Sunny Sandeep celebrates winning the Kevin Hickman Award with his wife Asha and their two children Aibel (back) and Gianna (front).
Sunny Sandeep celebrates winning the Kevin Hickman Award with his wife Asha and their two children Aibel (back) and Gianna (front).
The “deep care and integrity” of a staff member at a Gisborne retirement village has set him apart from more than 200 of his peers nominated for a transtasman award
Sunny Sandeep, the clinical manager of Ryman Healthcare’s Kiri Te Kanawa Village,was awarded the Kevin Hickman Award.
The award was set up in honour of Ryman’s co-founder to recognise high-performing team members, with criteria under consideration being kindness, excellence, leadership and care.
On hearing that he had been named the 2025 winner of the award decided across all 49 Ryman villages in New Zealand and Australia, Sandeep said his mind went blank.
“I couldn’t process what was happening,” Sandeep said.
“Excellence and high performance must go hand in hand with compassion,” James said.
“This award recognises someone who is already living that balance.”
Clinical manager Sunny Sandeep (centre) with Ryman Healthcare’s general manager operations Lynn Charlton (left) and Kiri Te Kanawa Village manager Penny Forrester (right).
Sandeep has worked at Kiri Te Kanawa Village for eight years, five of them as clinical manager and was chosen from more than 200 nominees who were put forward from nearly 8000 team members.
Kiri Te Kanawa Village Gisborne manager Penny Forrester said the award was incredibly well deserved.
“Sunny is an exceptional role model. He is always calm, always polite, he is always showing those Ryman values of care and kindness, but with strong leadership.”
