Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit

We would like to congratulate John Fiso and Justine Kidd on their appointment to The New Zealand Order of Merit. The Order is awarded to those “who in any field of endeavour, have rendered meritorious service to the Crown and the nation or who have become distinguished by their eminence, talents, contributions, or other merits”.

Both John and Justine are graduates of the Owner Manager Programme at The Icehouse.

To be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

John Fiso

For services to sport, education and the Pacific community.

Mr John Fiso founded the New Zealand Institute of Sport, was the CEO from 1996 to 2016 and through the acquisition of the New Zealand College of Massage based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, the Institute has become one of the largest NZQA Category One private tertiary providers.

Mr Fiso has been instrumental in the development of a number of community events such as the Pacific Health and Talent Festival in Christchurch and the PACWELL secondary school cultural festival in Wellington. He has served on the Board of Ako Aotearoa, was Chair of Independent Tertiary Education New Zealand and Pacific Islands Tertiary Education Providers of New Zealand, and has been the sector representative on a number of education bodies. He developed international collaborations with Victoria University Melbourne, Surabaya University Indonesia, Xian University China, and set up an English language school in Italy. As a former athlete and national representative Mr Fiso coached and managed the Samoan Student Rugby League teams at two world cups, was Head of Delegation for New Zealand Volleyball teams, served on the Board of Volleyball New Zealand and was a delegate to the World Congress.

To be an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit:

Justine Kidd

For services to the dairy industry and equestrian sport.

Ms Justine Kidd has contributed widely throughout the New Zealand dairy industry for more than 20 years.

Ms Kidd has traversed farm business consulting, farm ownership and property development, dairy production research, corporate farming leadership and governance. As CEO of BEL Group Dairy Farming, milking 9,500 cows and employing 65 people, she led through the upheaval of an owner’s death to establish it as a successful family-owned corporately structured farm business. Alongside establishing Kitahi, a Hawke’s Bay-based farmers collective, she is a shareholder in her own dairy farming business, seeking opportunities for primary producers to grow product value and market access and providing strategic consulting into business projects such as the Organic Dairy Hub and the Dakang New Zealand farm business. She worked with Bank of New Zealand to develop their Farm First Growth Programme and Dairy New Zealand in creating a farm governance programme. She has been chef’dEquipe for the New Zealand Dressage Young Rider Programme and Equestrian Sports New Zealand High Performance Manager for the 2004 Olympic Games, and was appointed Chief Executive of Equestrian Sports New Zealand from 2004 to 2007. Ms Kidd has also held governance roles with Eventing New Zealand, Equestrian Sports New Zealand and Horse of the Year HB Ltd.