The 2008 Awards

The 2008 Blake Medalist:

› Sir Murray Halberg

 The 2008 Emerging Leader Awardees:

› Keriana Brooking
› Rebecca Caughey
› Julie Helson
› Oscar Kightley
› Michael Sabin
› Sarah Ulmer

The 2008 Blake Medalist:
Sir Murray Halberg

Sir Murray Halberg is one of New Zealand’s most well-known sportspeople who, through the development and ongoing leadership of the Halberg Trust, has dedicated the best part of his life to promoting the inclusion of children with disabilities in sport and active leisure.

His work in establishing the Halberg Trust earned him an MBE in 1961, a knighthood in 1987 and his recent appointment to the Order of New Zealand in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2008.

Sir Murray had a stellar athletics career beating a number of world records. He competed at the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954 and the Olympics in Melbourne in 1956 before winning a gold medal at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff in 1958. Later that same year he competed in Dublin and was the first New Zealander to run a mile in under four minutes. His greatest success came two years later when he was awarded gold for the 5000 metres at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. He also won the three miles at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Perth in 1962, and set world records in the two and three mile races.

In 1963, Sir Murray set up the Murray Halberg Trust for Crippled Children to encourage children with disabilities into sport and active leisure. Its vision is for “…a society where all New Zealanders are given an equal opportunity to be involved in sport and recreation, and where we take pride in honouring sport excellence.”

Now known as The Halberg Trust, Sir Murray says it was started “with a bunch of sporting mates” and its core principle to honour sporting excellence remains an underlying pillar today.

Under Sir Murray’s leadership, the Trust hosts the annual Westpac Halberg Awards and runs a number of annual events and programmes including: a National Leadership Programme, which aims to get 20 national sports and recreation organisations engaged in promoting the inclusion of disabled people; the No Exceptions Training programme, which is delivered with SPARC; and the Halberg Trust SportAccess programme.

Sir Murray is an exemplar of great leadership for all New Zealanders. He has personally demonstrated courage in the face of his own disability suffered while playing rugby in his youth, and has demonstrated to all New Zealanders that participation in sport is not limited to those able bodied.

He is action-orientated, encourages others to aspire to bigger and better things, displays leadership beyond himself, and has successfully expanded people’s perspective about what constitutes fun.

Capitalising on his extensive world-class sporting experience, Sir Murray travelled to the 2002 Manchester Olympics and the 2004 Athens Olympics as part of the New Zealand Olympic Team’s Support Staff, where he officially welcomed the team and later spent time with individuals and smaller groups guiding them on what to expect.

Forever humble, he says that the key to successful leadership is working with good people – “It’s having the right people at the right place at the right time, particularly those who feel passionate about sport.”

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2008 Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Awards

Keriana Brooking
(37 years old)

Keriana Brooking is the Chief Executive of the Turanganui Primary Health Organisation (PHO) in Gisborne, which provides primary and community health services to 32,000 people on the east coast. Keriana’s commitment to primary health began when she took on the position of Planning and Funding Manager at Tairawhiti District Health in 2001, overseeing the birth of the PHO that she now leads.

Keriana is also Chair of Primary Health Organisation New Zealand (PHONZ), which provides national representation for 16 PHOs, totaling around one million enrolled patients.

A key accomplishment during Keriana’s tenure has been the successful integration of mainstream health services with the best local initiatives, including many Maori providers.

Design and implementation of clinical and non-clinical primary care services is an integral part of her role, and she is particularly proud of the organisation’s “no wrong door” policy. Under this framework, every provider and staff member involved with Turanganui PHO is responsible for providing all patients the best access to the best publicly funded health service. No one attempting to access health services is turned away as it the collective responsibility of the PHO to get them through the ‘right door’.

Keriana’s strength lies in her strong vision, strategic thinking and her assertiveness, which is as inclusive as it is challenging – encouraging policy makers and clinicians to improve processes and services that will deliver quality health care. Keriana brings an effective level of pragmatism and compassion to the health sector.

Keriana is a trustee on the Kapai Kaiti Trust; Deputy Chairperson at Sport Gisborne; and a mentor in the He Ara Tika programme for high schools. She is also a member of the Turanganui branch of the Maori Women’s Welfare League, and is currently completing a Masters of Public Management through Victoria University.

In addition to her successful career, Keriana leads an active lifestyle, is married and raising two sons.

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Rebecca Caughey
(26 years old)

At 26 years of age, Rebecca is the youngest recipient of a 2008 Sir Peter Blake Trust Emerging Leader award. Success at a young age is not a novelty to Rebecca who founded Funktion Music, her music management company, at the age of 19 and while still at University.

Funktion grew out of a love for New Zealand music and started from the humble beginnings of organising jazz gigs. It has grown to include handling the world-wide management of local musicians Shapeshifter and Ladi6, both of whom have achieved substantial success at home and internationally.

Rebecca is also a leading music industry publicist working with top New Zealand acts including Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn and Brooke Fraser, and internationals like Public Enemy and Jimmy Barnes during their respective New Zealand tours.

Rebecca has worked in various facets of the music industry - she performed at the 2000 Monterey Jazz Festival in San Francisco, and conceived and produced the successful Triumph CD compilation for The Breast Cancer Research Trust. Rebecca has an honours degree in Art History and in 2004 was inducted into the NZ Young Enterprise Scheme Hall of Talent.

Rebecca has actively contributed to the music industry through her membership of the Music Managers’ Forum and the music industry seminars she conducts around the country. She demonstrates leadership through her balanced approach to her clients, who are often many years older, and her belief in the role that music plays in people’s lives.

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Julie Helson
(35 years old)

Julie Helson co-founded the KidsCan Charitable Trust three years ago and is currently the General Manager. KidsCan is a national charity dedicated to levelling the playing field for New Zealand children living in poverty. It was established to meet the basic physical and nutritional needs of disadvantaged Kiwi children by providing raincoats, shoes and food through low decile schools.

Armed with the knowledge that thousands of Kiwi kids were arriving at school hungry and without adequate shoes or wet weather gear, Julie founded KidsCan with a $40,000 grant from Guardian Trust in August 2005 and to date has provided nearly 20,000 raincoats, 5,000 pairs of shoes and 10,000 pairs of socks.

Under Julie’s tenure, KidsCan has successfully secured sponsorship from adidas, The Warehouse and Warehouse Stationery, Number One Shoes and Hanover Finance. Ali Williams and Doug Howlett are patrons and ambassadors include well-known New Zealanders like Mike McRoberts, Anika Moa, Miriama Smith and Jordan Luck.

Julie is a person who takes action and looks for ways to influence to ensure positive and tangible outcomes. Julie’s leadership style is collaborative. She knows that she alone cannot accomplish everything, and with this in mind, has surrounded herself with experts and is unafraid to ask for assistance.

Julie’s background is in the not-for-profit sector where she has worked for a variety of charities including Women’s Refuge, The First Tee, Victim Support and Westpac Rescue Helicopter. Julie is married to Carl Sunderland and lives on Auckland’s North Shore.

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Oscar Kightley
(38 years old)

Oscar Kightley is a critically acclaimed writer, actor, director and television presenter renowned for his comedy work, particularly with The Naked Samoans, Bro’Town and more latterly, Sione’s Wedding.

Born in Apia in Samoa, he emigrated to New Zealand aged four and grew up in west Auckland. He began his career in journalism with roles at the Auckland Star, Sunday Star, and Independent Radio News before moving to Christchurch in 1990 to work on TVNZ's teenage show Life, while at the same time becoming part of The Performing Arts Trust.

From humble beginnings, Oscar has emerged as a leader and role model to many in the Pacific Island community. He has never lost sight of what he regards as his obligation to lead and inspire others. He lives by the theme that there is no point in blaming others for failure and frequently quotes Gandhi: “No-one else has to change, just you.”

Oscar is unafraid to address sensitive issues such as violence and drinking through his productions, yet he manages to do so with warmth and humour. His leadership style is to develop other people’s ideas and provide opportunities for development.

A regular motivational speaker at secondary schools, Oscar is also a Books in Homes Ambassador. Oscar received a Laureate Award from the Arts Foundation of New Zealand in 2006 and was appointed by the Prime Minister to the Council of Creative New Zealand in 2007.

Since winning the Sir Peter Blake Emerging Leader Award, Oscar has been awarded the MNZM in recognition of his services to theatre and television.

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Michael Sabin
(39 years old)

Michael Sabin is the managing director of MethCon Group Limited, a consultancy company specialising in providing education, advice and strategies relating to methamphetamine, or ‘P’.

MethCon aims to reduce the effects of methamphetamine and other drugs in the workforce and wider community. The company provides expert needs-based education for all sectors of the business community working with large corporates through to small businesses, which are the lifeblood of provincial communities. MethCon also works with numerous Government departments, agencies and secondary schools nationwide.

Michael is an inspirational leader with the courage to follow his own convictions. He left a successful police career with several years experience in the field of drug investigation to develop a business with no pre-existing model and no assurance of success.

Michael is passionate about society and family and built his business from a realisation that the impact of methamphetamine would never be successfully addressed with current law enforcement and legislative models alone.

Michael’s leadership style is one built on genuine human connections. He has successfully fostered relationships with government, business and the public here at home and internationally.

MethCon was awarded Best Emerging Business and Northland Business of the Year by the Northland Chamber of Commerce in 2007. Michael is married with three children and lives in Northland.

Since winning the Award, Mike has significantly increased his engagement with international drug forums and coalitions and sits on several international task forces.

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Sarah Ulmer
(31 years old)

Sarah Ulmer is one of New Zealand’s best known sportspeople and a cyclist of true world-class standing.

Sarah has been a World and Olympic Champion and is the current World Record holder for the showcase track cycling event, the 3000m Women’s Individual Pursuit. Sarah was also a back-to-back Commonwealth Games Champion (1998 and 2002), Commonwealth Games Record Holder and New Zealand Sportsperson of the Year in 2004.

Sarah is popular with Kiwis of all ages. She is driven by a desire to encourage as many people as possible, particularly young women, to participate in cycling for sport and recreation. Despite having to retire prematurely due to an ongoing injury, Sarah continues to promote cycling and is a natural ambassador.

In 2004 Sarah launched an annual Auckland fun ride for women and children called the Bike Day Out. This event was renamed the SUB Ride in 2005 after she launched SUB (Sarah Ulmer Brand) of activewear, cycles and cycle clothing, and attracted 1800 participants. There are now five SUB Stride or Ride events around New Zealand.

Sarah, along with fellow Trustee, Dame Susan Devoy, has launched the SUB Charitable Trust, which will donate a portion of every SUB sale to a cause that will help the health, fitness and/or wellbeing of the community.

Sarah will travel to Beijing as part of the New Zealand Olympic Team’s Support Staff. She will officially welcome the team and then spend time with individuals and smaller groups guiding them on what to expect, a role that demonstrates her leadership skills while bringing her top-level sports experience to bear.

Sarah lives in Cambridge with her partner and boxer puppie, Scoobie.

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