, a Diploma of Social Sciences, and a Masters of Philosophy majoring in social policy.
Senior Sergeant Andrew Berry is the Area Community Services Manager for Counties-Manukau (East) Police. As part of his role, he leads over thirty staff, initiating, maintaining and improving community relationships, and is responsible for the administrative management of the Otara Police Station.
Andrew has been in the Police for nine years and has achieved the rank of Senior Sergeant in a short time and at a relatively young age. Prior to his current role, Andrew led teams at the Counties Manukau Child Abuse Team and the Mt Wellington Burglary Investigation Unit. Whilst a member of the CIB, he was commended for taking the lead in Intelligence-led policing, his role in murder and serious crime investigations, and his empathy with victims and witnesses.
He has had a diverse history of leadership before the Police. Whilst completing a BSc in Zoology and an MSC (Hons.) in Marine Science at the University of Auckland, Andrew was responsible for Project Jonah’s Auckland Whale Stranding team and for volunteers in Auckland, Northland and Nelson. He was a member of the Project Jonah National Board during this time responsible for training of volunteers. Andrew was also a Department of Conservation Ranger at Goat Island Marine Reserve as well as an Honorary Fisheries Officer for the Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries.
He continues to take the opportunity for leadership development outside his current role such as the District Ethics Committee and Peer Review Groups. Andrew started his MBA degree at the University of Auckland this year.
David combines leadership of a large commercial organisation with a number of pro bono and other corporate activities.
He is Managing Director of McConnell Ltd. With a background in business development, specialising in property, construction and infrastructure, he has been instrumental in overseeing and managing the performance of the company’s subsidiaries and activities.
David was instrumental at Deputy Chairman for the development of the Pacific Telstra Clear Stadium and overcame the huge challenges to make a success of this bold initiative. He and the Chairman recruited the Chief Executive before the project was designed to get the right practicalities and adapted the facility for Pacific cultures and the emerging music and dance strengths of Manukau City. He displayed not only creative leadership in the design but also commercial leadership in the way the operation was carried out.
David is on the Board of the Committee For Auckland, a non-profit trust of senior decision makers, which is pro Auckland’s success as a city. He invests days of pro bono effort into its projects, each year.
He was a founding Director of Mighty River Power, and is a member of the University of Auckland Business School Advisory Board, and a member of the Mayor of Auckland’s Outside the Square Taskforce.
Michael became Hamilton’s youngest-ever Mayor when he was elected in October 2004 aged 38. Despite having no previous local body experience, Michael united a council to make possible the requisite strategic and innovative decision-making for a fast-developing city.
During his term, he oversaw and articulated a new vision for Hamilton’s growth and development and was instrumental in securing the V8 supercars event for the city.
In 2003, he established the NZ Breakers basketball team, also becoming the club’s founding CEO. Michael is a former Deputy Chairman of Parentline Trust, Northern Districts Cricket Association and Founding Chairman of the Hamilton Combined Foodbanks Trust.
In 2007, he became CEO of Hamilton City Council, implementing the vision he had created as Mayor. Michael is a member of the University of Waikato Honours Committee and is a Director of Hamilton Riverview Hotels Ltd, Local Authority Shared Services Ltd and Innovation Waikato Ltd.
Michael is married to Kelly and they have three children.
Sarah held the role of Chief Executive for Business in the Community for three years, recording a 70% increase in the number of businesses benefiting from their free business mentor service. A respected Small Business Sector Specialist Sarah has established Small Business Expo Ltd which runs the largest event held for business in NZ, successfully bringing together both private and public entities to deliver a network of much needed support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the backbone of the New Zealand economy.
Sarah created the Excellence in Business Support Awards, a robust framework which recognises the best of business support offered in NZ, she conceived and produces a useful publication for business owners, ‘Your Business, Your Way’.
She mentors a number of business owners and individuals, has demonstrated leadership within the Territorials, is a Director on a number of not-for-profit boards, and has mentored young women under the YWCA Future Leaders Programme. Sarah has demonstrated a strong ability to lead people from different backgrounds and with different objectives towards one shared goal.
Early on in his academic career, Dr Gary Wilson developed an international reputation for his research. He held a Fulbright award whilst at Victoria University, followed by the Admiral Byrd Fellowship at The Ohio State University. He was also a New Zealand Foundation for Research Fellow, before taking up a lectureship at the University of Oxford.
Gary is Chair of the multi-national ANDRILL (Antarctic Drilling) project, which has been five years in the planning, raising $40 million to cover the required science and logistics efforts. The project involves over 100 scientists from four countries and Gary’s ability to build and maintain successful teams to achieve common goals has been an important element.
He has also developed skills in outdoor leadership in order to lead seven expeditions to Antarctica. He is an educator and has contributed to the wider understanding of science through public lectures and radio and television appearances, and is a continuous promoter of the importance of science to underpin global environmental stewardship at government level. Above all, in developing multinational ventures in science, Gary has demonstrated leadership as an international negotiator.
He currently supervises ten graduate students, involving them in his expeditions to Antarctica, to South America or on international research ships and has received a graduate supervisor award from the Otago University Students Association. He has also recently being appointed Research Dean for the Division of Sciences at the University of Otago.
Sir Peter Blake
"Having vision is not enough. Change comes through realising the vision and turning it into a reality. It is easy to espouse worthy goals, values and policies; the hard part is implementation."
Learn about Sir Peter Blake and his journeys around the globe