
The Distinguished Alumni Awards honour alumni who have made outstanding contributions to Massey University, to their professions, their communities or the nation.
Paeroa-born Dr Hubbard graduated from Massey with a Bachelor
of Technology (Food) in 1970. He worked as a research scientist
for the Co-Operative Dairy Company in Hamilton developing
specialised powders for the baking trade, then spent several
years managing the Food Processing Factory in Niue.
After working in management roles, including chief executive,
at Tasti Food Products for 13 years, he and wife Diana Reader
set up Hubbard Foods in 1988. The company gained prominence
for its promotion of socially responsible business perspectives.
Dr Hubbard founded the New Zealand Businesses for Social
Responsibility (now the Sustainable Business Network), was
chair of the New Zealand National Parks and Conservation
Foundation and a supporter of Outward Bound. He was Mayor
of Auckland from 2004 to 2007 and member of the Massey
University Council 2003-06.
He was conferred with an honorary Doctor of Science in 1999.
In 2017 Hubbard Foods was sold to the HFG Group. Dr Hubbard
was quoted as saying “after making three billion bowls of
mueslis and cereals over 30 years, it was time to hand over the
reins to a younger generation”.
In recent years her has given his time as an Ambassador for the
Massey University Foundation’s Refectory Restoration project.
Dr McCauley graduated with a PhD in computer science in
2013. Her vision to address the gender imbalance in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics fields, to remove
virtual barriers and to facilitate equal opportunities has fuelled
her work to encourage young New Zealand girls to consider
what a career in technology offers. In 2014 she founded She
Sharp, which runs networking and development events each
year for secondary school girls and women who are tertiary
students and industry professionals.
In her role as a senior lecturer at Auckland University
of Technology’s School of Computer, Engineering, and
Mathematical Sciences, she is a recognised leader in artificial
intelligence and machine learning, including researching
how these fields will revolutionise our future. Last year she
was a keynote speaker at AI-DAY and is currently an external
technical adviser to to AI business advice company AIDER
and online writer support network The Story Mint.
The lack of diversity in the technology sector is becoming
widely recognised as a significant issue, and as a result there
is a growing call to action to address the situation. Mahsa’s
tireless work in advocating diversity in this sector has
impacted thousands.
In 2018 she was invited as a visiting professor to the University
of St. Bonaventure in New York in 2018, to teach an intensive
week of AI. Her work in this field was covered on prime-time
news in New York while she was there, including her passion
for encouraging more girls to consider a future career in
technology.
DEA
Ms Roberts graduated in 2013 with a Master of Finance with
distinction, worked as a marketing assistant before going on
to finance, product and marketing roles at AJ Park, Kiwibank
and Xero.
She wanted to start her own business and combine her
twin interests in marketing and finance. Her dream started
to gain momentum when she met a group of like-minded
entrepreneurs. The group of seven, including two other
Massey alumni, Richard Clark and Sonya Williams, founded
Sharesies, a sharemarket investment company, in 2017.
She says the philosophy behind Sharesies is to create a level
playing field for investors regardless of how much money they
have and remove some of the jargon that causes nervousness.
“We wanted to give someone with five dollars the same
investment opportunities as someone with $500,000. With the
technology available today, there’s no reason why access to
wealth development should be so unequal.” Another reason
was to encourage more New Zealanders to invest in markets.
At present 20 per cent do compared with 30 per cent of
Australians and 50 per cent of Americans.
Two years later the company has 24 staff and more than
36,000 investors, many of them doing so for the first time.
We all got together because we knew we wanted to start our own Two years on, Brooke says Sharesies is going from strength to strength.“We started with seven founders, six of us full time. We now have 24 staff and we’re still growing.
We have over 36,000 Kiwi investors who have invested over $38 million. What’s great is a lot of that is money that probably wouldn’t have been invested otherwise.”Brooke The opportunities need to be shared a lot more.
That’s why we created Sharesies—to make it really easy for people to get into investing, and to help them feel confident and motivated as investors. The minimum investment is five dollars, and Brooke says their model has attracted a lot of first-time investors, who are learning about finance as they use Sharesies. So much of learning is by doing. When you hear the news and link that to what’s happening with your investment, you start to see how everything happening in society feeds into business and the economy. It’s really exciting for people to start to see those linkages.”Brooke says that while 50 percent of people in the United States and 30 percent of Australians own shares, only around 20 percent of New Zealanders are shareholders.
She says the connections she made while studying helped
enormously. “The friendships that I made in my hostel and
classes helped me personally but also professionally. I’ve now
got friends in all different disciplines.”
Costume designer Kate Hawley graduated with a Diploma
in Visual Arts and Design in 1992 from what was then
Wellington Polytechnic. She worked in local productions and,
in 1996, received a Television New Zealand Scholarship and
assistance from Wellington City Opera to study at the London’s
Motley School of Theatre Design. Less than a decade later
her career took off with film credits including On A Clear Day,
The Ride, Pacific Rim, Crimson Ring and The Hobbit, along
with numerous other costume and set design credits ranging
across film, television, theatre and opera in Europe, the United
States, Australia and New Zealand.
She worked again with Peter Jackson’s untitled Dreamworks
project and his 2009 film The Lovely Bones as well as episodes
of The Lord of the Rings television series.
Ms Hawley’s awards include the Gold Key Award from the
Bretislav Film Festival for her designs for the Channel 4/BBC
production of T DANCE, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council
Award for Opera Studies, the Prague Quadrennial 99 Award
for Emerging Young Artists, and the Television New Zealand
Young Achievers Award.
In 2013 she was into Massey University’s College of Creative
Arts’ Hall of Fame.
2017 | Ross McEwan
2016 | Professor Graham Le Gros
2015 | Graeme Milne ONZM
2014 | Linda Jenkinson
2013 | Hon John Luxton QSO
2012 | Sir Graham Henry
2011 | Sir Neil Waters
2010 | Alan Frampton
2017 | Mavis Mullins
2016 | Traci Houpapa
2015 | Andrew Cameron
2014 | Don McKenzie
2013 | Dr Frances Hughes ONZM
2012 | Dennis Oliver
2011 | Sharron Cole and Peter MacGillivray
2010 | HE Dr The Rt Hon Lockwood Smith and Dr Judy McGregor
2017 | Pengbo Jiang
2016 | John-Daniel Trask
2015 | Jane Haste (nee Parsons)
2014 | Kathryn Wilson
2013 | David Kelly
2012 | Luke Di Somma
2011 | Carl Sanders-Edwards
2010 | Dr Shaun Hendy and Yvette McCausland-Durie
2017 | Peter Chrisp
2016 | Professor Iain Hay
2015 | Dr Alex Buchanan AM
2014 | Peter Hughes
2013 | Dr Barry O'Neil
2012 | Stephen Jennings and Sue Suckling
2011 | Professor Gregor Reid
2010 | Sir Richard Taylor
2010 | Sarah Kennedy
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Last updated on Monday 20 April 2020
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