Business Leader of the Year nominee: Ngarimu Blair

Ngarimu Blair says he is aware of the significance of being named after a Victoria Cross recipient. Photo / Dean Purcell

This week we are celebrating excellence in leadership as we publish the nominees for the 2015 Business Leader of the Year. The winner will be revealed on Saturday in the Weekend Herald.

Ngarimu Blair, 40, is credited with being one of Auckland's most influential Maori leaders.

The deputy chairman of Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust, director of Ngati Whatua Whai Rawa, chairman of the Ngati Whatua Treaty Settlement Protection Team, founder and director of Pale Blue Dot Communications, University of Auckland Maori and geography graduate and winner of numerous awards is a strong leader.

His Christian name is a type of leadership code, named after Gisborne-born soldier Te Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu VC, a member of the 28 Maori Battalion, and a posthumous recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry awarded to British and Commonwealth forces.

Blair acknowledges the importance of that name, but deflates any sense of grandeur with his sharp wit.

"He's famous throughout the Maori world, and New Zealand. [The name] carries a lot with it so I was very mindful that I carry, in part, that responsibility," he said.

"But it didn't help me with my East Coast rugby career. I got dropped after two games."

Blair has been the driving force behind the project to build the first 30 new medium-density whare, at Kainga Tuatahi, the papakainga around Kupe St near Bastion Point.

In the last year, he has also led the fight against the Government's move to dispose of surplus Crown land without iwi redress, and established what Ngati Whatua says is "the largest ecological restoration project on the Auckland Isthmus at Bastion Point".

He has played a significant role in the success of Whai Rawa, which is the commercial arm of the Ngati Whatua Orakei Trust, with total net assets rising from $390 million to $458 million in the last year, and the value of commercial investment properties at $727 million and rising fast.