The 2025 WSBG Excellence Awards
The Wellington School of Business and Government Excellence Awards celebrates the achievements of the faculty’s top-performing students. This year’s awards were held on Wednesday 14 May at Rutherford house.
Professor Jane Bryson, Dean of the Wellington School of Business and Government, hosted the ceremony with Dr Ina Reichenberger, Deputy Associate Dean Students.
Guest speaker Samantha Gadd, an alumna of the University, spoke about how she “took a chance” after study at Victoria University and discovered that she was passionate about working with others and helping others find what they were passionate about. This helped shape a key belief for her that, “You have to love what you do. Your love for the job makes a difference.”
Samantha is the founder and Director of HumanKind, a leading organisational design and employee experience (EX) consultancy. Samantha graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in Management and Human Resource Management from Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington.
After learning about employee experience, Samantha was immediately inspired and rebranded her HR consultancy business to its current name—HumanKind. This led to a focus in creating a human-centred workplace committed to EX and teaching other businesses do to the same, and the creation of Excellent, a global EX design company that equips leaders with the tools and skills to create employee experiences that drive business success. As a world leader in this space, Samantha also led the creation of the EX Manifesto, which was signed by leaders in over 30 countries.
Sharing the lessons she has learnt throughout her career, Samantha reiterated the importance of doing what you love and encouraged students to stand out by being passionate and building connections. “You’re never doing it alone, people want to help and get involved, you just have to ask.”
Samantha finished by acknowledging a challenging job market and global business climate, but shared that she was optimistic for the future, and for the future of our prize-winners, students, and graduates.
A full list of award recipients is available below.
Top Masters’ Students
Abby Mainini—Executive Master of Business Administration
Abhibhavadee Munchupa—Master of Global Business
Cerys Kettell Evans—Master of Professional Business Analysis
Nicole Bernas—Master of Professional Business Analysis
Marie-Louise Siddle—Master of Public Management
Rosie Evans—Master of Public Policy
Relda Matthews—Master of Information Studies
Ruoxi Li—Master of Professional Accounting
Andrea McBeth—Master of Public Administration (Executive)
Excellence Awards Undergraduate
Accounting, Commercial Law and Taxation
Lauren Kerr—Excellence Awards in Accounting & Finance
Zac Maulder—Excellence Awards in Accounting & Finance
Jacqueline Ramos—Excellence Awards in Accounting & Taxation
Matthew Gin—Excellence Award in Accounting
Mac Langrell-Read—Excellence Awards in Commercial Law & Accounting
Keelan Heesterman—Excellence Awards in Commercial Law & Public Policy
Chantal Rapley—Excellence Awards in Commercial Law & Economics
Janice Eleazar—Excellence Award in Commercial Law
Zoe Henderson—Excellence Award in Accounting
Billy Neves—Excellence Award in Accounting
Benjamin Rybinski—Excellence Award in Accounting
Economics, Finance, and Actuarial Science
Mark Rabe—Excellence Awards in Economics & Finance
Lucy Peake—Excellence Awards in Economics & Public Policy
Jack Apperley—Excellence Award in Economics
Samuel Martin—Excellence Award in Economics
Grant Slark—Excellence Award in Economics
Hunter Flanagan-Connors—Excellence Award in Economics
Emerald Bendall—Excellence Award in Finance
Barker Carroll—Excellence Award in Finance
Jack Barnett—Excellence Award in Finance
Government
Claire Rees—Excellence Awards in Public Policy
Information Systems
Kaito Ibaraki—Excellence Award in Information Systems
James Macey—Excellence Award in Information Systems
Mathusha Paraneetharan—Excellence Award in Information Systems
Tessa Sinteur—Excellence Award in Information Systems
Marketing and International Business
James Matheson—Excellence Award in Marketing
Noah Aupa'au—Excellence Award in Marketing
Lucia Young—Excellence Award in Marketing
Ailish Dodd—Excellence Award International Business
Madeleine Thorne—Excellence Award in Marketing
Grace Munro—Excellence Award in Marketing
Erin Murray—Excellence Award in Marketing
Nathaniel Pernecita—Excellence Award in Marketing
Amelia Rennie—Excellence Award in Marketing
Anna Robbie—Excellence Award in Marketing
Phoebe Jones—Excellence Award in Marketing
Grace Harman—Excellence Award International Business
Tanya Haseltine—Excellence Award International Business
Management
Paige Flashoff—Excellence Award in Management
Le Nguyen—Excellence Award in Management
Courtney Guttery—Excellence Award in Human Resource Management and Employment Relations
Donor Funded Prize Winners
Lauren Kerr—Auditor-General’s Prize for Government Accounting & Finance ACCY 330
Ruby Allan—Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Prize for Introduction to Accounting Information Systems (ACCY 225)
Alice Nicholls—Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Prize in Law of Organisations (COML 204)
Mark Rabe—G G G Watson Award in Economics
Mackenzie Dyer and Celine Rancho—Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRNZ) Prizes
Chantal Rapley and John-luca Louverdis—Jan Whitwell Prizes for Monetary and Macroeconomics
Aakash Venkatesan—KPMG Prize in ACCY 131 Fundamentals of Accounting
Demitra Araboglos—KPMG Prize in Financial Accounting ACCY 231, KPMG Prize in Management Accounting ACCY 223, KPMG Prize in Taxation TAXN 201
Kiola Visser—Makower McBeath and Co Ltd Staff Prize
Adi Faletau—Adrian Wimmers Pasifika Prize
Olga Webb—BDO Wellington Prize for ACCY 308
Stephen Martin—Bernard Edward Murphy Memorial Prize
Madeleine Thorne—Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand Prize in Advanced Management Accounting (ACCY302)
Anya Lawrence—Christina Beal Memorial Prize in Library and Information Studies
Kathryn Helm—Deloitte Prize for TAXN 301 Advanced Domestic Taxation
Barker Carroll—Former Economics and Finance Staff: Student Award
Dhruv Sharma—R W Steele Scholarship in Accounting
Ruoxiu Li—The Khanna Prize in Management Accounting
Kohta Mizoi—The Seamus Hogan Prize in Public Economics
Andrew Evans—The Sepaha Gupta Award for MGMT351 Advanced Entrepreneurship