Celebrating the Knights and Dames appointed in this year's King's Birthday Honours list. Video / NZ Herald
Wayne Wright has been appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and philanthropy.
He and his late wife Chloe Wright co-founded Best Start, New Zealand’s largest early childhood education provider.
The Wright Family Foundation has distributed $50 million to support education, arts, and social programmes in 10 years.
Philanthropist and self-described “serial entrepreneur” Wayne Wright left school in sixth form.
But that did not stop him and his late wife Chloe from building empires, including New Zealand’s largest early childhood education provider Best Start.
Today, Wright has been appointed an officer of the New Zealand Order of Meritfor services to education and philanthropy.
His appointment comes after Chloe - who died in September 2023 - was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to philanthropy, education and health in 2020.
Wright said it was not the first time he received the offer of the honour.
He said he turned it down about six or seven years ago because he hoped to be made a Sir.
“I thought that once you accepted it at one level, that was the end of the story.”
After finding out that was not the case, he admitted turning it down was “probably” a mistake.
Wright moved from his first business as a lawn mowing contractor, to a kiwifruit orchard business, to a retaining wall construction company with offices across the US and Mexico, and to a telecommunications company in Alabama.
He and Chloe co-established Best Start Educare in Tauranga in 1996 which grew to become New Zealand’s largest early childhood education provider. It has about 270 centres nationally and more than 4000 staff caring for about 20,000 preschool children.
Wright invested more than $60m in the early childhood education sector.
Wayne and Chloe Wright were married for 57 years. They have five children and 11 grandchildren. Photo / Brydie Thompson
In 2014, he and Chloe established the Wright Family Foundation which has distributed $50m of charitable funds to support education, arts, and social programmes in 10 years.
Asked about his greatest successes, Wright said he was building a crib wall in his early 20s in Lower Hutt.
An American stopped and told him: “This will go well in America”.
“So, I went over to America and I built a plant, made the blocks, built the walls, trained people, commuted backwards and forwards ... ”
Wright said it turned into “quite a big operation” across the US, and after getting a big contract in Texas, he suggested to Chloe they move there.
Chloe agreed and did two degrees at the University of Texas. The couple bought a house and lived there for seven years while expanding the company.
Philanthropist and entrepreneur Wayne Wright has been appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to education and philanthropy. Photo / Brydie Thompson
Wright was approached for help by a friend whose wife owned a Tauranga childcare centre. He eventually offered to buy it.
“From that one centre 30 years ago, we now have 270 of them around the country ... ”
Best Start was converted into a charity in 2015 when owners the Wright Family Trust sold the business to the Wright Family Foundation.
Wright said Best Start was “probably the most satisfying” of all his projects.
Wayne and Chloe Wright pictured in 2017. Photo / Norrie Montgomery
Wright said he met the “very talented” Chloe at the Griffins biscuits factory in Lower Hutt when he was 19 and working in its accounting office.
“I was wandering through the factory one day and I was watching these women packing these biscuits ... ”
The couple were married for 57 years and had five children and 11 grandchildren.
“We’re a pretty tight family - we look after each other and she was the driver, of course, because she made everything happen and I just made money.”
Wright said he took each family “subtribe” on holiday every two years “anywhere in the world”.
His next trip was to Singapore in June.
Wright said he bought the Paeroa Racecourse a couple of years ago and was redeveloping it.
“It’s going to be a comprehensive shopping centre, motel, housing, apartments ... various other attractions for the region in terms of playgrounds and Chloe designed a chapel which we’re putting up there amongst the trees looking over the whole development.
“We might make some money out of it but that’s not the driver - the driver is to make a difference in Paeroa.”
He was also working on a housing project in Warkworth, north of Auckland.
Wright - who received the Ernst and Young ‘Master’ Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2015 - said he planned to retire after finishing the Warkworth and Paeroa projects, as well as a few others by the end of the decade.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
