Ruth Aitken, of Paeroa, ON
For services to netball. Mrs Aitken has coached the New Zealand national netball team, the Silver Ferns since 2002. In 2003, under her leadership, the Silver Ferns won the Netball World Championships and gained gold medals in the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games. She was named the Coach of the Year in the 2003 Halberg Awards and was finalist for this award again in 2005 and 2006. New Zealand hosted the Netball World Championships in 2007, in which the Silver Ferns placed second. Mrs Aitken, prior to her coaching role, was an international-level netball player and represented New Zealand in the 1979 World Netball Championships in Trinidad and Tobago.