{"id":507349,"date":"2026-07-03T04:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507349\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T04:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T04:51:08","slug":"hi-tech-hall-of-fame-board-to-set-new-guidelines-for-flying-kiwi-award-amid-rod-drury-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/507349\/","title":{"rendered":"Hi-Tech Hall of Fame board to set new guidelines for \u2018Flying Kiwi\u2019 award amid Rod Drury allegations"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Hi-Tech board of trustees comprises Marian Johnson (chairwoman), Owen Gibson, Mike O\u2019Donnell, Sarah Ramsay, Brooke Roberts, Amber Taylor, Frances Valintine, Sam Yu and Sam West.<\/p>\n

So how did their June board meeting go?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all recognised the seriousness of what has been raised and the courage of those who have spoken publicly but also wanted to avoid acting out of public pressure or opinion,\u201d Johnson told the Herald.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe result of the discussion is that the board of trustees have agreed to establish a clear framework and guidelines governing Hi-Tech Award recognition. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is criteria that have never existed before because \u2013 quite frankly \u2013 we\u2019ve never had to consider this kind of situation previously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Work on the new guidelines will take place over the next few weeks, Johnson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it is in place, we will assess the current situation against it via a brief board call,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Resisting \u2018public pressure of the moment\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSome may ask why we are building this now rather than acting immediately,\u201d Johnson added.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur collective opinion is that our obligation is to every past and future recipient, not to a single case. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis means that any decision we make has to rest on consistent standards that reflect the values of our members no matter the public pressure in the moment. We believe that is the fairest and most durable way to act.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are treating this with the seriousness it deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Series of allegations<\/p>\n

Since April 14, four women have accused Drury of unwanted sexualised behaviour \u2013 ex-employee Ally Naylor<\/a>, a former employee referred to as Amy<\/a>, Drury\u2019s former private chef, Megan Ruddle<\/a>, and entrepreneur Jenene Crossan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Xero, which first investigated Naylor\u2019s claims in 2017 and 2018, opened a new independent investigation on April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n

The company has appointed Maria Dew, KC, to assist with its new review.<\/p>\n

Drury has denied the allegations by Naylor and Ruddle and, via a representative, declined to comment on Amy\u2019s complaint.<\/p>\n

Some political parties have also distanced themselves from the entrepreneur, with the Opportunity Party returning a $20,000 donation<\/a>, the Greens saying they would keep a small donation but not accept future donations, and National, which received a $100,000 donation from Drury, saying it would consider the matter further once Xero\u2019s investigation was complete. <\/p>\n

Beyond being named to its Hall of Fame in 2009, Drury was named Hi-Tech Entrepreneur of the Year in 2006 and 2007.<\/p>\n

He is described on the Hi-Tech Trust\u2019s website as a \u201ctechnology rockstar\u201d and a serial web entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

Drury co-founded Xero in July 2006, listing it on the NZX a year later, before decamping to the ASX.<\/p>\n

He was also a director of Trade Me before it was sold in 2007 for $750m.<\/p>\n

The Hi-Tech Trust website also describes Drury as \u201cunfailingly optimistic\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRod is recognised as a thoroughly good bloke with an uncanny knack for spotting opportunity when others can only see a glass half-full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chris Keall is an Auckland-based member of the Herald\u2019s business team. He joined the Herald in 2018 and is the technology editor and a senior business writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Hi-Tech board of trustees comprises Marian Johnson (chairwoman), Owen Gibson, Mike O\u2019Donnell, Sarah Ramsay, Brooke Roberts, Amber…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26676,534,23607,2346,4057,2372,14229,114704,198416,39275,17628,2082,68612,23801,57236,1199,252932,194,807,117,111,139,69,1118,8998,89970,1551,213,61,9438,14036,102],"class_list":["post-507349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-allegations","tag-amid","tag-approach","tag-award","tag-behind","tag-board","tag-changing","tag-drury","tag-drurys","tag-fame","tag-flying","tag-for","tag-grapples","tag-guidelines","tag-hall","tag-hitech","tag-induction","tag-kiwi","tag-kiwis","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-position","tag-rod","tag-set","tag-sports","tag-to","tag-trust","tag-whole","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}