Leaders in chase for top honours

Here are the category winners in the 2016 NZ Entrepreneur Of The Year awards. The overall winner will be named on October 13, then go to Monte Carlo for the world awards.

Category: Technology & Emerging Industries Rocket Lab founder and chief executive Peter Beck is characterised by his “how hard can it be” attitude. After travelling to the US in 2007 to pursue his dream of working for a large space corporation, Beck realised he would end up being a small part of a big business. Instead, he flew home and set up Rocket Lab with the aim of removing the barriers to business in space. Just two years later it became the first private company in the Southern Hemisphere to send a rocket sub-orbital. The current cost to put a rocket in space is US$132 million on average and takes at least one or two years. Beck’s goal is to do this for US$4.9m, within a week. The company has already announced its first launch will be this year from Mahia. Rocket Lab has some highflying investors helping it, including Khosla Ventures, Bessemer and Lockheed Martin. Today, Rocket Lab has more than 100 engineers on board and uses the latest technology and materials in its rocket construction. adopted and adapted. The Armers are also the sole remaining foundation shareholders of Dairy Holdings in the South Island, which owns and operates 58 dairy farms plus supporting grazing blocks. The couple worked with their legal and advisory team in 2012 to protect their ownership of Dairy Holdings, then valued at about $535m. It is now owned by the Armers and two other farming entities. Category: Services After working for several financial organisations, Carmel Fisher decided she wanted to create her own investment business specialising in the New Zealand share market. In 1998 Fisher Funds was born. Almost two decades on, the New Zealand-owned and operated fund manager and KiwiSaver provider manages $7 billion on behalf of more than 255,000 people. Fisher decided her target market was what she called Mum and Dad investors, who would be attracted to a firm that focused on making investing profitable, understandable and enjoyable. Her biggest