Alison Paterson, Auckland, CNZM
For services to business. Mrs Paterson is Chair of Abano Healthcare, Stevenson Agriculture, the Emergency Ambulance Communications Centre, the Best Practice Advisory Centre, and the National Research Centre for Growth and Development at the University of Auckland. She is a Director of Vector, Metrowater, Nga Pae o Te Maramatanga which is also based at the University of Auckland, and is a Massey University Councillor. She was previously Chairperson of Landcorp Farming, Waitemata Health and Deputy Chair and Director of the Reserve Bank and Health Waikato. She has been a Barnados councillor and a member of the market surveillance panel of the New Zealand Stock Exchange. She was the first woman to be on a producer board when she joined the Apple and Pear Marketing Board in 1976, and the first woman to be appointed to the board of a publicly listed company. In 2009 Mrs Paterson was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Massey University for her outstanding contribution to New Zealand business.