Sir Michael Grenfell Daniell KNZM

Sir Michael attended Hastings Boys’ High School from 1970 - 1974. In his last year at school, Sir Michael was appointed a school prefect, awarded the MacIntyre Award for Scholarships, Character, Sport, Leadership, and Culture and was 1st in Physics. He represented the school in hockey, was a member of the magazine committee, and the business management group.

After leaving school, he graduated in 1979 with a Bachelor of Engineering Electrical, with First-class Honours from Auckland University.

He then worked for Fisher and Paykel Industries from 1982 as a product and design engineer and then as a technical research development manager. He became General Manager and the Chief Executive Officer in 1990. He was then Managing Director for 15 years from 2001-2016.

He has had governance roles as chair of the finance committee at Auckland University, Cochlear Limited in Sydney, Tait International, and is still currently a non-executive Director of Fisher and Paykel.

Sir Michael was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year, New Zealand Engineering and Executive of the Year, Deliotte Management Top 200, both in 2013, and the New Zealand Herald New Zealander of the year in Business Award in 2019. In 2021 he received the Leadership award from the Institute of Finance Professionals and was knighted KNZM in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list 2021.