ULUOMATO'OTUA 'ULU' AIONO '68 ONZM

Born in Samoa, Ulu and his family travelled via boat to start a new life in New Zealand when he was young. After five years at Auckland Grammar School, maintaining a place in the top class throughout his tenure, Ulu went on to become New Zealand's first Pacific Islander to graduate with both a Bachelor of Computer Science (which he completed in 1981) and a Master of Business Administration (MBA), both from the University of Otago.

In 1983, while he was finishing his MBA, Ulu founded high-tech company COGITA, growing it into the largest business in its niche in the world. Specialising in resource planning software, the company was sold to a Silicon Valley software giant in 2012.

Ulu has been involved with many worthy initiatives such as Habitat for Humanity, and has been Chairman of the Cause Collective and the Alliance Health Plus Trust, New Zealand's only Pacific-led Primary Health Organisation. He has also been a member of council for both AUT and Manukau Institute of Technology.

In September 2022, Ulu was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. At the time, Pro Vice-Chancellor Commerce Professor Robin Gauld said the awards ceremony is an important event for the business community.

"The impact and presence of our graduates was very evident at the event, with many of New Zealand's business leaders in attendance being Otago graduates. It was a proud time for the Commerce Division and the University.""

DR OSMOND BRUCE HADDEN '55 CNZM

Bruce is one of the leading figures in ophthalmology in New Zealand and Australia. Having trained in New Zealand and the United States, Bruce has been active in the field for more than 50 years. He introduced vitreous surgery to New Zealand, which is the dominant technique for surgical repair of retinal detachment. He also led the amalgamation of the Ophthalmological Society of New Zealand with the Australian college, to form the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists.

From 1996 to 1999, Bruce and his wife Dr Wendy Hadden contributed substantially to the fundraising for the Foundation Chair in Ophthalmology at the University of Auckland. This culminated in the appointment of Professor Charles McGhee as the Foundation Maurice Paykel Professor of Ophthalmology in 1999.

Bruce has kept close ties with the University of Auckland through benefaction and time commitments, and supported the Foundation of the W and B Hadden Chair in Ophthalmology and Translational Vision Research in 2005, strengthening laboratory and clinical research activities within the department, the University and hospital.

Bruce was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws (LLD) by the University of Auckland in 2007, and was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) in 2012 for services to ophthalmology.

PROFESSOR PHILIP HILL '81

Philip holds multiple qualifications from the University of Auckland, including a Bachelor of Human Biology, a conjoint Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, a Masters of Public Health (completed with first class honours) and a Doctor of Medicine.

After completing his specialist training in New Zealand as a medical practitioner, a specialist public health physician and a specialist infectious diseases physician, Philip spent six years working as a clinical epidemiologist at the Medical Research Council unit in The Gambia, working on tuberculosis and pneumonia projects.

His research has been published in nearly 250 articles in peer reviewed journals, and includes studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and disease, Streptococcus pneumoniae carriage, disease and vaccination.

Philip is the first holder of the McAuley Chair in International Health and is the Founding Director and Co-Director of the Centre for International Health at the University of Otago. In addition to this role, he is involved in different research projects in Africa, Asia, South America and the Pacific, and is the Adjunct Professor in the new Communicable Diseases Research Centre at the Fiji National University, spending time there to help build the new centre.

In 2008, Philip established the Otago Global Health Research Network, with more than 100 researchers across all four divisions of the University, with an interest in health research in low and middle-income countries. Now renamed the Otago Global Health Institute, Philip is currently Co-Director, and has become one of 12 flagship research centres within the University.

Philip takes a special interest in training people from low resource settings at Masters' and PhD level, supervising over 30 students who have had a very high completion and publication rate.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Philip served on four ministerial advisory committees, leading key reports on the performance of the Ministry of Health and recommendations for improvements to protect New Zealanders. These were in relation to contact tracing and the testing strategy implementation.

Philip has also served as chief advisor to the University of Otago Vice Chancellor and in 2022, he was elected to be a fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand.