KEY POINTS:
High profile entrepreneur Peter Maire has been honoured as a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business.
Maire, 56, founded navigation technology company Navman in his garage in 1987 before selling it to marine and leisure products giant Brunswick in 2004 for $108 million.
"It's always good to get some recognition for the old business stuff," Maire said.
Click here for full list of honours
Investment vehicle Tahia Investments has also seen Maire buy into other high-tech companies including Rakon and Cadmus.
Maire is seen as the driving force behind a merger of Cadmus with Provenco to created a company worth an estimated $80 million.
"To be a significant player we have to be thinking, 'How do we get to $500 million in sales?' - that's the sort of magnitude we have to think," Maire said last year.
He has previously been awarded the Trade NZ Supreme Exporter of the Year Award in 2002, the Westpac Hi-Tech Supreme Award for Excellence also in 2002 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Professional Engineers in 2005.
It was harder to generate success today than it was 10 years ago because of consolidation and competition.
"There are fewer players, they're all bigger and it's more competitive," he said.
"But the name of the game still pretty much the same. It's finding a company with some good technology but then focussing on those things of building a strong brand and good distribution off shore."
Unfortunately New Zealand is bad at taking ideas offshore, he said.
"Hence that's why I got involved in the board of Trade and Enterprise ... to try and do something to help build the capability in offshore markets."
There was a lot of good innovation in New Zealand but the exports were not growing.
"If we look over the last five years outside of basically dairy, the numbers are telling us that no, we're not growing and that's a bit of a concern."
The entrepreneurial genes may also run in the family with a son who worked at Navman and works with Maire at Tahia Investments and a daughter at a Paris fashion company.
Maire has no regrets, including selling Navman, the company with which his name will always be linked.
"It's three different companies now, it's split into three different owners and yes, I have a relationship with all of them in one way or another."
* Jeremy Moon, founder of merino clothing company Icebreaker, is made a member of the New Zealand order of Merit. Icebreaker exports to 30 countries and Moon, seen as a role model for young entrepreneurs, chairs the Better by Design project.
PETER MAIRE
Home: Auckland
Age: 56
Education: Rosmini College
Career: Founder of navigation technology company Navman, investor through Tahia Investments, driving force behind the merger of payment technology companies Cadmus and Provenco.
