Queen's Birthday Honours 2017: Companions from business, politics and more

New Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM), the next tier down from knights and dames, include prominent figures from politics, business, arts, sports and culture, science and education.

Jim Anderton retired from Parliament in 2011 after a career that included presidency of the Labour Party (1979-84), 27 years as an MP (elected 1984) and leader of three other parties, NewLabour (1989-93), Alliance (1993 -94 and 1995-2002) and Progressive (2002-11). Cabinet portfolios included economic development, agriculture, fisheries and forestry Since the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes he has been a leader of the campaign to restore Christ Church Cathedral.

Candis Craven chaired the Royal New Zealand Ballet from 2011-16, a period of significant national and international activity and change. This included tours of China, the US, Canada, the UK and Italy. The ballet company has raised non-government sponsorship and philanthropic revenue and in 2015 named the NZ School of Dance as its official school. She has been involved with the NZ Family Planning Association for 30 years, as well as being a member of the board of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She chairs the Cognition Education Trust and is a director of Auckland Regional Amenities Funding Board. (NBR member-subscribers may note Ms Craven is the partner of arts writer John Daly-Peoples.) Previous honour: Officer, NZ Order of Merit (2001).

Lindsay Fergusson’s business career includes managing director positions at several major corporations – Mobil Oil NZ, NZ Steel and Magnum Corporation – and directorships of the Reserve Bank, NZ Forestry Corporation, Auckland Chamber of Commerce and North Health. He was chairman of the Auckland Institute of Technology Foundation and involved in AUT gaining university status. In recent years he has been a director of Terrabyte Interactive, iiNet Australia and chairman of Ecodiesel. The frequent NBR commentor was also a founder, former chairman and chief executive of Virtual Spectator Group, chairman of the New Zealand Expo 1992 and founding chairman of the America's Cup Village, the venue for America's Cup 2000. He has also been chief executive of the Auckland Trotting Club and director of Tauranga Civic Holdings.

Tony Hall has contributed to sport and tertiary education in the Canterbury region and nationally. As pro-chancellor and then chancellor of Lincoln University, he provided leadership through the post-earthquakes period and the establishment of the Lincoln Research and Education Hub. He has been a Tertiary Education Commissioner and was the founding director of Community Colleges New Zealand. He is a board member of the New Zealand Olympic Committee and through the Gilly & Tony Hall Foundation helps fund sporting and other charitable initiatives. Previous honour: Member, NZ Order of Merit (2007).

Lyn Provost was Controller and Auditor-General from 2009 until her retirement in 2017. During this time the Office of the Auditor-General received the highest score for Transparency International New Zealand’s 2013 National Integrity Systems Assessment. She contributed to the development of international public sector accounting standards and implemented them in New Zealand. From 2001-09, she was the first female and civilian deputy commissioner of New Zealand Police.

Lesley Rhodes has been a senior scientist with the Cawthron Institute in Nelson since 1994. She led the Safe NZ seafood for global consumers research programme from 2003-16, and established Cawthron’s internationally significant culture collection of microalgae. Dr Rhodes has pioneered the use of molecular techniques for environmental biomonitoring, which help distinguish toxic and non-toxic species. She has published more than 100 papers and has been on the editorial boards of three scientific journals.