25 November 2009
Glidepath Chairman is Engineering Entrepreneur of the Year
Sir Kenneth Stevens is the 2009 Engineering Excellence Awards Engineering Entrepreneur of the Year. He was presented with the award at a gala dinner on Wednesday night 25 November.
The New Zealand Engineering Excellence Awards are the premier awards for the engineering professionals of New Zealand. The awards are presented in two major areas: Awards Recognising People, that recognise leadership, innovation, entrepreneurship and our young engineers; and Product and Project Awards, that recognise achievement in the various industry areas, together with a Supreme Award for the best of the Product and Project winners.
Sir Kenneth Stevens is Chairman of Glidepath, the company he started 37 years ago and which he continues to own. Glidepath is an engineering company specialising in computerised airport baggage handling, baggage security, cargo handling and parcel sorting systems.
Glidepath exports up to 1,000 fully packed containers a year to overseas customers and is an outstandingly successful medium size engineered products exporter, employing hundreds of staff. The bulk of materials used are generated or made in New Zealand.
Sir Kenneth himself has been absolutely central to the growth of the company – he is renowned for getting personally involved in resolving engineering design issues, using the knowledge and experience he has built up through his working life.
He continues to play a key role in a range of organisations and activities to promote New Zealand business and international co-operation, including as a Board Member of the Asia-New Zealand Foundation, as Chairman of Export New Zealand and on the Board of The Icehouse which runs business growth programmes for small to medium enterprises in New Zealand.
In 2008 Sir Kenneth was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to exporting.
Rebecca Adams
Communications Manager
021479885
04 473 2028
comms@ipenz.org.nz
