The following is a list of people recognised as Tauranga Boys' College Old Boys' of the Year:
2009 - Mahe Drysdale
Mahe is an Olympic rowing gold medal winner and 5 time world champion in the single sculls. He won the supreme Halberg award in 2006 and was awarded Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009.
2010 - Sir Bruce Ferguson
Sir Bruce was Chief of Defence Force 2001-2006, he is Knight Companion of NZ Order Of Merit and a former Director of the Government Communications Security Bureau.
2011 - Ian Mune
Ian Mune is an actor, director, scriptwriter, author and producer. He wrote the movie Goodbye Pork Pie and directed There Came A Hot Friday featuring Billy T James, and What Became Of The Broken Hearted, the sequel to Once Were Warriors. Ian was awarded an OBE in 1991.
2012 - Dr Bryan Gould
Dr Gould is a past Vice Chancellor of University Waikato. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford, joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1964, serving in the Foreign Office and Brussels embassy. He returned to Oxford and served as a British MP from 1974-1979 and 1983–1994. Dr Gould was a member of the Labour Party Shadow Cabinet from 1986-1994. He returned to NZ 1994, where he was Vice Chancellor of University of Waikato in 2004, awarded Companionship of New Zealand Order of Merit in 2003 for services to education and in 2006 was awarded an honorary doctorate by University of Waikato.
2013 - Tom Roper
Tom was a foundation pupil of Tauranga Intermediate School, Tauranga Boys’ College Captain of Rutherford house and School Prefect. He is a well known and successful local businessman in commercial property investment and land development. Over the years Tom has developed over 4,000 residential sections and has developed the Goddard Centre in downtown Tauranga. The Roper Group owns a number of industrial, commercial and rural properties. He has been a board member for a number of organisations including Trust Bank, Priority One and Riding For The Disabled and is past Chairman on the Waipuna Hospice Foundation Board.
2014 - Nigel Brown
Nigel graduated from the University of Auckland Elam School of Fine Arts in 1971 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. There he was inspired by expressionism, taught by Garth Tapper and influenced by painter Colin McCahon whom he studied under for three years. Mâori artist Fred Graham also inspired Brown with tales of Mâori legends. Brown has been a full-time artist since 1972. He has exhibited extensively in public and private galleries throughout New Zealand and has had several touring exhibitions. Brown was awarded the Order of NZ Merit for Services to painting and printmaking in 2004 and in 2005 Brown was awarded a three week residency in Russia hosted by NZ’s then ambassador in Moscow.
2015 - Bill Holland
Bill's personal commitment and passion for driving the community foundation movement in the Bay of Plenty and across New Zealand recently resulted in him being awarded a Tindall Foundation award for outstanding contribution to the local community. The award notably recognised Bill's leadership in establishing the Tauranga-based Acorn Foundation in 2003. Bill was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in 2012, is a former TBC Board of Trustees Chairman and is currently Chairman of TECT.
2016 - Steve Saunders
A winner of the 2014 Westpac Tauranga Business Awards "Excellence in Business Leadership" Steve is director and founder of Callahan Innovation licensed WNT Ventures, a technology focused business incubator, he is a director o f Landcare Research, board member of Tauranga’s Enterprise Angels network, Priority One board member and Managing Director of the Plus Group of companies, a horticultural solutions business that operates a science research facility and robotic technology development centre.
2017 - Rod Gover
Rod is a mathematician and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand. He is currently employed as Professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Auckland. Rod was Head Prefect in 1979 as well as Dux and a Maadi Cup/Springbok Shield winner, before going on to become a Rhodes Scholar.
Old Boys of the Decade (awarded in 2018) - Kane Williamson and Peter Burling
ESPN has commented that by the time Kane Williamson retires from cricket he will be New Zealand's greatest ever batsman. Currently captain of the Black Caps across all three formats, Kane has a test average over 50 and 19 test centuries, the most of any New Zealand batsman. He has a T20 strike rate of 121 at an average of 31, a 46.3 average in ODIs and has amassed more than 6000 ODI runs, and more than 11,000 test runs.
Peter Burling is an Olympic gold medalist (2016) and Americas Cup winner with Team New Zealand (2017). He is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit and the 2015 and 2017 World Sailor of the Year. Peter was also watch captain and helmsman with Team Brunel on the Round-the-World 2017–18 Volvo Ocean Race, finishing 3rd overall in the closest finish in the history of the race.
2019 - None Awarded
