Helen Danesh-Meyer leads New Year Honours, becoming a dame

Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer (Staff)
 For services to ophthalmology

Leading the list is Professor Helen Danesh-Meyer, the first female professor of ophthalmology in New Zealand, who has been appointed Dame Companion of the Order of New Zealand for services to ophthalmology. 

Danesh-Meyer (Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences) is an internationally recognised leader in the clinical science of interactions between the brain and the eye. She was previously appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2023.

Since 2023, Danesh-Meyer has made further contributions on the international stage as President of the Neuro-ophthalmology Society of Australia, the first New Zealander to hold this post. She received the College Medal in 2023, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists’ highest award for outstanding service.

She was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2024, New Zealand’s highest honour for scholarly achievement. She was elected as a member of the Academia Ophthalmologica Internationalis in 2024, a select group of 100 internationally recognised scientists, based on her research contributions. She was ranked among the top ten glaucoma leaders globally in 2025.

She leads major charitable and community efforts, including Glaucoma New Zealand, a 15,000-member charity she co-founded that influences public policy on vision through education and advocacy. Danesh-Meyer founded and leads the Vision Research Foundation to support early- and mid-career New Zealanders in vision research, and leads Women in Vision, a national forum that empowers female ophthalmologists, optometrists and students.

Dame Helen says she is humbled and honoured “to be recognised for work that reflects the teamwork of many exceptional colleagues”.

Coral May Shaw (Arts/Law alumna)
For services to public service, the judiciary and the community

Coral Shaw chaired the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions from 2019 to 2024.

Over her career, Shaw has led a range of significant public sector reviews, including reviews of the Human Rights Commission and Fire and Emergency New Zealand. While chairing the Royal Commission, she demonstrated her advanced skills in marshalling the extensive evidence and findings into five substantive reports, showed empathy in personally engaging with survivors, and ensured that thousands of abuse survivors were heard and that faith-based institutions and the State could be held accountable.

Earlier in her career, she served as a District Court Judge in West Auckland from 1992 to 1999, where she introduced a fast-track system for family violence cases and established the WAVES Trust, which coordinates services for both victims and offenders, and pioneered a range of court-wide judicial education programmes. She integrated a pioneering kaupapa Māori-based restorative justice programme into the Court’s sentencing processes, informing a model for other courts nationally. She was the first woman appointed as a judge of the Employment Court, serving from 1999 to 2009, and subsequently served as a Judge of the United Nations Dispute Tribunal from 2009 to 2016.

Shaw’s involvement with voluntary initiatives includes prisoner rehabilitation, services to seniors, marae-based and local community services, and the Citizens Advice Bureau.

Professor Charl Johannes De Villiers (staff)
For services to accountancy

Professor Charl de Villiers has made a significant impact as a global leader in sustainability accounting and integrated reporting.

De Villiers, a professor of Accounting and Finance in the Business School, has led an influential career, with a Stanford University study ranking him in the top 50 of all accounting academics globally and also placing him in the top two percent of scientists worldwide.

His work has been instrumental in corporate accountability and the development of sustainability reporting standards, guiding organisations and governments to adopt more rigorous reporting practices. He has been transformative in his role as Editor of Meditari Accountancy Research (Meditari), elevating the journal from relative obscurity to one of the top-ranked publications in the field. He initiated the Meditari Conference, which has been hosted annually since 2014. He has fostered the next generation of researchers in his academic roles, including professorships at the University of Auckland and the University of Pretoria, as well as an honorary professorship at the University of Cape Town.

He was President of the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ) from 2018 to 2020. He has been granted several fellowships, including with AFAANZ, and has been inducted into two prestigious academic Halls of Fame. In 2024, Professor de Villiers won the Sustained Research Excellence Award from the University of Auckland Business School.

Dr Bruce William Hayward MNZM (Alumnus, former staff)
For services to geology, particularly micropaleontology

Dr Bruce Hayward is an internationally recognised micropalaeontologist with more than 40 years of research contributions.

Hayward is a respected specialist on Formaminifera, one of the most abundant, pervasive and widely used microfossil groups preserved in marine sediments. He has been Principal Scientist of the independent Geomarine Research team since 2003. He has written and presented extensively and has used this knowledge to contribute to better understanding of problems and processes of global importance including climate and sea level change, ocean development, biotic extinctions and evolution, seismic history, environmental degradation, and volcanic hazards.

Since 2006, he has authored 24 books on New Zealand geology and history, and nine notable monographs for the international geological community. He has been the taxonomic editor for the Foraminifera, Cephalopoda and Polythalamea on the World Register of Marine Species since 2010. In his studies, he has named 129 new species, 26 new genera and one new family, mainly in Foraminifera, but also in Polychaeta and Molluscs.

He has been President of the Geological Society of New Zealand, member of the New Zealand Conservation Authority, a James Cook Research Fellow, and founder and convenor of the New Zealand Geopreservation Inventory. Hayward engages people with their local geology, regularly hosting field trips nationally and advocating for protection of New Zealand’s unique geoheritage.
He was previously made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, Queen’s Birthday 2006.

Gregor John Barclay (Alumnus, LLB from Canterbury, Diploma in Business UoA)
For services to sports governance

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Gaven John Martin (Alumnus, former staff)
For services to mathematics and education

Distinguished Professor Gaven Martin did his MSc at the University of Auckland his doctorate overseas.
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Deborah Ann Espiner (Alumna, former staff)
For services to people with disabilities and education

Deborah Espiner has contributed to education and advocacy for people with disabilities and those that support them since the 1980s, both nationally and internationally.

Espiner has lectured at the University in the areas of special education and disability studies. She has expertise in course design, delivery and assessment, supporting the training in current theory and practice of disability studies by sector professionals. Notably, she led the development of the first degree in New Zealand focused specifically on disability, the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Human Services), delivered from 1995 until 2010.

She has delivered a range of courses and projects in New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and Ireland to support people with disabilities. She has chaired Citizen Advocacy Auckland since 2012 and Circle of Courage: Training and Development Trust since 2010. She has been a Board member of Arahura Charitable Trust since 2016.

She chaired the New Zealand Committee of the Australasian Society for Intellectual Disability (ASID) from 2017 to 2023 and was a member of the Inclusive Education Think Tank from 2012 to 2018. Espiner is recognised nationally and internationally for her influence in ensuring that educational and service provision are aligned with seminal and current theory that promotes inclusive lives for people with disabilities and mental health concerns.

Professor Roderick MacLeod (honorary staff)
For services to palliative care

Professor MacLeod has dedicated over 35 years to hospice and palliative care.

MacLeod was senior staff specialist in palliative care at HammondCare in Sydney and Conjoint Professor in Palliative Care at the University of Sydney from 2012 to 2017.

He returned to New Zealand in 2017 and retired from clinical practice in 2019. He holds an honorary position with the University of Auckland’s School of Population Health and continues to contribute to academia.

Since 2015 he has been a reviewer for several research councils internationally and presented keynote addresses overseas. He was Co-Editor in Chief of the major reference work The Textbook of Palliative Care (2019 and 2024). He was clinical advisor to the Hospice New Zealand Board from 2020 to 2022. He chaired the Hospice NZ National Innovations Evaluation Group from 2015 to 2017 and served on their conference organising committee until 2022.

He contributed to the University of Auckland’s Enhancing New Zealand Clinical Trials Project Delphi study in 2021. He was clinical director on the Board of the PINC and Steel Cancer Rehabilitation Trust from 2015 and Chair from 2020 to 2022. He chaired the Clinical Committee of The Violet Initiative until 2024. MacLeod co-authored the international award-winning cookbook for seniors Lobster for Josino: Fabulous Food for Our Final Days (2018).

Professor MacLeod was made an MNZM in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Stewart Lloyd German (Alumnus, Faculty of Law)
For services to franchise law

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Lynley (Lyn) Elizabeth Lloyd (Honorary staff)
For services to renal nutrition

Lyn Lloyd is an honorary academic in Nutrition in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences.

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Professor Andrew Peter Stockley (Former staff)
For services to schools debating

Professor Andrew Stockley was Dean of Law from 2011 to 2018 before becoming Dean at the City Law School at the University of London.

Stockley is an academic leader and legal scholar who has made significant contributions to secondary schools' debating in New Zealand and internationally.

He founded the New Zealand Schools Debating Championships in 1988 as a university student. The Championships built upon existing school debating contests by creating regional tournaments and national finals and selecting a New Zealand Team.

He was the first Chair and President of the New Zealand Schools Debating Council (NZSDC), and led the Council for eight years. He established the NZSDC as the most successful debating and public speaking organisation in the country, with tens of thousands of school pupils taking part in the Council’s competitions.

He authored The New Zealand Schools Debating Handbook, used by many English teachers to help develop school pupils’ public speaking. He coached the New Zealand Team for ten years, including coaching the team that won the 1995 World Schools Debating Championships in Wales. He later chaired the World Schools Debating Council and was chief adjudicator of the World Schools Debating Championships.

Stockley chaired the New Zealand Schools Debating Foundation from 2014 to 2018, leading fundraising to support and develop school debating and public speaking.