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The Alumni Awards for 2024 is over, and we had a blast! Check out our incredible winners below.

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One To Watch - Oakley Inkersell

At just 20 years old, Oakley has just signed a five-year commercial lease to expand his business, Cleaner Cars. With a passion for business and experience as a car-groomer, he started Cleaner Cars in 2022 with a mission to become the household name for Car Cleaning in Christchurch.

Oakley employs his best mate as full-time mobile car groomer. In the past 15 months they have groomed over 500 cars! He has had success on social media, with an impressive 40k followers and 725k likes on TikTok. He uses his platform to inspire other young aspiring founders and share his entrepreneurial journey. Oakley has just secured a $20,000 seed funding grant through the Kings Trust He Kākano Seed Funding.

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Emerging - Matthew Goldsworthy

In his first year post high school, Matthew founded Youth Arts New Zealand (YANZ), a leading youth-led organisation fostering equitable opportunities for young individuals to explore creativity as a career and self-expression. YANZ offers initiatives like Te Kāhui, a creative writing program for underprivileged youth, paid creative opportunities, educational programs, and a monthly Youth Voice Hui for open discussions.

Since starting YANZ, they have empowered 700+ young creatives across Aotearoa, provided over $610,000 in employment and gig work opportunities to young creatives, facilitated over 350+ projects and events dedicated to supporting young people embrace creativity. YANZ has grown from a team of 3 volunteer co-founders, to a team of 4 full-time and 4 part-time team members. His hope is that YANZ helps to democratize access to creativity so that all young people have the tools and resources to explore this.

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Innovator of the Year - Emma Fryer

After more than two years of research, trials and development through YES, Emma, along with her parents, created EmGuard ™ - the original biodegradable plant guard -  as a solution to plastic debris entering waterways from plantings on or near riparian margins & waterways. They have now sold over 2 million EmGuards™ and have changed the industry globally.

Plant guards promote growth, improve the chance of a plant’s survival, reduce maintenance, protect plants from predators and provide favourable micro-climates for growth. EmGuard is made in NZ using mostly recycled pulp, is fully biodegradable and recyclable, has a pH of 7-8, and is coated in a food-safe, FDA compliant moisture barrier.

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Alumna of the Year - Natalie Ferguson

As cofounder of the investing platform Hatch, Natalie was instrumental in transforming the financial habits of nearly 200,000 people. Leveraging proven behaviour change tactics, the platform challenged entrenched beliefs and empowered people to take control of their wealth.

After exiting Hatch in 2021, Natalie turned her focus to power another lofty ambition in the arena of leadership and gender equality. In 2023 she cofounded and launched Powrsuit, a membership network which equips women leaders at every level with the tools, and connections to succeed on their term, helping them get to the top of their game.

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Community Leader - Hadi Daoud & Owyn Aitken

Hadi and Owyn are directors of Remojo Tech, and founding members of Recycle-A-Device, a partnership between various organisations working to address the digital divide. They have rolled out their programme nationwide, providing tech skill training to more than 700 rangatahi, employing 11 trainers, recycling over 1,500 devices back into the community and diverting over 5 tonnes of e-waste from landfill.

They are passionate about their community, providing devices to disadvantaged students and offering career opportunities that otherwise would not be accessible, through collaborations with key stakeholders including schools, Kura Kaupapa, donors, and government organizations. In 2023 Hadi and Owyn were recognised for their contribution to community as winners in multiple categories at the NZ HI-TECH Awards, Future of Trust Awards and NZ Compare Awards.

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Distinguished - Luke Irving

Luke is the founder of award-winning New Zealand tech company, Fingermark, which provides computer vision and self-ordering technology to some of the world’s largest Quick Service Restaurants. Fingermark has recently been valued at nine-figures after securing a cornerstone investment from US giant, EcoLab, a global water, hygiene and infection prevention leader. As a Palmy Boys High Student, Luke impressively convinced not just the school board but the McDonald’s big wigs to let him open a franchise in place of the school’s tuck shop. It’s fitting that he has continued to work in the QSR space.

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Company of the Year - MOXX Brands

Renee Stuart is the co-founder and COO of MOXX Brands, one of New Zealand’s fastest-growing consumer goods companies.

With 14 years of product and marketing experience under her belt, Renee and her co-founder have successfully launched multiple modern brands, including Re.stor (affordable eco-friendly cleaning products), Everblue (climate positive, NZ made hair and body care), Maison & Muse (luxury home fragrances) and ATOMIC (laundry capsules).

In just four years since founding MOXX, they have experienced rapid triple-digit growth, recently entering the U.S. market after landing a $24 million deal with Target and Walmart and more recently, Sprouts. MOXX’s brands are currently available on the shelves of over 6,000 stores across five countries.

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Supreme Alumni of the Year - Natalie Ferguson

As cofounder of the investing platform Hatch, Natalie was instrumental in transforming the financial habits of nearly 200,000 people. Leveraging proven behaviour change tactics, the platform challenged entrenched beliefs and empowered people to take control of their wealth.

After exiting Hatch in 2021, Natalie turned her focus to power another lofty ambition in the arena of leadership and gender equality. In 2023 she cofounded and launched Powrsuit, a membership network which equips women leaders at every level with the tools, and connections to succeed on their term, helping them get to the top of their game.

Check out all the photos from the event here!