Top business graduates inducted into international honour society
Some of our highest-achieving graduates were inducted into the international honour society Beta Gamma Sigma at a special event at the Business School during graduation week.
Our top business graduates and doctoral graduands who accepted membership to Beta Gamma Sigma this year were inducted into the international honour society at a special event held at the Business School on 13 May.
Beta Gamma Sigma is the international honour society recognising the top students at business schools worldwide and is attached to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).
We were delighted to have 40 under 40 alumnus Matty Blomfield, CEO and co-founder of agritech start-up Hectre, as our keynote speaker for the evening.
Hectre is a technology company focused on fruit quality - AI for the fresh produce sector - helping to reduce the amount of fruit wasted in over 20 countries around the world.
Matty shared with us his journey thus far, the story of Hectre and key learnings and advice for our new graduates.
Beta Gamma Sigma Honoree
Another highlight of the evening was announcing our 2025 Beta Gamma Sigma Collegiate Chapter Honoree, top technology innovator and business entrepreneur, Distinguished Alumnus Mitchell Pham ONZM.
Mitchell is an industry leader in our digital economy as well as an influential relationship builder between New Zealand and Asia and an outstanding community leader in the APAC region.
Escaping post-war Vietnam at only 12 years old, he arrived in New Zealand in 1985 as a refugee, and graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1994.
He has chaired NZTech, FinTechNZ, NZ ASEAN Business Alliance, and currently co-chairs the global board of Kea, an organisation connecting over a million Kiwis worldwide.
In the public sector, he has advised government on the Digital Strategy for Aotearoa, the Central Bank Digital Currency and the NZ Climate Technology Roadmap and serves as a Trustee of the Asia NZ Foundation.
In his role as one of the Business School’s Entrepreneurs-in-Residence, he connects the School with industry, advising the New Zealand Asia Institute and our Centre of Digital Enterprise.
He was recognised as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2011 and as a World Class New Zealander by Kea in 2018.
In 2023, he was appointed as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) in recognition of his services to the technology sector and New Zealand-Asia relations.
And in 2024 he was one of the University of Auckland’s Distinguished Alumni award winners.
We were delighted to be able to celebrate and recognise Mitchell’s significant contributions to the Business School, the University and the business community as a whole.
As Mitchell was in Vietnam at the time of the event, he couldn’t be there in person but recorded a short video message to play at the event.