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February 26 2008 - The Human Resources Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ) has announced the winners of the 2007/08 HRINZ HR Awards at a black tie gala dinner and award presentation in Wellington last week.

Designed to recognise excellence within New Zealand's human resource professionals, the HRINZ HR Awards winners were:

• HRINZ HR Initiative of the Year - Pacific Pharmaceuticals, Auckland
• HRINZ HR Person of the Year - Philippa Jones, Christchurch

The HR Person of the Year was chosen from the winners of each of the three HR Person of the Year categories:

• HRINZ Generalist HR Person of the Year - Philippa Jones, Canterbury
• HRINZ Specialist HR Person of the Year - Melanie Wood, Auckland
• HRINZ Young HR Practitioner of the Year - Matt Carter, Wild South

Philippa Jones has just taken on the role of General Manager Corporate Services at Crop & Food Research combining her business experience in leading the HR, Information Technology, Communications and Marketing functions. Prior to this, she worked for Christchurch City Council as General Manager HR where she championed the introduction of shared services and the council’s performance excellence programme.

According to Mark Ward, Crop & Food Research CEO, the award is a wonderful acknowledgement of Philippa Jones' exceptional career and professional achievements. He said:

"We are obviously very fortunate to have attracted someone of Philippa’s calibre to come on board as part of our Executive Management Team."

The HRINZ awards were first established in 1999. They are judged by a regional judging panel with regional winners being acknowledged with a Merit or Distinction award. All entries recognised with Distinction are put forward for national judging.

This year, two new 'special recognition' awards were also announced:

• The Southern Cross Wellness Award - Melanie Wood
• The State Services Commission Public Sector Award - NZ Police