Judging Panel 2009

Matthew was made a Business Improvement Director of Hayes Knight in February 1997. He is also a member of the firm's management committee, responsible for the strategic direction of the firm and enabling him to translate his ideas into action, and is Managing Director of Knowledge Shop NZ Limited. He has experience in planning, negotiation, valuation, mergers and acquisitions, business growth and financial restructuring, business restructuring and corporate governance. Matt sits on several boards as an adviser, and prides himself on being more of an extension to his clients businesses than your everyday accountant.

Matt is is a trustee of North Harbour Stadium, a member of the North Harbour Club and was the Chairperson of the Albany Business Association from 2003 to 2008. He also regularly presents business seminars and authors business assistance articles for a range of publications, and is Chairman of Judges for the Enterprise North Shore Business Excellence Awards.

Andy is currently a business advisor with Icon Business Solutions, helping the owners of independent businesses implement strategies for personal and financial gain. Prior to this Andy was involved with food export for over 20 years to a wide range of world markets. A BCom degree in marketing management was the basis of his early career in sales and marketing, where he worked for Turners & Growers International in the pressure world of horticultural exports. Andy has also headed up a number of industry bodies, including the National Horticulture Exporters’ Council, representing exporters in dealing with Government regulatory bodies.

Andy gets a big kick out of helping businesses create the right atmosphere for success; in assisting people – be they team members, suppliers or customers – to achieve their goals, especially in the export field.

Colin Harvey
Colin Harvey is recognised for making significant contributions to the New Zealand agricultural industry. For the past 22 years he has built Ancare into a company with significant market share across several animal health categories in the face of strong competition.

Colin has contributed significantly to industry affairs and in 2008 was made an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit. He is a member of CRAG (Capitalising on Research & Development Action Group) a group sponsored to increase business R&D. He is also an active investor in a number of technology investments and a partner in the iGlobe VIF fund. Colin is a Board Member of Massey University Foundation and on the Advisory Board of the Massey Business School.

Gillian Taylor
Gillian’s experience in Corporate Strategy and senior Management roles has given her an understanding about a variety of business issues and challenges.
She now shares that expertise, through Taylored Solutions Ltd (formed 2002), working with companies to develop strategies and relationships that deliver real, demonstrable value for parties involved. Her work supports Internal Partnering, Alliances, Partnerships, Joint Ventures and other strategic relationships.
Gillian runs a short course at the University of Auckland Business School; and has supported Enterprise North Shore as an Excellence Awards Facilitator and as a Mentor.

Heather Douglas
Heather Douglas is a co-founder of Home Business New Zealand. Since 2000, Heather has worked passionately to grow the HomebizBuzz web site (www.homebizbuzz.co.nz) to provide a single source of information, tools and resources for home-based businesses throughout New Zealand, to provide cohesion in the home business sector and access to an active online community of home business owners, to support, motivate and inspire home business operators, to raise the profile, enhance credibility and recognition of the significance of the home business sector to the economy, and to provide a collective voice for a previously fragmented community.
In 2005, Heather was awarded the inaugural Vero Excellence in Business Support Award for the Individual who has made the Greatest Contribution to Business Support in New Zealand.

Ken Noble
Ken is presently Executive Chairman of Allied Medical Ltd a business he started ten years ago with his daughter Katie and then was joined by his son Blake.

The company is based at Interplex and is involved in the distribution of Rehabilitation, Orthopaedic and Mobility products. As well as manual wheelchairs, the company also specializes in complex power chairs and employs technicians and engineers. He is also a director of Noble Holdings, a company that owns commercial and horticulture property.

Nevil Gibson

NEVIL GIBSON, Editor in Chief of The National Business Review, related publications and NBR Online. A journalist for 40 years, mainly in print and radio, he was appointed Editor in 1989 when it was New Zealand’s only daily business newspaper. It reverted to weekly publication in 1991 and has a readership of 90,000.

He appears regularly on TV and radio, and has a business books column in Unlimited magazine. Outside positions include being an executive member of the Magazine Publishers’ Association and representing that body on the NZ Journalists’ Training Organisation (now part of the Communications and Media ITO). He is on the advisory board of the NZ Catholic

Robyn de Bruin-Judge

Robyn is a director of de Bruin-Judge Furniture. The company works closely with many of New Zealand’s award winning architects and interior designers to design and produce high-end kitchens, bathrooms, domestic and commercial fit-outs. She completed a Master of Public Policy in 2006, doing her thesis on business compliance issues and is a contributor to’ Managing Mayhem’, a recently released book about work-life balance in New Zealand. Robyn commutes monthly to Wellington in her capacity as a member of the Small Business Advisory Group. The group provides feedback to both political and bureaucratic arms of the government on issues for small and medium businesses and how policies might best address these.