2022 New Year Honours recognise Massey alumni

Twenty nine Massey University alumni and staff have been named in the 2022 New Year Honours list, including Senior Lecturer in Statistics Dr Jonathan Godfrey (PhD (Science in 2004), Master of Information Sciences in 1999, Bachelor of Science in 1996 and Bachelor of Business Studies in 1994).

Dr Godfrey has been made Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to disabled people, particularly blind and low vision people. He has been on the Board of the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand since 2004 and President since 2016. He was also the first blind person to gain employment as a lecturer in Statistics internationally. 

Dr Godfrey has provided leadership for the Disabled People’s Organisation Coalition, a coalition of seven disabled person-led organisations. He has played a key role in the development of the Disability Action Plan 2019-2023. He has been a member of the cross-government Disability Data and Evidence Working Group, contributing his skills as a statistician to improve the availability of disability data in the census and other government surveys. His 2006 report ‘Supplementary analysis of the cost of blindness in New Zealand’ remains a valuable resource.

Internationally, he has provided mentoring to blind students pursuing statistics and other STEM subjects. He was a Board member of the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind from 2006 to 2011. Within the wider community, Dr Godfrey has held roles with Palmerston North City Council committees, been a member of Mid-Central DHB’s Disability Support Advisory Committee from 2008 to 2017 and has been a Trustee for Palmerston North’s Central Region Advocacy Service.

Dr Godfrey says supporting blind students and their teachers all over the world has become his principal research interest.

“Like me, every other blind person wanting to study a STEM discipline in the late 20th century had to work it all out for themselves, and we made plenty of mistakes or wasted time trying things that others knew would fail. Today, I get to stop people making the same mistakes I made by publishing, educating, and being an active part of several international communities of blind students and professionals. I suspect that very few of those people will ever learn that I’ve received an honour for that service.

I don’t think many of my colleagues really know what community work I’ve been doing outside Massey. The disabled people I work with and for in New Zealand who are aware of this honour aren’t aware of the international work I do either. The receipt of the honour has started quite a few conversations as people I’ve known for years start to see things they didn’t know about me. I guess I never had to volunteer to take on all the things I choose to do, but I was brought up to help people when I could. My parents were educators and I’ve been a student and a teacher as long as I can remember. I’ve never liked having to ask for help; I think that makes me want to choose to help other people when I can.”

Dr Geoff Lorigan

Diploma in Dairy Technology alumnus (1978) Dr Geoff Lorigan has been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to business and leadership development. 

In 1979, Dr Lorigan began his CEO career by transforming Canterbury Dairy Farmers, a commodity milk company, into South Island Dairy Farmers, a nationwide provider of consumer foods and beverages. In the United Kingdom, he led Associated New Zealand Farmers Ltd. to become the largest and most profitable New Zealand importer group, increasing its market share of the New Zealand Lamb market from 13 percent to 55 percent. He chaired the New Zealand Lamb Promotional Council, enhancing the reputation of New Zealand’s primary exports in the UK in the 1980s.

He returned to New Zealand to begin a career enabling other leaders to succeed across the public, private, and not for profit sectors. He was Professor of Strategy and directed the MBA and Executive Programmes at University of Otago from 1996. In 2001, he was appointed Professor of Strategy, Director of MBA and Executive Programmes, and Associate Dean for the development of the Business School at the University of Auckland.

He subsequently founded the Institute for Strategic Leadership in 2001. The Strategic Leadership Programme now numbers many international company leaders amongst its 2,200 alumni. In 2008 Dr Lorigan developed Smart Leader Diagnostics, which provides evidenced-based team leadership tools for monitoring organisational performance.

Dr Lorigan says the award came totally unexpected and has given him an opportunity to reflect on his four careers: dairy industry, meat industry, academia / university, and strategic leader development.

“What has surfaced and been top-of-mind are all the amazing and impressive people who I co-created with along the way — colleagues, bosses, customers, suppliers, and the academics who taught and mentored me. I realise that I am a composite of all that I learnt from them, and all those experiences.

The award also validates my career and my standing in society. It will enhance my credibility and enable me to open doors and provide pathways for young people who have the potential to be the next generation of leaders. I am currently mentoring some young Afghani refugee migrants who are at university and helping them build their confidence, standing in the community, and get their careers off to a good start. The CNZM award will help in this regard.” 

The Diploma in Dairy Technology was a very humble starting point for Dr Lorigan’s career. But it has been re-introduced recently, by request of the Dairy Industry, as a modern, digitally delivered Massey University qualification with practical experience gained both on the job and in block mode on our Manawatū campus. This year will see the graduation of the first of the new cohorts.

Other Massey alumni named in the 2022 New Year Honours were:

• Professor Emeritus Stuart Middleton – CNZM for services to education (PhD (Education in 2003, Diploma in Second Language Teaching in 1979, Diploma in Education in 1973)
• Professor Paul Moon – ONZM for services to education and historical research (PhD (Arts in 2002, Master of Philosophy in Development Studies in 1998)
• Dr Rodger Fox – CNZM for services to music (Honorary Doctorate - Doctor of Music in 2005)
• Dr Angela Jury – ONZM for services to victims of family and sexual violence (PhD (Arts in 2009, Bachelor of Arts in 2002 and 1999)
• Dr Kathie Irwin – MNZM for services to Māori education (Master of Education in 1988, Bachelor of Education in 1979)
• Detective Superintendent Peter Read – ONZM for services to the New Zealand Police and the community (Graduate Diploma Business Studies in 2001)
• Superintendent Andy McGregor – ONZM for services to the New Zealand Police and the community (Bachelor of Business Studies in 2005)
• Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Blythen – DSD for services to the NZ Defence Force (Bachelor of Defence Studies in 2011)
• Christopher Farrelly – KNZM for services to health and the community (Graduate Diploma in Business Studies in 2016
• John MacKintosh – ONZM for services to the legal profession (Graduate Diploma Business Studies in 1997)
• Phillip Ker – ONZM for services to tertiary education (Master of Education Administration in 1996)
• Victor Walker – ONZM for services to the Māori community (Master of Arts in 1997, Bachelor of Arts in 1988)
• Shane Pakura – MZNM for services to social work (Master of Social Work in 2008, Master of Business Administration in 2002)
• Patrick  Newman – MNZM for services to education (Bachelor of Education in 1990)
• Jessie Chan – MNZM for services to dairy and agriculture (Bachelor of Applied Science in 2000 and 2002)
• Nigel Borell – MNZM for services to Māori art (Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts in 2001)
• Marilyn Moffatt – MNZM for services to surf lifesaving (Bachelor of Business Studies in 1980)
• George Reedy – MNZM for services to people with disabilities and the community (Master of Business Administration in 2001, Bachelor of Business Studies in 1991)
• William Fleury – MNZM for services to conservation (Bachelor of Science in 1975)
• Allan Stowers – MNZM for services to the Samoan community (Bachelor of Social Work in 1998)
• Michele Whiting – MZNM for services to education (Master of Education Administration in 2009)
• Kelly Feng – MNZM for services to health and Asian communities (Postgraduate Certificate in Arts in 2010)
• Gloria McHutchon – QSM for services to the community (Certificate in Teaching English as an Additional Language in 2007)
• Peter Caccia-Birch – QSM for services to the community (Diploma in Agriculture in 1962)
• Glorious Oxenham – QSM for services to the Melanesian community (Graduate Diploma of Teaching in Early Childhood Education in 2013)
• John Williamson – QSM for services to the community (Master of Business Studies in 1997, Postgraduate Diploma in Business and Administration in 1996, Bachelor of Business Studies in 1993, Bachelor of Agricultural Science in 1971)
• Jennie Oakley – QSM for services to the community and the arts (Bachelor of Arts in 2007)

Peter Fennessy was also a New Years’ Honours awardee. He was on the Board of Massey’s ‘Food Industry Enabling Technologies’ six-year MBIE programme that spanned all the key research deliverers in the NZ food industry. Massey greatly appreciates his advice and perspective from the food industry in shaping that multi-million-dollar partnership.

KNZM: Knights and Dames of the New Zealand Order of Merit

DNZM: Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

CNZM: Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit

ONZM: Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit

MNZM: Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit

QSM: Queens’ Service Medal

DSD: New Zealand Distinguished Service Decoration

Find the full list here.