Philanthropic mission far from finished
Warehouse founder and philanthropist Sir Stephen Tindall has been made a Knight Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year honours list.
The award honours his contribution to the community, business, international trade and commerce, and the environment in New Zealand for more than 40 years.
This is Tindall’s fifth major accolade but the entrepreneur said that all his awards only made him want to achieve more.
‘‘It’s quite humbling, really, because it’s a step up from the last knighthood I got, so I felt that I needed to accept it, do the right thing,’’ he said.
Tindall founded the Warehouse Group in 1982 and established the Tindall Foundation, one of New Zealand’s leading philanthropic foundations which has donated more than $145 million towards strategies to improve communities and the environment.
He founded K1W1, the Tindall family’s $250m seed and venture capital fund, which has invested in more than 200 start-up and early-stage business in biotech, clean tech, high tech and environmental technologies.
Tindall said his biggest inspirations were his parents, for their work ethic, and entrepreneurs Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, for their philanthropy.
‘‘When we were kids there wasn’t much money in the family – they both worked incredibly hard. My mum looked after us but also ran her own hairdressing salon from home. Dad had a number of jobs working from home.
‘‘More recently, following the examples of Warren Buffet and Bill Gates with the way they’ve been giving away their fortunes and doing some really remarkable things globally, that’s been a bit of an inspiration.’’
Tindall chaired the Growth and Innovation Advisory Board from 2007 to 2009, the Climate Change Leadership Forum from 2007 to 2009, and the Broadband Investment Forum from 2008 to 2009.
He also chaired the Job Summit Working Group in 2009, with a particular focus on Auckland, including an involvement cofunding the mayor’s taskforce on jobs.
Tindall helped to establish Trees That Count, which has planted more than 11 million trees across New Zealand in the past year.
The goal is to plant 200 million trees in the next decade.