Alumni recognised at Kiwibank's New Zealander of the Year Awards

Held on 19 March, the annual awards celebrated New Zealanders making an outstanding impact in their communities and fields. Among them were several University of Auckland alumni, reflecting a wide span of influence across humanitarian service, public history and agritech innovation.

Recipients of the Ryman Healthcare Senior New Zealander of the Year, Dr Alan Kerr and alumna Hazel Kerr have turned retirement into a remarkable chapter of service. Across 40 volunteer missions to Gaza and the West Bank between 2001 and 2019, often travelling with teams from Auckland’s Starship Hospital, they helped save the lives of nearly 800 Palestinian children while also supporting the development of long-term local cardiac care.

A former head of cardiothoracic surgery at Green Lane Hospital, Alan played a pioneering role in heart surgery in New Zealand before retiring in 2002. In Palestine, he was instrumental in establishing an independent cardiac unit and training the first Palestinian paediatric cardiac surgeon, earning recognition as the father of paediatric cardiac surgery in Palestine.

Hazel, who did a BA in history at Waipapa Taumata Rau, brought a different but equally important kind of care. With a background in creative dance and drama teaching, she built relationships through education, compassion and human connection, supporting children and whānau in deeply challenging circumstances.

Now aged 86 and 90 respectively, Hazel and Alan continue to advocate for Palestinian children, including through The Doctor’s Wife documentary, which is screening in community venues around Aotearoa.

Also shortlisted in the Ryman Healthcare Senior New Zealander of the Year category was distinguished alumna Dame Claudia Orange, one of Aotearoa’s most influential historians.

Dame Claudia’s landmark 1987 book The Treaty of Waitangi reshaped public understanding of te Tiriti o Waitangi and became a foundational text for generations of readers, researchers and students. Originally developed from her thesis, the work helped guide non-Māori readers through a complex national history while also becoming widely used by Māori scholars and learners.

Her contribution to New Zealand’s historical life has continued well beyond the page.

At 87, Dame Claudia remains an active public intellectual, contributing research, lectures and advice to major heritage projects including He Tohu and Te Kōngahu Museum of Waitangi. Her presence at key national moments, including Waitangi Day and the 2025 return of Ōrākau to Tainui, reflects an enduring commitment to helping the country better understand its past.

Craig Piggott’s Innovator of the Year win recognises a homegrown agritech company making waves internationally.

Founder and chief executive of Halter, Piggott is a University of Auckland engineering alumnus whose innovation is grounded in rural New Zealand.

Raised on a Waikato dairy farm, he developed an early interest in automation before studying mechanical engineering at Waipapa Taumata Rau, where he graduated with First Class Honours.

He also took part in the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Velocity Challenge in 2016.

A formative stint at Rocket Lab in his final year helped shape his thinking about building new industries in Aotearoa. In 2017, he launched Halter with a small team and a vision to transform farming through technology.

Today, Halter’s virtual fencing and farm operating system uses solar-powered smart collars and an app to help farmers remotely guide and monitor livestock while managing pasture with greater precision. The technology is helping reduce emissions, improve animal welfare and ease the physically demanding, time-critical routines of farm work.

Over the past year, Piggott has led Halter through a major period of growth across New Zealand, Australia and the United States, positioning the company as one of the country’s most prominent agritech success stories.

In 2025 he was named a University of Auckland Young Alumnus of the Year in its Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Also recognised was University of Auckland Distinguished Professor Sir Richard Faull, who was a finalist for the 2026 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year Award in acknowledgement of his far-reaching impact on brain research in Aotearoa and internationally.

Founding director of the University’s Centre for Brain Research, Sir Richard is a globally respected neuroscientist who has helped transform understanding of the human brain and was awarded the Rutherford Medal in 2007 before being knighted for services to brain research in 2017.

Sir Richard has helped position Aotearoa as a leader in brain research, with discoveries that have advanced global understanding, while offering hope to whānau and communities affected by brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and other forms of dementia.