Business leader Theresa Gattung, company director Joan Withers, bioengineering professor Peter Hunter and Rocket Lab founder Peter Beck are among those being recognised in this year's King's Birthday honours.
In all, 176 New Zealanders have been awarded honours for service to their communities and country.
Gattung, the former chief executive of Telecom, is known for being the first woman to run a large New Zealand public company and for co-founding My Food Bag.
She has been made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to women, governance and philanthropy.
Dame Theresa said she knew at 18 she wanted to lead a company, and as a child she kept a scrapbook with clippings of women who had beaten the odds.
"I took inspiration where I could and I just sort of carried on, I just surrounded myself with people who supported me and I had setbacks of course, some of which I've spoken about and some of which I probably haven't and I just ploughed on.
"You've got to have a a bit of a thick skin if you want to do something that hasn't been done before."
She has been a director and chair of numerous private and state sector companies, and has been chair of The Warehouse Group since 2016.
Dame Joan left school at 16 to get married and is now one of New Zealand's leading governance experts and a champion for women in business.
"The biggest out take for me is that hopefully, someone like me with my background getting this sort of recognition just reinforces the fact that anybody, no matter what their background is, if they work hard and operate with integrity can probably achieve things that they might have believed to be impossible."
Sir Peter established the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and later the Physiome Project. He said he was most proud of the latter.
"It's put New Zealand at the forefront of a major international effort now to use what are called virtual human twins in healthcare, so I think over a long period of developing the methods we've put ourselves in a really good position to be able to internationally lead the development of using engineering, physics, maths approaches to improve healthcare outcomes."
In 2009, Rocket Lab's Ātea 1 became the first rocket in the Southern Hemisphere to reach space.
Rocket Lab is the most prolific commercial launch provider, behind only SpaceX, and has launched 46 missions to space including NASA's 2022 lunar CAPSTONE mission, and more than 160 satellites to orbit as of April 2024.
Former Queenstown mayor Jim Boult has been made a Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit for services to local government, tourism and the community.
Long-serving Chief of Defence Force Air Marshal Kevin Short has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the New Zealand Defence Force.
Ngāi Tahu's longest serving chief executive, Arihia Bennett, has also been made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to Māori, governance and the community.
She said while the iwi's asset growth more than doubled under her tenure - investing back in whānau is a key priority for the organisation.
"It's important to enable to distribution of funds to go back into the community, into its people, looking at growing community infrastructure, growing individual capability from pēpē, from babies, right through to kaumātua in terms of mātauranga, or education, wellbeing, social development."
Former sports stars recognised for giving back
A number of former sports stars have been recognised for services to their codes, including Chris Lewis, who reached the 1983 Wimbledon tennis final as an unseeded player.
Lewis, who has been awarded an Officer of the Order of Merit, became only the third New Zealand player to reach the final of a Grand Slam singles title and the second to reach the Wimbledon final.
Lesley Milne, who won eight national rowing titles between 1966 and 1975 and was selected for the first women's crew to represent New Zealand in Europe in 1974, has been named a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit (CNZM).
Former Olympic synchronised swimmer and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, Katie Sadleir, is another CNZM recipient.
She has been recognised for services to sports governance and women, having held significant roles since the 1990s. Sadleir was appointed as the first woman chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation in 2021.
Stephen Cox represented New Zealand in cycling between 1976 and 1988, including the 1984 Olympic Games, and won almost every major road event in New Zealand. He has been named an Officer of the NZ Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to the sport, including organising more than 220 major cycling events at regional, national and international levels since 1986.
Avid skier Mary Lee made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to snow sports and tourism. She established Snow Farm, the country's only dedicated cross-country ski-field, and she also developed the annual 42km Merino Muster race.
"We've now joined the world loppet series which is 20 ski races around the world and each country can only have one race and when you've skied 10 world loppet races, and you have to do a couple of different continents, you become a World Loppet Master which is very prestigious."
Four police staff recognised
Detective Niall Deehan, based in Kāpiti north of Wellington, was one of the architects of police's family liaison approach, building on his experience with the UK's Metropolitan Police. He has been involved mass casualty events including the Carterton balloon tragedy, the Christchurch terror attack, Whakaari White Island and the Loafers Lodge fire.
"I have no idea who nominated me and to be honest I think I want to keep it that way. I'll treat everybody as if it was them who nominated me. I'm exceptionally grateful to whoever that person or persons were." he said.
Inspector Freda Grace is an operations support manager based at Police national headquarters. Coster said she was a champion of women in tactical groups and led creation of the Critical Incident Liaison Officer programme, supporting staff exposed to traumatic incidents.
"I'm amazed and very humbled that someone would even think to nominate me," she said. "I don't think I've done any more than my job."
Catherine Petrey, is a principal strategic policy advisor at Police national headquarters, and has led Police's attempts to reform firearms legislation, including after the 2019 Christchurch terror attack.
"When I first came to Police, after working in the public service for most of my life, what I really noticed was that it's an organisation of really committed people who take big and important decisions on a daily basis... I'm very pleased to be able to work with such people."
Bay of Plenty District Crime Manager Detective Inspector Lew Warner has served in Police for more than 40 years and had led dozens of serious investigations.
"I'm really humbled by the honour, but I wasn't certain that I actually deserved it," he said.
Thomas Coyle, who held senior forensic roles with Police before his retirement in 2017 was also honoured.
