Members of the business community have been the big winners in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, while those in politics have largely missed out.

Four of the six new knights have had distinguished careers in business and have put much back into the community through acts of philanthropy or other achievement.

They are:

"Of course, you need to make profit in a business," says newly-knighted Sir David Levene but most important for him during his long business career has been "security for my people and my family."

Now aged 80, he was today made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (KNZM) in the Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to business and the community.

Sir David first worked in the family paint business in 1947, spent a few years elsewhere, then returned to take over management of the firm in 1952 when he was 23 years-old.