Finalists for the prestigious Air New Zealand New Zealander of the Year Award 2011 were announced in London last week.

The three finalists, Katherine Corich, Founder and Global Chair of Sysdoc, Barrie Neilson, yachting holiday entrepreneur, and Terry Smith, Chairman of Sir Keith Park’s Memorial Campaign and Chief Executive of Fundsmith, are all recognised for the contribution that they have made to enhancing New Zealand’s profile in the UK over the past year.
 
The award, which was established by the New Zealand Society in 1999, will be presented to the winner at the annual New Zealand Society’s Waitangi Day Dinner at The Crypt at St Etheldreda's Church, Ely Place, London EC1N 6RY, on Friday 4th February 2011.

Michelle Marsh, President, of the New Zealand Society commented that “the finalists have shared their community spirit, dedication and enthusiasm through a diverse range of activities, which make a significant contribution to the links and positive profile of New Zealand in the United Kingdom”.

Previous winners have included Anna Hansen, chef and founder of The Modern Pantry restaurant, Esther Jessop, founder of Ngati Ranana, the London Maori cultural group, Jon Rennie, New Zealand war memorial architect, Susan and Tom Glynn, New Zealand restaurateurs in London, golfer Michael Campbell, former Secretary General of the Commonwealth,  Rt. Hon Don McKinnon, and chef Peter Gordon.

As part of the annual celebrations, a Waitangi Day evening Service will be held at St Lawrence Jewry, Next-Guildhall, in the City of London at 6.30pm on Thursday 3th February 2011. This will be followed by a reception hosted by the Worshipful Company of .

The New Zealander of the Year award is proudly sponsored by Air New Zealand

PROFILES:

Katherine Corich

Katherine is a UK based kiwi who is passionate about helping NZ individuals and companies excel on the global stage. As mentor and oftentimes angel investor Katherine’s boundless energy and enthusiasm are infectious. Katherine is currently mentoring five NZ businesses on their global journey.

Katherine is also the founder and global chair of Sysdoc Group, a consulting firm with operations in four countries, and a UK base in Central London. Following an early career in IBM, and roles in the London Stock Exchange, Katherine trained as a Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor. She was quick to identify a gap in the market, where the rigorous principles of process excellence and simulator based training in aviation could be applied to improve business performance.

Katherine’s passion for making a difference has seen the Sysdoc team win multiple global awards, for projects across a range of industries, including oil and gas, utilities, telco and media, publishing, banking and finance.

Katherine has an MA (Hons.) from the University of Canterbury, qualified as a Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor, and is a Certified Director of the UK Institute of Directors. She is an invited member of Global Women, Women in Leadership Europe and World Class New Zealanders.

Katherine is a judge of the European Business Awards and the NZ High Tech Awards. As a regular speaker at industry forums on entrepreneurship, new models for HR management and sustainable global economies, Katherine constantly reinforces the benefits of UK and NZ companies working together.
Through the Sysdoc foundation, Katherine and the Sysdoc team are contributing to philanthropic activities ranging from mass tree planting in New Zealand to sponsorship of a Netball league in one of London’s most deprived areas.

About Sysdoc Group Sysdoc staff help to transform organisations, by mobilising the people and technical resources needed to effect sustainable change. Sysdoc services include: Business Process Design, Training, E-learning, Change Management, Information Architecture and the creation of Knowledge Bases for corporate intranets and web sites. Sysdoc now has a range of technology enabled products which underpin a highly acclaimed service delivery model.

“There is a commitment in Sysdoc people to do 100% what is right for the client and to empower the client to deliver further sustainable change. That is rare in consulting”.

Barrie Neilson

When Barrie Neilson left New Zealand in the early 1970s, he quite literally sailed into the sunset. Since then, he's enjoyed plenty of sunsets, many of them from the deck of one of the more than 180 Sailing Holidays Ltd yachts he and wife Heidi own in the Greek islands.

Sailing Holidays Ltd is now the largest British owned and operated sailing holiday company. They have been in operation for 35 years now, and are proud of their family based culture that has introduced sailing to thousands of people over the years.

Sailing Holidays Ltd began life in 1976 as Flotilla Sailing Club. Barrie joined the company in 1979 as a flotilla engineer and subsequently worked as flotilla skipper for six years from 1980 to 1985 in Greece, Florida and the former Yugoslavia. In 1983 Heidi (Barrie’s wife) came out on holiday and decided that Barrie needed sorting out; and then between them they decided to have a go at sorting the company out.

They put a proposal to the then owner, Tom Keen, to take over responsibility for the business and this was accepted. They altered the name to Sailing Holidays Ltd in 1987 to more accurately define what the company did and sprang into action with eleven Jaguar 27 yachts. Twenty one years later, and they now have 180 yachts in Greece, all of which are run as flotilla sailing holiday yachts.

They are now the only non-corporate flotilla specialist in the United Kingdom and their clientele remain 95% British (the other 5% are mostly from the antipodes!) . Their market niche is operating the best maintained boats in the industry on two week flotillas around some of the most beautiful islands in the world. They are also within only a 2-3 hour flight from the UK.

Their holidays are highly addictive and their average customer has enjoyed between four and five holidays with us in the different areas. Our longest standing client has been on more than 50 of our holidays (two a year!) and our next longest twenty-nine holidays! Several have gone on to buy their own yachts and cruise the world but most have to work for a living and our job is to make each fortnight special.

Barrie and Heidi are still fully involved with all aspects of the business with their children, Amy and Alice, especially enjoying the family atmosphere on the school holiday flotillas. They remain as un-corporate as you can get, preferring to remain in personal touch with their clientele.

Terry Smith

Graduated in History from University College Cardiff in 1974. He worked for Barclays Bank from 1974-83 and became an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers in 1976. He obtained an MBA at The Management College, Henley in 1979. He became a stockbroker with W Greenwell & Co in 1984 and was the top-rated bank analyst in London from 1984-89. In 1990 he became head of UK Company Research at UBS Phillips & Drew, a position from which he was dismissed in 1992 following the publication of his best selling book Accounting for Growth.

He joined Collins Stewart shortly after, and became a director in 1996. In 2000 he became Chief Executive and led the management buy-out of Collins Stewart, which was floated on the London Stock Exchange five months later. In 2003 Collins Stewart acquired Tullett Liberty, the world's second largest inter-dealer broker and followed this in 2004 with the acquisition of Prebon Group. Collins Stewart and Tullett Prebon were demerged in 2006. He was Executive Chairman of Collins Stewart between 2007 and 2009, and then Deputy Chairman until 6 December 2010. He has been Chief Executive of Tullett Prebon since December 2006.
In November 2010 Terry launched Fundsmith, a new Fund Management business, of which he is Chief Executive.

From 2007 until 2010 Terry was Chairman of the Sir Keith Park Memorial Campaign which commissioned and succeeded in placing a permanent statue in Central London to Sir Keith Park, the New Zealand born RAF Officer who Commanded 11 Group (responsible for the defence of London and the South East of England) during the Battle of Britain.