Agriculture / Environment

Stephen Goldson - Ag Research
Dr Goldson is a Professorial Fellow of Lincoln University. He is widely known for his pioneering work on the clover root and the Argentine Stem weevil. Dr Goldson headed a team to research an effective biocontrol of the Argentine Stem weevil, resulting in the successful introduction of the wasp Microtonus hyperodae. His research into insect pest behavior has contributed significantly to crop management practices in New Zealand. More recently, Dr Goldson has been involved in developing ‘sniffer’ technology as chief scientist for Containerscan Ltd. The technology continuously samples the air around it and is able to detect minute traces of unwanted organisms and substances. The device, called Sniffertech™, is being trailed on in-bound container ships.
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ICT

Ian McCrae - Orion Health
Ian McCrae is the founder and chief executive of Orion Health, New Zealand’s leading software exporter. Orion Health’s core business is in providing the healthcare sector with IT solutions which simplify procedures for both patients and healthcare professionals. Since founding the company in 1993, Orion Healthcare has grown rapidly, and now employs 209 people and services clients in 20 countries. It has also experienced over 50 percent growth for the last three years.

The company’s innovation and strong focus on customer needs lead to its success at the recent ANZ Auckland Export awards where it was awarded the Mondiale Auckland Exporter of the Year.
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Manufacturing

Ross McKenzie - Old Fashioned Foods
Old Fashioned Foods is a rags to riches story of New Zealand manufacturing. Founded by Fred Willets, it began by supplying the domestic market with individually packaged steamed puddings and desserts, based on a family fruit pudding recipe belonging to the founder’s sister, “Aunt Betty”. Under managing director Mr Mackenzie, the company introduced new packaging for convenience cooking and built production to 30 million a year from its Mt Wellington, Auckland Factory. Exports, particularly to the UK, are worth around $10 million a year.
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Design and Engineering

Edward Scott - Inveratek
Edward Scott is an award-winning designer whose consumer product designs have consistently received international recognition, including a major award in Paris in 2002. His extensive experience in CAD modeling and various design tools enables Inveratek to rapidly explore product a industrial design concepts. He has more than 17 years experience in industrial design and manufacture and specialises in plastics design. Scott spent four years as a senior product design engineer for a leading plastics manufacturer and was responsible for the design and development for a range of highly successful products and he has also served and applications engineer and national sales manager of a world-leading hot runner injection molding systems manufacturer.
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Science

Prof Nikola Kasabov - AUT
Professor Nikola Kasabov is the founding director of the Knowledge Engineering and Discovery Institute and a professor in the School of Computer and Information Sciences at the Auckland University of Technology. Prof Kasabov has more than 380 publications, 28 patents and a strong background in consulting having offered his expertise to a range of companies across New Zealand. Within the field of information sciences, Professor Kasabov developed a theory of connectionist systems which has become an integral part of information systems across a diverse range of platforms. With more than 20 models based on the theory, it has a range of applications across a great variety of industries. Examples of these applications include the optimisation of milk delivery, pregnancy risk analysis, cancer gene discovery and insect establishment risk analysis. This flexibility is further reflected in the range of New Zealand corporations which have incorporated the theory into their information systems.
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R&D

Nigel Beach - Compac Sorting Equipment
Nigel Beach is the research and development manager of Compac Sorting Equipment, an Auckland-based company which is a world leader in fruit sorting technology. From the small family business which started in 1984, today the company has seven offices and more than 160 employees worldwide. The system, InVision 9000, sorts citrus, kiwifruit and apples for surface marks, stains, insect damage cuts and bruises. Its ability to sort kiwifruit in accordance to blemishes is unique to this system. Using near infrared technology, the system is also able to determine the sweetness of a fruit by measuring absorbed and reflected wavelengths with a spectrometer. This takes place at ten fruit a second. Mr Beach estimates that Compac Sorting Equipment spends ten per cent of its turnover on research and development annually.