A change in Government has seen a clear shift in focus for the 2024 King’s Birthday Honours list , with the top recognitions dominated by figures from the business world. The corporate and entrepreneurial sector has been largely absent on this list over recent years and it appears Prime Minister Christoper Luxon , a former chief executive, and his team have sought to balance this. Three of the four new Knight and Dame Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit are Kiwi business pioneers – perhaps the most recognisable being Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck .
The Fisher & Paykel Appliances apprentice turned self-taught rocket scientist has since 2006 been chief executive of the aerospace company pivotal in growing New Zealand’s $1.69 billion space industry. Employing 1800 staff, Beck’s Rocket Lab is second only to Elon Musk’s Space X as the most prolific commercial launch provider globally.
It has worked with Nasa on multiple missions and launched the first rocket in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space in 2009. “It’s a huge, humbling honour to get,” Beck told the Herald from Rocket Lab’s facility at Long Beach, California. “I certainly hope that engineers and entrepreneurs in New Zealand also take this as a win.
Hopefully it’s inspirational.” Beck reflects on a “lost generation” of school leavers because of the decline of trades-training programmes, and stresses that “you don’t have to be a rocket scientist” to gain a Rocket Lab apprenticesh.