Tait Communications Hi-Tech Hall of Fame - Flying Kiwi
Sir Neville Jordan
Sir Neville Jordan – Flying Kiwi 2004
Memberships / Directorships
AgResearch, Director, (six years)
FRS&T, Board member, (three years)
Chair, Crown Research Institute review panel
Prime Minister's Growth and Innovation Advisory Board, Board member (three years)
Past Chair, State Owned Enterprise establishment & then divestment board
Defence Technology Agency review panel, Member
Green Growth panel, Member
MacDiarmid Institute, Past director
Defence Manufacturers Association, Founding Chair
Rutherford Foundation, Founder and inaugural Chair
Royal Society of NZ, Past president
Institution of Professional Engineers Foundation, Trustee
Antarctic Heritage Trust, Trustee
Government appointment to the Council, Victoria University
Honours / Awards
Governor General's Supreme Award for Exporting
Top NZTE award for 'major company exporting'
Laureate of both the Business Hall of Fame and Hi-Hall of Fame
UK Kirby Medal for 'outstanding eminence and distinction in advanced technology'
Distinguished Fellow of the Institution of Professional Engineers NZ
NZ Order of Merit (CNZM)
Royal Society of NZ, Thomson Medal, for 'outstanding leadership in the management of science/technology leading to wealth creation for New Zealand'
NZTE ‘Outstanding International Business Leader of the Year 2012’
IPENZ, William Pickering Medal – the premier personal award. For outstanding leadership in engineering and being a role model for engineers
Rotary Foundation, Paul Harris Fellow 2013
‘Wellingtonian of the Year’ 2012
In 1975 he founded MAS Technology, a telecommunications microwave company.
He grew MAS to a multinational company with a successful IPO on the NASDAQ main board. MAS and its successors have now earned over $1 billion in net foreign exchange for New Zealand.
Sir Neville Jordan is a graduate engineer and holds an honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Canterbury University. His early career was in civil aviation and the IBM World Trade Corp. He won a USA Rotary scholarship, then spent several years in Europe as VP for a Philips company.
In 1998 Sir Neville Jordan founded Endeavour Capital. He has been a venture capital pioneer and invested in more than 35 start-up and early stage companies, from research, science and technology to horticulture and large-scale real estate, with many successful exits achieved. He has secured over $400m of foreign direct investment for NZ companies and is a signatory to United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment.
He is a Retired Officer, RNZNVR, and currently holds the rank of honorary Captain in the Royal NZ Navy.
Over three decades Neville has chaired or been a member of numerous review panels and committees for the Australian and NZ governments. He was a member of team that negotiated the science portion of NZ's Free Trade Agreement with China.
He established the philanthropic Jordan Foundation in 1995 to provide scholarships for higher learning, particularly for the disadvantaged, plus support for performing arts. He has been a judge and mentor over many years for city and university business school competitions in NZ and Australia.
He is a past NZ Universities judo representative, scuba diving instructor, has been offroad motorcycling in many overseas countries, rallied a 1922 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and completed over 20,000 miles of ocean yacht racing as owner, skipper and navigator.