Inductions celebrate Hawke's Bay's pioneering businessmen

Hawke's Bay pioneers of tobacco, wine and aerial mapping are the latest inductees to the The Port of Napier Business Hall of Fame.
The three inductees are New Zealand Aerial Mapping founder Henry Piet Drury van Asch (CBE), New Zealand Tobacco Company founder J. Gerhard Husheer, and Church Road winemaker Thomas Bayne McDonald.
They will be inducted at a special event at Black Barn Winery tomorrow night.
Guest speaker will be Bruce Mactaggart, joint owner and operator of Vector Arena in Auckland and director of Edutainment Group, which produced the globally successful Walking with Dinosaurs show.
Mr van Asch founded Hastings-based New Zealand Aerial Mapping in May 1936 and was responsible for transforming New Zealand's cadastral maps into accurate topographical maps.
Mr Husheer was a German-born businessman and philanthropist who formed the New Zealand Tobacco Company in 1913. His legacy includes the art deco National Tobacco Company Building in Ahuriri.
Mr McDonald was 14 when he started making wine and by the 1960s was regarded as the father of red wine in New Zealand. Church Road was his original winery.
The 2011 inductees join Nathaniel Kettle and Frederick (F.W.) Williams, Sir Russell Pettigrew, Sir James Wattie CBE, J.N. Williams, Robert Holt and Graeme Lowe QSM, CNZM, who have all been inducted since the Port of Napier Business Hall of Fame was established in 2009.
The hall of fame was initiated in partnership with the Hawke's Bay Chamber of Commerce to further promote the spirit of business within the region and to honour the achievements of successful businesspeople.
Port of Napier chief executive Garth Cowie said the latest inductees had made a continuing outstanding contribution to the region.
"These three men deserve recognition from the business community."
Their induction into the Port of Napier Hawke's Bay Hall of Fame reflected their "significant pioneering business contributions", he said.
Chamber of Commerce chief executive Murray Douglas said he was looking forward to meeting family, friends and associates of the inductees.
"It was clear that these business leaders made a profound statement and contribution and we are thrilled that we can recognise them and celebrate with their families and successor businesses at this time," he said.