Four prominent business people are represented in this year's Queen's Birthday Honours list:
Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit:
For services to governance, the law, business and the community
Sir Hugh Rennie's career has taken him far and wide within New Zealand legal and business circles.
He has led an inquiry into an Auckland power supply failure, investigated a Black Caps sex scandal, advised Prime Minister Helen Clark over claims around the "paintergate" affair and in business co-founded the NBR, led the Broadcasting Corporation before it was corporatised and he has been a board director of some prominent New Zealand companies.
From Whanganui, he has been a leading Queen's Counsel since 1995 and has worked with major companies and government agencies since the late 1960s.
Rennie's citation says his pro bono and community work has covered the arts, science and sport. He chaired the Royal New Zealand Ballet from 1999 to 2003, was a trustee of Theatre Arts Charitable Trust from 1997 to 2013, and chaired the Policy Committee of the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography from 1991 to 2000. His many years working for the Chatham Islands community included being inaugural chair of the Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust from 1990 to 2001.
While studying at Victoria University in the 1960s he was editor of the student paper, Salient, before his involvement with the establishment of the NBR in 1970 where he provided legal services for decades.
He was chairman of the Broadcasting Corporation of NZ from 1984 until 1988 and then led the Government's committee on the organisation's restructuring.
He was a member of a government advisory committee to statutory managers of Equiticorp companies in 1989.
Following a power blackout to the Auckland CBD in February 1998 he led a ministerial inquiry which was critical of Mercury's, and its predecessor the Auckland Electric Power Board's risk management and contingency planning, and its operations and asset management practices.
In 2005 an investigation by Rennie led to Black Cap Daryl Tuffey receiving a $1000 penalty after reports arose of an intimate video clip involving the cricketer and a Christchurch woman.
Rennie was New Zealand counsel to the Medical Protection Society United Kingdom from 1983 to 2012 and a member of the Scientific Committee of the National Heart Foundation from 1988 to 1994.
He was a director of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants from 2009 until it merged into Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand in 2014, then chaired its New Zealand regulatory board from 2015 to 2017.
He has also been a director of Fletcher Challenge, Bank of New Zealand and Fisher and Paykel Finance, and chaired The Marketplace Co group from 1999 to 2010.
Previous honours cited were the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal and Commander of the Order of the British Empire, Queen's Birthday, 1989.
Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For services to philanthropy and governance
Corporate lawyer Greg Horton, who has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars for charities, told the Herald learning of his honour was "all terribly embarrassing and it was a big surprise".
After receiving a terminal diagnosis of motor neuron disease in 2015, a neurodegenerative condition affecting motor function, in recent years his philanthropic work has taken a personal turn.
In 2017 he told the Herald of the sharp turn his life had taken: "It's probably the most debilitating disease that people can get in terms of your body shuts down but your mind is totally unimpaired. Everything just gets a whole lot harder.
"I'm slowly losing my voice and ultimately, at some point, I'll probably lose my ability to speak clearly and properly. I can't balance very well. I can only walk 200-300 metres in total, after that I need a motor scooter or a wheelchair," he said.
"There's lots of dark times when you can kind of crawl into a shell and feel like you have no purpose, or you have no meaning or you have no hope. You certainly go through a phase where you think 'my life has been stolen from me.'"
He is acting chief executive, and formerly chairman, of Motor Neuron Disease New Zealand, and his citation says last year he personally raised $750,000 for the organisation.
Horton graduated from the University of Auckland law school in 2002, and helped the University of Auckland Foundation raise $201m between 2007 and 2015. His fundraising for Saint Kentigern Boys School recently raised $1.8m to refurbish Roselle House.
Horton said he was grateful and honoured by the recognition.
"I am proud of that, on reflection, though I have never really thought about it in those terms – I just like to help, whether it is in law, business, charity or for people, and find a solution to a challenge," he said.
"My lovely wife Shelley says I have a problem with saying no!"
Horton began his career with Russell McVeagh in New Zealand, and at Cravath Swaine & Moore in New York, before co-founding Auckland-based merger and acquisition firm Harmos Horton Lusk.
He had a long tenure on the board of construction giant Fulton Hogan, and is also active in yachting with service since 2013 as a director for Team New Zealand.
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For services to the dairy industry
John Monaghan retired as chairman of New Zealand's biggest business Fonterra in 2020, having been deeply involved in the farmer-owned co-operative since its creation from a dairy industry mega-merger in 2001.
A Tararua dairy farmer, Monaghan was an inaugural member of the Fonterra Shareholders' Council, created at the time of the merger to be a watchdog for the interests of the company's farmer-owners. He became chair of the council, now called the Fonterra Co-operative Council, in 2004, and was in the role until 2007. A year later he was elected by farmers to the Fonterra board of directors.
He served on several board committees, including as the inaugural chairman of the Fonterra governance development programme and chair of the external relations committee and the co-operative relations committee.
These days a Martinborough resident, Monaghan was the third generation of his family to take the step from the farm to the dairy industry boardroom. His father and grandfather both led dairy companies in the Tararua district in the days when dozens of co-operatives were scattered around the country.
During Monaghan's time on the Fonterra board, the world's biggest dairy exporter built a $4 billion business in China. It now claims 40 per cent of all dairy imports into mainland China. In 2011 the company partnered with Silver Fern Farms to establish Kotahi, New Zealand's largest export supply chain collaboration.
During his time on the board Fonterra launched the GlobalDairy Trade (GDT) auction platform, a product sales vehicle which established a transparent international pricing benchmark. Through GDT sales, more than $10b of milk returns were paid out to Fonterra's 10,000 farmer-shareholders in each of the past three dairy seasons.
Monaghan became chair of Fonterra in 2018. He oversaw a reset of the company's New Zealand and global senior management, strategy and culture.
As Fonterra chair, he was on the executive board of the New Zealand-China Council. He was a director of Wellington's CentrePort, retiring last year after serving 11 years.
In his home community, Monaghan chaired Eketahuna School's board of trustees and was involved in local rugby club leadership. In 2020 he accepted Co-operative New Zealand's annual business award for outstanding co-operative contribution.
Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit
For services to philanthropy, urban development and business
Ted Manson's charitable trust, which he founded in 2014, has funded huge new social housing towers: the 73-unit Life Apartments in Auckland CBD and the 90-unit Westlight Apartments, Glen Eden.
Via his company New Zealand Mortgages and Securities Limited, Manson has funded $2b of affordable housing developments, delivering 800 residential sections and more than 2000 low-cost apartments and townhouses.
Manson gave eight new 12-seater vans to low decile schools, donated $500,000 to the Auckland City Mission during four years, gave significant financial support to St John northern region, gives an annual $50,000 to Auckland Rescue Helicopter and has supported many other organisations.
Via the company he founded - Mansons TCLM - all new office buildings constructed since 2014 have been built to best practice and Green Star certified standards.
Mansons TCLM has won many awards, including the New Zealand Institute of Architects' commercial architecture prize last year for Kiwibank's new Te Kupenga, Fanshawe St.
"I am most proud of the social housing apartments," Manson said today.
"I am now focused on making a difference in education and sport in low-decile South and West Auckland schools."
Significant donations are being made to 10 schools annually.
The foundation has also helped save the historic St David's Presbyterian Church, built in 1927, at 70 Khyber Pass Rd, Grafton.
"The foundation is donating more than $2m a year to charities including Mike King's anti-suicide scheme, Sir Ray Avery's domestic violence prevention campaign, Dave Letele (Buttabean) and his free community gyms and foodbanks/community kitchen and Make a Wish Foundation. The foundation has given ambulances to St John and has donated to the Mercy Hospice, the Westpac Rescue Helicopter and others.
"It's hard to believe how many good people are out there working so hard for those less well off. Working with these amazing people is humbling. I am very proud to be part of this and to the best of my ability, making a difference.
"I would like to pay tribute to foundation chief executive Samantha McCloy McKenzie who works tirelessly to investigate and make sure the money donated is really going to make a difference," Manson said today.
In 2015, he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
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