Ōtāhuhu-born billionaire Sir Ted Manson CNZM was overwhelmed when told about his New Year Honour and paid tribute to his late mother, Rae Manson, who died in her 40s, when he was in his 20s.
“Mum’s the one who loved and nurtured me, which enabled me
New Year 2025 Honours: Billionaire philanthropist Ted Manson knighted
Ted Manson of the Ted Manson Foundation. Photo / Supplied
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His family company, Mansons TCLM, is New Zealand’s largest privately owned property development business, having completed what he says has been assessed as this country’s largest commercial transaction: the $500m-plus sale of the new FNZ Centre, 50 Albert St, to international fund PAG.
Sons Culum, Luke and Mac have run the company for years, which allows Manson to spend 80% of his time on charity work.
Mansons TCLM has delivered an unrivalled number of major Auckland building projects, all with environmental features, attracting international investment.
The family fortune is estimated at $1.1 billion but Manson’s focus is not so much on the business these days.
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The company builds offices for our wealthiest but it is our youngest and poorest whose lives he is changing most dramatically.
The foundation’s biggest recipients are pupils at 12 low-decile schools in South Auckland.
Charlotte Castle, principal at Redhill School in Papakura, which gets foundation funding, said about 90% of students enter the school at the developmental age of a 3-year-old. Two-thirds of students live with an alternative caregiver who is not their mum or dad. Around 70% of students have either one or both parents incarcerated or those parents have previously been jailed, she said.
The 12 schools receiving foundation finance are Papakura’s Edmund Hillary School, Redhill School and Mangapikopiko School; Māngere’s Favona School and Robertson Road School; Otāra’s Mayfield School and Sir Edmund Hillary Collegiate junior school; Papatoetoe’s Papatoetoe East School and Manurewa’s Wiri Central School, Weymouth Primary School, Homai School and Leabank Primary School.
The foundation, established in 2014, funds 12 full-time teachers and three full-time educational psychologists via its school-ready programme. That funds targeted teaching, evaluation and assistance for new entrants, aiming to lift social and learning skills.
Counsellors, educational psychologists and speech-language specialists work with pupils.
It has bought two 30-seater buses for vision and hearing testing and provided 35 new 12-seater vans and 30 buses to schools to enable thousands of students to go to events, widening sports and cultural involvement.
“It is our belief that all children should have access to high-quality education and opportunities, regardless of the school they attend or the area they live in. Schools should not be the ground where the cycle of intergenerational disadvantage is perpetuated,” the foundation says.
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What the foundation is doing in those schools is working to the point that Manson says Education Minister Erica Stanford has visited his office twice.
The foundation’s second largest benefactor is Sir Ray Avery’s Help@Hand to reduce sexual and family violence. A watch is given to a victim when they leave an abuser. A button can be pushed on that watch to alert police who can arrive on average in four minutes, saving lives.
Hato Hone St John is the third largest benefactor.
The foundation also backs The Pride Project, Kootuitui ki Papakura, The Bluelight Programme, Mike King’s Gumboot Friday, Dave Letele’s Just Move, Sir John Walker’s Find Your Field of Dreams and Steve Farrelly’s BC Kids Trust, Make A Wish Foundation, Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust and many more.
Two huge apartment blocks with significant social housing are further foundation accomplishments:
- The 18-level, $35m 92-unit Life Apartments in Liverpool St in the CBD, opened in early 2020;
- The $83m twin-tower 10 and 11-level Westlight in Glen Eden, opened early in 2021.
“Many people are enduring tough times and are under constant pressure and constraint because of hardship or misfortune. But robust, safe, warm, healthy homes which ensure security of tenure gives them the stability to contribute positively to their community and improve their quality of life,” Manson said of the two huge social housing schemes.
In 2018, Manson described a type of epiphany which prompted him to take an entirely new direction.
“I used to think ‘if I can come up from a state house, anyone can’ but as you get older, you start to realise life is not fair. Not everyone can do it.”
His late father, Colin, was 28 before he could afford his first car. Life was a struggle for his parents, as he clearly remembers.
“I woke up one day and I got a social conscience. That happens at some stage of your life for some, but not for all. Up until then, I was a capitalist,” he told the Herald in 2018.
Being knighted left him emotional: “I don’t know who nominated me. I’m a bit overpowered or overcome by it all.”
In 2015, he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year’s Honours.
In 2022, he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in that year’s Queen’s Birthday honours.
In 2024, he was inducted into the Business Hall of Fame.
Manson, 70, is married to Maria. He has 10 grandchildren and hopes some might join the business he established half a century ago
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 24 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
