Mr Simon Manning, QSO, of Paraparaumu, for services to funeral services and disaster victim identification
Simon Manning established Harbour City Funerals in Wellington.
Following the 1979 Erebus tragedy, he was asked by the Funeral Directors Association of New Zealand (FDANZ) and New Zealand Embalmers Association (NZEA) to develop a more structured disaster response for future events with fatalities.
He has led New Zealand’s Funeral Disaster Response Team since 1988 and is part of the National Disaster Victim Identification team.
With international disaster response organisation Blake Emergency Services, he assisted with the Kenya Airways crash in Cameroon and the downed Malaysia Airlines MH17 in Eastern Ukraine.
Nationally, he coordinated the Funeral Disaster Response Team following the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, 15 March 2019 terrorist attack, and 2019 Whakaari/White Island eruption.
Mr Manning has been involved with the COVID-19 response team for FDANZ and NZEA.