{"id":586771,"date":"2026-09-01T10:02:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586771\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:02:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:02:11","slug":"rocket-lab-founder-sir-peter-beck-wins-businessdesk-ceo-of-the-year-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/586771\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocket Lab founder Sir Peter Beck wins BusinessDesk CEO of the Year award"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThese awards are a chance to celebrate the standout leaders across New Zealand business and the public service, and to give the next generation something to aim for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">The CEO Index process began with a longlist of 110 leaders, compiled by BusinessDesk\u2019s editorial team and assessed against five criteria: vision, impact, innovation, resilience and influence.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Sir Peter Beck's Rocket Lab minted around 100 millionaires when it went public.\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Sir Peter Beck&#8217;s Rocket Lab minted around 100 millionaires when it went public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">An independent panel \u2013 company directors Therese Walsh and Fraser Whineray, Barrenjoey\u2019s Silvana Schenone and start-up investor Suse Reynolds \u2013 reviewed the internal judging before finalists and winners were confirmed. <\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s winners: <\/p>\n<p>Start-up:\u00a0Levi Fawcett, Partly;Listed companies: Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab;\u00a0Private company:\u00a0Craig Piggott, Halter;\u00a0Public sector:\u00a0Peter Chrisp, in his former role as CEO of New Zealand Trade &amp; Enterprise;\u00a0Professional services:\u00a0Amelia Linzey, Beca;\u00a0Judges\u2019 Choice:\u00a0Rukumoana Schaafhausen; and\u00a0CEO of the Year: Sir Peter Beck, Rocket Lab.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">To summarise the ambition of some of these leaders, Levi Fawcett, of Partly, puts it well when asked how he influences his team to excel. <\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI set extremely high expectations and really push everyone quite intensely to achieve goals they don\u2019t believe they can achieve.<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cBut when they achieve them, I make it very clear to the whole company, especially to the staff member, that they have done a heroic thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">The CEO Index award winners agreed that infrastructure and energy were key issues for the country to address, and as pioneering leaders were happy to offer concrete ideas.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\" Amelia Linzey Group CEO Beca 2026\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/> Amelia Linzey Group CEO Beca 2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">Amelia Linzey, Beca Group CEO, said: \u201cThe areas of greatest urgency are developing New Zealand\u2019s abundant water and renewable energy resources in the mission to decarbonise and to electrify our transport, industrial and agricultural systems.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThis is a decade-long endeavour, and it\u2019s imperative that we get going at scale and with speed rather than taking incremental steps. <\/p>\n<p class=\"PLRONTue\" style=\"display:none\">BusinessDesk thanks agency partner Special and event sponsor Range Rover for their support of the 2026 Index. <\/p>\n<p>Stay ahead with the latest market moves, corporate updates, and economic insights by subscribing to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/my-account\/profile\/newsletters\/?from=cmp\">Business newsletter<\/a> \u2013 your essential weekly round-up of all the business news you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThese awards are a chance to celebrate the standout leaders across New Zealand business and the public service,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2246,3952,2346,10779,3872,138,58722,3500,19555,311,6735,288944,13986,7189,10136,111,139,69,1118,8143,5413,15225,29544,13650,6417,8485,223,1961,6202,379],"class_list":["post-586771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-2246","tag-aucklands","tag-award","tag-awards","tag-beck","tag-business","tag-businessdesk","tag-ceo","tag-evening","tag-founder","tag-hotel","tag-hyatt","tag-index","tag-lab","tag-named","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-park","tag-peter","tag-presented","tag-range","tag-rocket","tag-rover","tag-sir","tag-the","tag-this","tag-wins","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586771","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=586771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}