Mike Simm of Kerikeri has been honoured as the 2012 inductee into the Northern Advocate Business Hall of Fame for his outstanding contribution to business and the Northland community for many years.
The announcement was the highlight of Friday night's Westpac Northland Business Excellence Awards, along with the naming of the Kamo Home and Village Charitable Trust as supreme award winners, chosen from the 11 categories.
Simm chairs the board for Competenz, the New Zealand Industry Training Organisation for the engineering, manufacturing, baking, and food and beverage manufacturing industries, and the Brightwater Group, a Nelson-based engineering contracting company with a strong commitment to youth training and providing opportunities for school-leavers.
An accountant, he worked at Rheem in New Zealand and Australia and at McConnell Group before becoming executive director and shareholder of Fullers Bay of Islands in 1989.
After selling Fullers in 2001, the following year he became a professional director and continued to be active in the tourism industry, serving as a director for the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, the New Zealand Tourism Industry Association and as deputy chairman of Jason Travel Media. He has also served on the board of Enterprise Northland.
He is deputy chairman of Far North electricity lines company Top Energy, which was named New Zealand 2012 Lines Company of the Year in August; and a trustee of the Northland Youth Development Trust and of training sailing ship R Tucker Thompson. The vessel runs courses to develop confidence, teamwork, new skills and leadership in young people.
The Youth Development Trust has three on-going projects: the Lion Foundation Young Enterprise Scheme (YES), where students learn about real-world business by forming their own companies, create a new product or service, fund start-up capital, start production and market the idea; the Young Entrepreneur Programme, which provides former YES students with the support to continue with their business idea; and the Northland Student Forum.
The forum brings together senior secondary students from across the region as a collective student voice for Northland, giving them the chance of having input into decision-making and policy development at both regional and national levels.
The trust has also co-ordinated a number of one-off projects during the years, such as the Northland Enterprising Teachers Conference, The Great Education Property Auckland, and the E4E (education for enterprise) Awards.
Simm is also a committee member for the Northland branch of the New Zealand Institute of Directors, which works to encourage the appointment of Northlanders to boards rather than people brought in from outside the region, and to improve the standard of governance skills in New Zealand business.