Latest news with #Barfoot&Thompson
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Sport
- Scoop
Fusitu'a And Demant Take Top Honours At Blues Awards
Two outstanding leaders of Blues rugby, Joshua Fusitu'a and Ruahei Demant, have taken top honours at the 2025 Blues Awards held on Thursday night. Following a breakout season, Fusitu'a was honoured with the club's top accolade, named as the Better Blues Company Player of the Year. A model of professionalism, discipline, and growth, Fusitu'a cemented his spot in the starting XV with consistent, high-impact performances throughout 2025. His tireless preparation and attention to detail set the benchmark within the Blues environment. Meanwhile, talented playmaker Demant capped off an incredible season by being named nib Blues Player of the Year. With her vision, composure, and game-winning instincts, she played a defining role in the nib Blues' campaign that saw them win back-to-back Super Rugby Aupiki titles. Her Player of the Match performance in the Super Rugby Women's Champions final capped off one of many standout moments in a stellar year. In other awards, AJ Lam was named nib Players' Player of the Year - an award voted on by his teammates to reflect character, effort, and consistent contribution. A work horse on and off the ball, Rieko Ioane took out CMC Markets Back of the Year, while Ricky Riccitelli was named MG Forward of the Year for his consistency in the engine room. For the women, Portia Woodman-Wickliffe was named 2degrees nib Blues Back of the Year, following a shift to the midfield this season. Maama Vaipulu earned Barfoot & Thompson nib Blues Forward of the Year, recognised for her unmatched work rate and impact. Braxton Sorensen-McGee won Komatsu nib Blues Rookie of the Year and Women's Fans' Player of the Year after a sensational debut season, which included a Black Ferns debut. Xavi Taele was named Blues Rookie of the Year, while Beauden Barrett was the Men's Fans' Player of the Year. 2025 BLUES AWARDS WINNERS nib Blues Player of the Year Ruahei Demant Better Blues Company Player of the Year Joshua Fusitu'a nib Players' Player of the Year AJ Lam 2degrees nib Blues Back of the Year Portia Woodman-Wickliffe CMC Markets Blues Back of the Year Rieko Ioane Barfoot & Thompson nib Blues Forward of the Year Maama Vaipulu MG Blues Forward of the Year Ricky Riccitelli Komatsu nib Blues Rookie of the Year Braxton Sorensen-McGee Hello Fresh Blues Rookie of the Year Xavi Taele Blues Supporters 4Life Fans' Player of the Year Beauden Barrett and Braxton Sorensen-McGee KFC Community Award Katelyn Vaha'akolo Lockton Development Player of the Year Cohen Norrie NZ Funds nib Blues Team Member of the Year Amy Courtney
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Local Real Estate Professionals Awarded For Excellence
Press Release – Barfoot and Thompson In total, more than 300 awards were handed out across the companys 88 branches, illustrating the depth of talent within the business and the breadth of its regional impact. Top-performing real estate professionals from across the Auckland, Northland and Bay of Plenty regions have been recognised at the formal 2025 Barfoot & Thompson Awards. Held annually, the event celebrates exceptional performance, leadership, and a strong commitment to service excellence. A full list of award winners can be found at Barfoot & Thompson is New Zealand's largest family-owned real estate company and a market leader, selling around 4 in every 10 homes within Auckland and managing more than 20,000 rental properties across three regions. 'These awards recognise outstanding performance by individuals, partnerships and teams from across our business, representing the full range of expertise we offer – from residential and rural sales through to property management, auctioneering and commercial leasing,' says Barfoot & Thompson CEO Chris Dobbie. 'The winners are people who are deeply invested in their clients and their teams' success, and who of course deliver exceptional results.' Highest honours Six individuals received the awards' highest honours, taking home an 'Elite' trophy. They were: Branch Manager of the Year 2025 (Maurice Thompson Cup winner): Nick Bates (Pukekohe) Residential Salesperson of the Year 2025 (Val Barfoot Cup winner): Bob Qin (Millwater) Rural/Lifestyle Salesperson of the Year 2025: Scott McElhinney (Pukekohe) Commercial Salesperson of the Year 2025: William Read (City Commercial) Rising Star of the Year 2025: Sharlene Druyven (Waiuku) Head of Property Management of the Year 2025 (Kelland Barfoot Cup winner): Clay Reeve (Glenfield) 'These awards aren't just about sales figures or operational success, but about celebrating those who lead with integrity, who build strong client relationships, and who lift up those around them,' says Dobbie, adding: 'These recipients are the very best of Barfoot & Thompson — and as such among the very best in the industry.' Top sellers The top individual salesperson of 2025, out of more than 1,800 salespeople, was Aaron Foss of Barfoot & Thompson Mission Bay. Logan Boersma and Sindy Wu of the Howick Branch were recognised as the top performing sales partnership, and Bob Qin and Team of the Millwater Branch were the top selling team. Scott McElhinney, of the multi-awarded Pukekohe Branch, won top rural/lifestyle salesperson for 2025. Region-wide recognition The awards also highlighted excellence at every level — recognising high-achieving individuals, partnerships, teams, branch managers, and property management professionals from across the Barfoot & Thompson network. In total, more than 300 awards were handed out across the company's 88 branches, illustrating the depth of talent within the business and the breadth of its regional impact. 'We're a business built on local expertise, and backed by collective strength,' says Dobbie. 'Our people are at the heart of our business and it's a pleasure to acknowledge their continued contribution to setting the standard in this industry.'
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Local Real Estate Professionals Awarded For Excellence
Top-performing real estate professionals from across the Auckland, Northland and Bay of Plenty regions have been recognised at the formal 2025 Barfoot & Thompson Awards. Held annually, the event celebrates exceptional performance, leadership, and a strong commitment to service excellence. A full list of award winners can be found at Barfoot & Thompson is New Zealand's largest family-owned real estate company and a market leader, selling around 4 in every 10 homes within Auckland and managing more than 20,000 rental properties across three regions. 'These awards recognise outstanding performance by individuals, partnerships and teams from across our business, representing the full range of expertise we offer – from residential and rural sales through to property management, auctioneering and commercial leasing,' says Barfoot & Thompson CEO Chris Dobbie. 'The winners are people who are deeply invested in their clients and their teams' success, and who of course deliver exceptional results.' Highest honours Six individuals received the awards' highest honours, taking home an 'Elite' trophy. They were: Branch Manager of the Year 2025 (Maurice Thompson Cup winner): Nick Bates (Pukekohe) Residential Salesperson of the Year 2025 (Val Barfoot Cup winner): Bob Qin (Millwater) Rural/Lifestyle Salesperson of the Year 2025: Scott McElhinney (Pukekohe) Commercial Salesperson of the Year 2025: William Read (City Commercial) Rising Star of the Year 2025: Sharlene Druyven (Waiuku) Head of Property Management of the Year 2025 (Kelland Barfoot Cup winner): Clay Reeve (Glenfield) 'These awards aren't just about sales figures or operational success, but about celebrating those who lead with integrity, who build strong client relationships, and who lift up those around them,' says Dobbie, adding: 'These recipients are the very best of Barfoot & Thompson — and as such among the very best in the industry.' Top sellers The top individual salesperson of 2025, out of more than 1,800 salespeople, was Aaron Foss of Barfoot & Thompson Mission Bay. Logan Boersma and Sindy Wu of the Howick Branch were recognised as the top performing sales partnership, and Bob Qin and Team of the Millwater Branch were the top selling team. Scott McElhinney, of the multi-awarded Pukekohe Branch, won top rural/lifestyle salesperson for 2025. Region-wide recognition The awards also highlighted excellence at every level — recognising high-achieving individuals, partnerships, teams, branch managers, and property management professionals from across the Barfoot & Thompson network. In total, more than 300 awards were handed out across the company's 88 branches, illustrating the depth of talent within the business and the breadth of its regional impact. 'We're a business built on local expertise, and backed by collective strength,' says Dobbie. 'Our people are at the heart of our business and it's a pleasure to acknowledge their continued contribution to setting the standard in this industry.'
Newsroom
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsroom
Ockhams: in Emily's footsteps
The biggest night of the year in New Zealand literature is set to take place. Last year Emily Perkins waltzed off the Ockham book awards stage with $64,000 in her purse. Tonight, at around 9.30pm, one of four shortlisted authors will follow her as the 2025 winner of the Jann Medlicott Acorn Prize for Fiction, and pocket $65,000. It will be the final grand announcement of the awards, following prizes of $12,000 to winners of nonfiction, illustrated nonfiction and poetry. It takes place at the Aotea Centre in Auckland. Miriamo Kamo will act as MC. She received online criticism on Monday for her alleged mispronunciation of Chinese names as MC at this weekend's Barfoot & Thompson real estate awards but perhaps that was a mischievous attack and in any case no Chinese names are shortlisted for the Ockhams, only 19 European, eight Māori and one Pasifika. They make up a very wide range of authors – quite young, very old, some talented – who are in line for a shot of money and recognition for their hard work and brilliant ideas. I have made my feelings clear about who I hope wins the fiction prize and nonfiction prize, but recuse myself from chiming in with my five cents' worth about the poetry prize on account of the fact I am friends and allies with all four shortlisted writers, and have no opinion on the illustrated non-fiction prize. Anyway, and as ever, who cares what I think; it's the night of the judges, of their whims and tastes and reckonings; and alongside the shortlisted authors, and their publishers and editors and designers and proofreaders, the judges, too, ought to be thanked for their time and commitment. They don't earn a fortune for all their reading but they take the job seriously. The sponsors also deserve special cheers. The New Zealand book trade is in a bit of a slump. Bookstore sales are slow. Funding is increasingly difficult. Publishers – everyone remembers the day of the long knives at Penguin last year – are vulnerable. Huzzah, then, to the continued and positive support of Ockham (this marks their 10th year as principal backer) and the other sponsors at the national book awards: Creative New Zealand, the Acorn Foundation (via the late Jann Medlicott, who guaranteed her support of the fiction award in perpetuity), Peter and Marry Biggsy, Booksellers Aotearoa New Zealand, e-commerce quango BookHub, and The Mātātuhi Foundation. But nothing happens without the writers. It all starts with their decision to write, their faith and wit and delusion and stamina and resolve. Congratulations are due to all the authors of the 16 shortlisted titles. The fiction prize is contested by Damien Wilkins, author of my favourite book of any kind in 2024, Delirious, a beautiful novel about old age; Kirsty Gunn's book of short stories Pretty Ugly (which includes her dark masterpiece 'All Gone', by far the most disturbing story to have ever appeared in ReadingRoom); and The Mires by Tina Makereti and At the Grand Glacier Hotel by Laurence Fearnley. To nonfiction. Two books of essays that I didn't read, The Chthonic Cycle by Una Cruickshank and Bad Archive by Flora Feltham, will compete with Richard Shaw's excellent book The Unsettled: Small Stories of Colonisation and my favourite, Ngāhuia te Awekōtuku's memoir Hine Toa: A Story of Bravery, published by HarperCollins and one of the chief reasons I named them publisher of the year at the 2024 ReadingRoom awards. The four very, very good collections shortlisted for the poetry prize are Hopurangi – Songcatcher: Poems from the Maramataka by the nicest man in New Zealand letters, Robert Sullivan; Liar, Liar, Lick, Spit by Emma Neale, who has just finished editing my next book and was a total delight to work with; In the Half Light of a Dying Day by my amigo CK Stead; and Slender Volumes by the fabulous Richard von Sturmer. There are good pictures and some interesting text in the four books up for the illustrated nonfiction award, Edith Collier: Early New Zealand Modernist, Toi Te Mana: An Indigenous History of Māori Art, Leslie Adkin: Farmer Photographer and Te Ata o Tū The Shadow of Tūmatauenga: The New Zealand Wars Collections. ReadingRoom will magically reappear this evening at about 9:31pm with commentary on the winners.
