SUPREME WINNER AND

INNOVATION, SCIENCe & HEALTH

Siouxsie Wiles

Dr Siouxsie Wiles is an award-winning scientist who has made a career out of manipulating microbes, and heads up the Bioluminescent Superbugs Lab at the University of Auckland. This year she has been praised for her media appearances providing clear and helpful health advice to New Zealanders during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Her accessible and evidence-led commentary about staying safe during the pandemic helped ease the nation’s anxiety and became the basis for World Health Organisation communications tools.

She is passionate about demystifying science, and has won the Prime Minister’s Science Communication Prize and the Royal Society Te Apārangi’s Callaghan Medal in 2013. In 2017, she published Antibiotic Resistance: The End of Modern Medicine? and in 2019 was appointed a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to microbiology and science communication. 

The judges noted her courage in the face of criticism, and her decade of dedication to making science more accessible to everyday New Zealanders.

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Arts & Culture

Parris Goebel

Parris Goebel is one of the most prominent Kiwis in the global entertainment business.  She owns The Palace, the only studio to win three consecutive world hip hop dance championships. She has worked with artists including Rihanna, Sam Smith, Ariana Grande, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Nicki Minaj, Blackpink, and CL. Her choreography on the video for Sorry by Justin Bieber has over 3.3 billion YouTube views.

Parris was the creative director and choreographer for the 2020 Superbowl half-time show for Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, and the New York Fashion Week Savage X Fenty show, which has been nominated for a 2020 Emmy Award. In 2018 she established The Palace Academy of Dance for Māori and Pasifika teenagers and she is a co-founder of Sisters United NZ, a charitable trust established to empower young Māori and Pasifika.

The judges praised her support of young Kiwi women through her charity Sisters United, saying she’s made an impact at a very broad level.

BOARD & MANAGEMENT

Dame Alison Paterson

After building up a successful accounting practice in the 1960s and ‘70s, Dame Alison Paterson was the first woman to be appointed to a producer board (NZAPMB) in 1976; and later that decade became the first woman to be appointed to a listed company board. She has since served on many boards, and been a director for Transpower, the Health Quality and Safety Commission and Metrowater. 

Alison served on the NZX Market Surveillance Panel and served two terms on the Massey University Council including as Pro Chancellor. She is a Fellow of the University of Auckland and a Distinguished Fellow of the Institute of Directors. She was appointed a Dame Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in 2014; inducted into the Business Hall of Fame in 2015; and honoured for Outstanding Contribution to Business and Finance at the 2018 NZ CFO Awards.

The judges praised her “extraordinary contribution” and profound influence in a range of governance roles.

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Business Enterprise

Sonya Williams & Brooke Roberts - joint winners

Sonya Williams

Sonya Williams is a co-founder and director of Sharesies, an online investment platform that gives someone with $5 the same investment opportunities as someone with $500,000. The idea for Sharesies came in late 2016 and seven founders came together in 2017 to launch the business. Three-and-a-half years later, the business now has over 200,000 investors who have invested more than $600 million. Sharesies employs 70 people and has changed the way New Zealanders view investment.

Sonya has been chief of product and marketing at Sharesies, and acting co-CEO. She has been a member of the NZTech board and spoken at a variety of events about her experiences as a young women in both technology and finance. 

The judges said what Sonya and Brooke (below) achieved is extraordinary, and a great example of “democratising” investment.

Brooke Roberts

Brooke Roberts is the CEO and one of the seven co-founders of Sharesies, an online investment platform that’s on a mission to create a financially empowered generation. Sharesies’ more than 200,000 investors are from all around the country with a wide age range, although the majority are under 40 years old. There is also gender balance amongst the investors.

Sharesies won the Diversity Institute’s Work/Life Balance Award and was a finalist for Team Gold in the 2019 Wellington Gold Awards. Brooke was one of three finalists for Employee Experience Designer of the Year in the 2019 Humankind Employee Experience Awards.

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Community Hero

Ranjna Patel

In 2014, Ranjna Patel founded Gandhi Nivas, a family violence prevention programme established in partnership with Counties Manukau Police and Sahaayta Counselling and Social Support. The programme provides early intervention and prevention services for Kiwi men identified at risk of committing harm in the family home, and supports them to change their behaviour.

Ranjna is also a co-founder and director of Tamaki Health, which has grown over 40 years into New Zealand's largest independent primary health care group. She was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2017 and received a Queen’s Service Medal in 2009. She sits on advisory boards including the National Ethnic Forum for New Zealand Police, the Mental Health Foundation and Diversity Works. 

Ranjna impressed the judges by bringing parties together, including police and social support services, to reduce rates of family violence.

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Diversity

Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i

Tupe Solomon-Tanoa’i started her career as a diplomat, the only non-Pakeha in her cohort. She coordinated the team that negotiated the economic cooperation agreement with Taiwan, and was a driving force behind the inaugural Matariki festival there. 

In 2020, Tupe was appointed to the role of chief philanthropic officer of the Michael and Suzanne Borrin Foundation, which funds projects to bring about transformational change in the criminal justice system and family law. She is the writer and creator of independent web series Misadventures of a Pacific Professional, nominated for Best Show at the 2019 New Zealand Web Fest and Best International Drama at the Melbourne Web Fest. Her chat show, Talanoa with Tupe, aims to showcase successful Pasifika, especially women. 

The judges praised the impact of her work across multiple cultures.

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Global

Jane Kelsey

A law professor at the University of Auckland for 41 years, Jane Kelsey’s early research focused on te Tiriti and critiquing then-emergent neoliberal policies. Since the 1990s, she has combined this with critical analysis of international economic agreements. She supports developing countries through intergovernmental think tanks, briefs their trade ministers, advises their negotiators, and runs pro bono training for governments, global unions and international NGOs.

Dr Kelsey was a prominent critic of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and subsequently CPTPP, arguing signing the trade deals would be against New Zealanders’ interests.  She has opposed market-driven education as an elected member of Auckland University Council and as president of the Association of University Staff (twice awarded their Academic Freedom award), active member of the university’s Senate, and public commentator on tertiary education. She has written 11 books and over 100 academic articles and has been awarded two Marsden Fund grants.

The judges described her work as “exceptional”, praising her preparedness to ruffle feathers and challenge accepted wisdom.

Public Policy

Una Jagose

Una Jagose was appointed as Queen’s Counsel and Solicitor-General in 2016. She joined Crown Law as a Crown Counsel in 2002, advising on a range of matters for other government agencies and ministers, as well as representing the government in court. She was appointed Deputy Solicitor-General in 2012 and appointed acting director of the Government Communications Security Bureau in 2015. 

Earlier in her career, Una worked for the Ministry of Fisheries as a solicitor, becoming chief legal advisor and manager of the legal team. She has also taught the public law module of the Masters in Public Policy course at Victoria University’s School of Government and regularly gives public speeches and addresses about the law, leadership, women’s development and her own career story.

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Rural

Trish Fraser

Dr Trish Fraser is a soil scientist who researches ways to help arable farms become more environmentally sustainable and more productive. She manages a team of seven at Plant & Food Research, where she has worked for almost 30 years, collaborating closely with farmers to understand their needs, research solutions to address their problems, and transfer her knowledge through training and outreach.

Trish’s research has included studying the role of earthworms and what they do in soil, the impacts of crop residue management practices, tillage practices in crop farming systems, and how these management practices affect nutrient losses from soil. Living on a 20-hectare farmlet and farming beef cattle gives Trish additional insights into current farming issues. 

The judges praised her collaborative approach over more than 30 years, saying she has the rare skill of communicating science to both farmers and consumers.

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Young Leader

Aigagalefili Fepulea'i Tapua'i

Aigagalefili Fepulea'i Tapua'i is head girl at Aorere College and an Indigenous and climate activist. She is a founding member and chair of 4 Tha Kulture, an indigenous South Auckland youth environmentalist collective which co-organised the largest and most recent School Strike for Climate. She was the 2019 New Zealand Storytellers High School Public Speaking Champion, the New Zealand representative at the 2021 Global Young Leaders Conference, and had her poetry published in The Poetry New Zealand Yearbook 2019. 

As an advocate for low socioeconomic and South Auckland youth, Fili worked with the School March Against Violence and aims to uplift marginalised youth in her community. 

Judges called Fili “a remarkable young woman who will continue to be a leader in her community”.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban

In 1999, Hon. Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban became the first Pacific Island woman to be elected to the New Zealand Parliament. She was Minister of Pacific Island Affairs, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, and Associate Minister of Social Development, Economic Development and Trade.

Dame Winnie resigned from Parliament in 2010 to take up her current role. She is chair of the Public Services Commission Public Service Pacific Fale Governance Group; patron of the Wellington Pasifika Business Network and the Cancer Society Relay for Life; a Creative New Zealand Arts Council board member; and a member of the New Zealand Institute of Directors and the Council of the National University of Samoa. She is a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit and was bestowed the Samoan chiefly title Luamanuvao.

Judges praised her decades of service for the Pacific Island community both in politics and at a grassroots level.