The a2 Milk Company has been named Company of the Year and Spark boss Simon Moutter has taken out CEO of Year at the prestigious Deloitte Top 200 Awards.
Xero founder and chief executive Rod Drury has been recognised with the Visionary Leader award.
The awards evening, held at Spark Arena in Auckland last night, acknowledged business excellence and leadership across 10 award categories.
"The a2 Milk Company's meteoric rise is one of the most spectacular share market ascents in years", said Fran O'Sullivan - judging panel convenor and NZME Editorial Director - Business.
"It was once considered an 'alternative' player in dairy, but a2 Milk's 250 per cent share price rise in the year to September puts it squarely among the biggest companies on the New Zealand stock exchange."
Chief Executive of the Year, Simon Moutter from Spark, impressed the judges with his relentless commitment to Spark's future as a digital services business.
"Simon has sustained performance in an industry where is it difficult to grow the top line, achieving a 19 per cent compound total shareholder return over five years," O'Sullivan said.
Tourism Holdings Chairman Rob Campbell, with his 30-plus years of governance and investment experience, was awarded Chairperson of the Year, recognising his strong track record in financial performance.
The judges applauded his thought leadership and willingness to speak freely — an asset to the business community as well as to the companies he chairs.
The Visionary Leader for 2017, Drury, has grown his software as a service company to a market capitalisation of $4.7 billion in just a decade.
Air New Zealand took out the Excellence in Governance award. Zespri was awarded Best Growth Strategy.
Port of Tauranga's Steve Gray was chief financial officer of the year.
Fonterra, again ranked first in the Top 200 Index, saw an increase in revenue of 11.8 per cent on 2016. The dairy giant's Disrupt Initiative — embracing diverse thinking to form new business models — saw it take out the Diversity and Inclusion Leadership category.
Fonterra's Komal Mistry, a key driving influence in the success of the Disrupt programme, was recognised as Young Executive of the Year.
The Deloitte Top 200 list includes publicly listed and private companies, NZ subsidiaries of multinational companies, co-operatives, societies and state-owned enterprises.
The financial figures for the Top 200 as well as New Zealand's Top 30 finance companies have been produced in full in today's Dynamic Business 2017 report, with explanations and insight from the Herald's team of business reporters.
The full report is published in Friday's Herald with features and stories also on the nzherald.co.nz business home page.