From left: Don Braid, Sir Roderick Deane, Sir Ralph Norris, Sir Stephen Tindall have been standout players in The Deloitte Top 200 over the last 25 years. Photo / NZME.
Don Braid is at the sharp end of Mainfreight's expansion as it transforms into an international logistics company. He one of only two company bosses to receive the Executive of the Year honours more than once. He received the award in 2008 and then again in 2011 for his efforts as chief executive of Mainfreight.
2008 Winner: Executive of the Year
2011 Winner: Executive of the Year
Sir Roderick Deane is one of the giants of the New Zealand commercial world landscape. He was awarded the Executive of the Year honour in 1994 for his time as CEO at Telecom. He would later be named Executive of the Decade in 1999, having served as Telecom boss from 1992 until his retirement that year to become non-executive Chairman of Telecom. His work in this capacity was recognised in the 2004 Top 200 Awards when he was named Chairperson of the Year.
1994 Winner: Executive of the Year
1999 Winner: Executive of the Decade
2004 Winner: Chairperson of the Year
Stephen Tindall, founder and long-time chief executive of The Warehouse, has featured in the awards several times. He was a finalist for Executive of the Year in 1995, the same year that The Warehouse Group was a finalist for Most Improved Enterprise, and again in 1997 when company won the Most Improved Enterprise Award. In 1998, Sir Stephen was named Executive of the Year. He was again a finalist in 2000 when The Warehouse Group took Company of the Year honours. He stepped down in 2001 and four years later was awarded Designworks Enterprise IG Visionary Leader.
1998 Winner: Executive of the Year
2005 Winner: Visionary Leader
1995 Finalist: Executive of the Year
1997 Finalist: Executive of the Year
2000 Finalist: Executive of the Year
Sir Ralph Norris is what's known as a "transferable talent." Sir Ralph was was nominated for Executive of the Year three times and has the distinction of having won the award twice for two distinctly different companies -- first in 1997 with ASB Bank (having already been nominated for his work there once before in 1993), and then again in 2004 with Air New Zealand.
1997 Winner: Executive of the Year
2004 Winner: Executive of the Year
1993 Finalist: Executive of the Year
Mainfreight's most recent award came in 2012 for the year's Best Growth Strategy -- their second award in the category. They won Company of the Year the year before that, and have nominations stretching back to 1996, where they were a finalist for the Best Corporate Strategy Award. The 2000 awards saw then-Chief Executive Bruce Plested named a finalist in the Executive of the Year category and he is this year's Visionary Leader.
2007 Winner: Best Growth Strategy
2011 Winner: Company of the Year
2012 Winner: Best Growth Strategy
1996 Finalist: Best Corporate Strategy
2000 Finalist: Bruce Plested, Executive of the Year
2005 Finalist: Most Improved Performance
2005 Finalist: Best Growth Strategy
Telecom was dominant early on, winning the second Company of the Year award in 1991. Also in that year, Peter Troughton, then chief executive of Telecom, won Executive of the Year, and Telecom was nominated for the Best Corporate Strategy award. In 1994, Telecom won Best Corporate Strategy and Sir Roderick Deane won Executive of the Year. Sir Roderick would later win Executive of the Decade in 1999.
1991 Winner: Company of the Year
1994 Winner: Best Corporate Strategy
1991 Finalist: Best Corporate Strategy
1998 Finalist: Company of the Year
Air New Zealand has won Company of the Year once before, in 1995, and is back again this year as the winner of the top accolade. The airline company was also nominated in 2013, the same year it picked up the Most Improved Performance Award. But the nation's air carrier has been the finalist for numerous awards over the 25 year history of the Deloitte Top 200 Awards. In 1994, Air New Zealand was up for the Best Corporate Strategy Award, in 2007 the Most Improved Performance Award; it was a finalist for Best Growth Strategy in 2008 and was a finalist for the Responsible Governance Award in 2012. In 2009, Sir Ralph Norris won Executive of the Decade, for the period in which he served Air New Zealand as chief executive (2002-2005).
1992 Winner: Most Improved Performance
1995 Winner: Company of the Year
2013 Winner: Most Improved Performance
2014 Winner: Company of the Year
1994 Finalist: Best Corporate Strategy
2007 Finalist: Most Improved Performance
2008 Finalist: Best Growth Strategy
2012 Finalist: Responsible Governance
2013 Finalist: Company of the Year
2014 Finalist: Excellence in Governance
Auckland International Airport has been a finalist several times over the course of the Deloitte Top 200 Awards. It was finalist for Government Enterprise of the year in 1991, the Business Ethics Award in 1999, the Company of the Year Award in 2002 (in which Sir John Goulter, then-CEO of Auckland International Airport, was named Executive of the Year), again a finalist for the Business Ethics Award in 2003 and then a finalist for the Best Growth Strategy Award in 2012. In 2013, Auckland International Airport won the Excellence in Governance Award.
2013 Winner: Excellence in Governance Award
1991 Finalist: Government Enterprise of the Year
1999 Finalist: Business Ethics Award
2002 Finalist: Company of the Year
2003 Finalist: Business Ethics Award
2012 Finalist: Best Growth Strategy
Fernz Corporation won Company of the Year in 1993 and then again in 1998. On top of these achievements, the agri-chemical company was recognised as having the best Corporate Strategy in the 1996 awards, having already been a finalist in the category in 1992 and 1993.
1993 Winner: Company of the Year
1996 Winner: Best Corporate Strategy
1998 Winner: Company of the Year
1992 Finalist: Best Corporate Strategy
1993 Finalist: Best Corporate Strategy
Fletcher Building was named Company of the Year in 2006, but was a regular finalist throughout the 2000s, being nominated in the category in each of 2004, 2005 and 2007. Fletcher was also a finalist for the Business Ethics Award in 2000 as Fletcher Challenge, for the Best Growth Strategy Award in 2004 and then again in 2007. This year, it's back in the winner's seat again with the Excellence in Governance Award.
2006 Winner: Company of the Year
2014 Winner: Excellence in Governance
2000 Finalist: Business Ethics Award (as Fletcher Challenge)
2004 Finalist: Company of the Year
2004 Finalist: Best Growth Strategy
2005 Finalist: Company of the Year
2007 Finalist: Company of the Year
2007 Finalist: Best Growth Strategy
Alison Paterson was appointed a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business in the New Year Honours 2014 and was previously awarded the QSO for services to the community. She is a Fellow of the University of Auckland, DCom (Massey), an ADFInstD and FCA. She was 2010 QBE Chairman of the Year.
Fran O'Sullivan is a high-profile business columnist for the New Zealand Herald. Fran launched the Herald's annual "Mood of the Boardroom" which is NZ's premier CEO survey and leads the Herald's Business Reports Series. She is a frequent TV commentator and public speaker.
Neil Paviour-Smith has 25 years' experience in various roles in New Zealand capital markets. He is Managing Director of Forsyth Barr Limited, a leading NZX sharebroking firm and investment bank. He is a council member of Victoria University of Wellington. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Finance Professionals NZ (INFINZ), having been Chairman of the NZ Society of Investment Analysts 1999-2001.
Sandy (Samford) Maier worked in international commercial and investment banking with Citicorp/ Citibank for fifteen years in various management positions in the Caribbean, South America and Australasia. He has lived and worked in New Zealand since 1986, serving on the board of the Bank of New Zealand and as the statutory manager of DFC New Zealand Limited, for which he received a 1990 Commemoration Medal.
Vicky Robertson is the Deputy Chief Executive of the New Zealand Treasury, the Government's lead advisor on economic, financial and regulatory policy. An internationally experienced executive with a background in law and economics, Vicky is a champion for transparency and accountability in the state sector, and inclusive growth.
Among Vicky's professional accomplishments are leading strategic reviews of the United Nations Development Programme, New Zealand's Climate Change policy, and KiwiSaver, the national retirement savings programme. She was also a member of the steering group that established the programme to deliver the Mixed Ownership Model for State-Owned Enterprises.
Just $53,000 in assets as liquidators work to sell what they can.