New Year 2025 Honours: Waikato’s John Gallagher earns a knighthood for a lifetime of community leadership and giving

More than 50 years of community leadership and philanthropy underpins a New Year Honours knighthood for Sir John Gallagher, whose family name is synonymous with Waikato business, economic and cultural development.

Gallagher, 85, has been made a knight companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to business, education, philanthropy and the community.

A director and major shareholder of Hamilton-based multinational technology company Gallagher Holdings, Gallagher’s name heads a long list of Waikato business and charitable trusts and cornerstone community organisations and establishments in the region.

His knighthood means two knights will be sitting at the table when the Gallagher family get together this holiday season – his brother William Gallagher, long-time former chief executive and chairman of the Gallagher Group, has previously received the honour.

Sir John Gallagher was taking the recognition in his stride when the Herald called. He had, he said, been working in, and for, the community a long time, and he seemed just as proud of his 2014 honour as Knight of Grace of the Order of St John.

In 2002 he was made a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Of all the organisations he has founded or led, Gallagher is particularly proud of his work with Habitat for Humanity Hamilton. For 25 years as chairman, he has guided the non-profit, affordable housing builder from small beginnings to operating as the organisation’s central North Island region leader.

He is a trustee of the Gallagher Charitable Trust, a member of the Hamilton Rotary Club for 30 years, a member and fellow of the New Zealand Trustees Association and a distinguished fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors.

Gallagher served for 25 years on the council of the University of Waikato, including terms as deputy chancellor and then chancellor from 2003 to 2006.

He was a founding member of the New Zealand National Fieldays Society, a Hamilton city councillor for 12 years and a Waikato regional councillor for three years.

A trustee of Skycity Hamilton Community Trust from 2003 to 2009, Gallagher was on the Hamilton Gardens Te Parapara Garden Trust from 2006 to 2012 and a councillor for the Young Enterprise Trust.

In 2011 he established the Glenice and John Gallagher Foundation, of which he is a trustee.

His other honours and awards include being inducted into the Waikato Chamber of Commerce Hall of Fame, being made a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John in 2014, and receiving the 2020 Inaugural Hamilton Medal for an outstanding contribution to Hamilton, the Freedom of Hamilton City in 2011, and a University of Waikato honorary doctorate in 2008.

A fitter and turner, or “practical engineer” as he calls it, Gallagher began work in 1960 in the Gallagher family engineering and fencing systems company founded by his grandfather Bill Gallagher.

One of Sir John’s sons works in the business and a grandchild recently joined the family firm, which is today a global leader and exporter of security technology and systems.

Born and bred in the Waikato, Gallagher today has a focus on youth development initiatives, believing young people are not generally well-equipped to handle our fast-moving world.