Wel­come to the second annu­al Fish­Head Wellington’s Top 50 People list – anoth­er half-cen­tury of sig­ni­fic­ant Wel­ling­ton people. It is an exer­cise that once again cel­eb­rates the city’s most power­ful, dynam­ic and cre­at­ive figures.

Like any selec­tion, it has an arbit­rary ele­ment, and its rank­ings are not inten­ded to be con­sidered entirely ser­i­ously – and no doubt they will leave some read­ers splut­ter­ing into their flat whites. Last year’s list cer­tainly pro­voked argu­ment (not to men­tion subtle, and not-so-subtle, pleas for inclu­sion this time round).

But fos­ter­ing a light-hearted debate about who, and what, mat­ters in our region is pre­cisely the point. To that end, we’ve assembled anoth­er diverse list that reflects the many con­tri­bu­tions that have made Wel­ling­ton such a great city – and prove that there’s life (and abil­ity) in the old girl yet.

As in last year’s list, our main cri­terion for inclu­sion in was, quite simply, influ­ence. Who gets things done in Wel­ling­ton? Who is work­ing – either in front of or behind the scenes – to cre­ate change, and reshape the city for the bet­ter? Who has the know­ledge, the net­works and the energy to make things hap­pen? Hav­ing influ­ence in dif­fer­ent spheres was also a key factor for inclusion.

Since last year’s list was com­piled, some people have fallen from grace (and favour), while oth­ers have burst onto the scene. The list is primar­ily made up of those who have made a dif­fer­ence in the last year, but also those who have been influ­en­tial more gen­er­ally – or look set to be so in future.

The list focuses on indi­vidu­als, not com­pan­ies or fam­il­ies (with one excep­tion). We have lis­ted fig­ures from across the wider region, though cent­ral Wel­ling­to­ni­ans pre­dom­in­ate. Nation­al fig­ures who hap­pen to reside in Wel­ling­ton were excluded, as were those who may not have wiel­ded their influ­ence in the best pos­sible way.

We hope we’ve got it about right. But if you think some fig­ures on the list are over­rated, or that worthy names have been over­looked, let us know.

1. Peter Jackson (=)

A mul­tiple-Oscar-win­ning film-maker, Jack­son has done much to build up the Wel­ling­ton film industry. He has turned phil­an­throp­ist (his cash saved BATS Theatre’s premises) and con­tin­ues to drive the growth of Wellywood.

2. Bernadette Courtney (UP)

As edit­or of the Domin­ion Post, she remains the dom­in­ant media play­er in the cap­it­al. This year – espe­cially since John Key’s “dying Wel­ling­ton” crack – the paper has turned its sights on the cap­it­al and what it needs to thrive.

3. Celia Wade-Brown (=)

Wellington’s may­or still struggles for con­trol over her coun­cil, and lost the region­al battle on light rail. But she remains the head of the region’s largest coun­cil, and is work­ing behind the scenes for a smart, green city. Wheth­er that con­tin­ues rests, of course, on the cur­rent elections.

3. John Morrison (=)

The former Test crick­eter has always been influ­en­tial in sports mat­ters, but this year has leapt into the spot­light by stand­ing for may­or, as well as bring­ing major events to Wel­ling­ton – and jobs. But with the may­or­alty race an all-or-noth­ing tilt, he could be off the list as quickly as he arrived.

5. Gareth Morgan (UP)

Fund man­ager, investor, phil­an­throp­ist, author and com­ment­at­or, Mor­gan was involved in the charge to res­cue the Wel­ling­ton Phoenix. Since then his anti-cat cru­sade and pro-wild­life ‘Halo effect’ drive have only raised his profile.

 6. Fran Wilde (DOWN)

The no-non­sense head of the Great­er Wel­ling­ton Region­al Coun­cil is still driv­ing hard for a super­city, and will almost cer­tainly have a ref­er­en­dum to con­test next year. But her abras­ive style has lost her a few friends.

7. Grant Robertson (UP)

With the Labour lead­er­ship in the bal­ance as this went to press, the high-pro­file Wel­ling­ton Cent­ral MP’s future was uncer­tain. But a win for Robertson – and poten­tial prime min­is­ter­ship – would cer­tainly help restore the part of Wellington’s for­tunes that relies on the pub­lic sector.

 8. Kevin Lavery (NEW)

He’s only been Wel­ling­ton City Council’s CEO for a short time, but has stamped his mark, espe­cially with a pre-elec­tion report that called for more bor­row­ing but quick­er decisions. A strong pres­ence, he seems set to become more ‘part of the story’ than most CEOs.

9. Chris Parkin (=)

Now best known for own­ing the Museum Hotel, he is also a former three-term Wel­ling­ton coun­cil­lor with strong polit­ic­al net­works. He sits on numer­ous arts and cul­ture boards, includ­ing the St James Theatre Char­it­able Trust and the Te Papa board. He is also a major pat­ron of artists and arts organisations.

10. Tim Brown (UP)

An exec­ut­ive at infra­struc­ture firm Infrat­il, Brown also heads up the Cre­at­ive Cap­it­al Arts Trust, which runs the Fringe Fest­iv­al. As a dir­ect­or of Wel­ling­ton Air­port, he’s also driv­ing the plans for a run­way extension.

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How we did it

The list was com­piled with the help of two mem­bers of the Fish­Head advis­ory board – who, this year, have been excluded from the list in order to avoid any (admit­tedly out­rageous) accus­a­tions of bias. These are Inter­na­tion­al Fest­iv­al of the Arts chair Kerry Pren­der­gast, who is also the head of the Envir­on­ment­al Pro­tec­tion Agency and a former Wel­ling­ton City may­or, and prop­erty ‘farm­er’ Ian Cas­sels, the head of lead­ing developers The Wel­ling­ton Com­pany and a prom­in­ent com­ment­at­or on Wel­ling­ton affairs. After extens­ive research (includ­ing feed­back from 2012’s list) presen­ted dur­ing heated debate in an even hot­ter room, an ini­tial list of 100 people was chopped, changed, and then dis­tilled fur­ther to leave a draft doc­u­ment con­tain­ing many of the indi­vidu­als presen­ted above.

This list was then refined and form­ally ranked by Fish­Head edit­or Richard Ain­dow and seni­or fea­tures writer Max Rash­brooke. One again, com­plaints, threat­en­ing let­ters and bribes for high­er pla­cings next time should be dir­ec­ted to this duo.

 

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