Ka Meechan will be retiring from Nielsen at the end of August. Ka began her 25 years with the company when she joined Book Data Limited in Twickenham in 1988. She returned to New Zealand in 1997 to open the Asia Pacific branch and has subsequently expanded her role across the BookData and BookScan product groups throughout the region.

Jonathan Nowell, President of Nielsen’s book information businesses says: “Ka has been both a worthy competitor and (for the last eleven years) a  wonderful colleague. I cannot praise enough her professionalism, her integrity and her commitment to both the business and the wider book industry. She leaves Nielsen stronger, and she leaves with our very best wishes for the future.”

Nielsen will be announcing the new management structure for New Zealand and Australia in the near future.

Albert Wendt, Emeritus Professor at the University of Auckland and author of fiction and poetry, received a top honour being named a member of the elite Order of New Zealand in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list announced on 3 June. His acclaimed first novel Sons for the Return Home was published in 1973 and many other books have followed over the decades including Flying Fox in a Freedom Tree, Leaves of the Banyan Tree, to the more recent titles Adventures of Vela and the short story collection Ancestry.

New Zealand Book Council chair, Peter Biggs, was made a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit for services to arts governance and philanthropy. Biggs divides his time between Melbourne where he heads advertising agency Clemenger BBDO, and New Zealand. He was a member of the Prime Minister’s Growth and Innovation Advisory Board, is a former chair of Creative NZ, and on a number of other boards. He is a sought-after speaker on branding, marketing, creativity and leadership.

Craig Potton, the Nelson-based photographer and publisher, becomes a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to photography and conservation. Craig founded the eponymous Nelson-based publishing company which is renowned for its books of photography among other things.

PANZ President Kevin Chapman said that it is very important that our cultural icons be recognised. “Albert Wendt is a towering figure in our literature, Peter Biggs’ many voluntary efforts in the arts included being an important part of our GOH planning, and although Craig Potton is honoured for his photography and conservation work, his publishing is an important part of that. Our industry should be proud of all of them.”

Above image: Albert Wendt

Robin McKenzie died in Raumati last month after a courageous battle with cancer. As a physiotherapist at the beginning of his career in 1956, a chance happening changed Robin McKenzie’s life and was the catalyst for curing pain in the lives of others.

Suffering from acute back pain, a ‘Mr Smith’ was shown into a physiotherapy room and lay on the treatment table which had been left with an upraised head end for another patient. When Robin McKenzie entered the room a few minutes later, he was concerned to find the patient in what was considered to be a most damaging position for his condition... yet the patient told him after the short time lying that way, he felt the best he had been in three weeks.

This clinical observation led Robin to begin systematically evaluating the effects that simple movements and positions had on his patients’ back pain. A clear assessment process gradually emerged. This system, now known as the McKenzie Method of Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy, has achieved worldwide recognition and is now regarded as part of management for low back pain.

Robin’s further vision was that all patients with musculoskeletal pain be taught how to manage their own pain. The two books he wrote specifically for patients: Treat Your Own Back and Treat Your Own Neck have sold over 6 million copies and are available in 17 languages. Two more books followed in the last four years and he also wrote five textbooks for professionals during his career.

He founded the McKenzie Institute International in 1982 and led its growth into a worldwide educational organisation. Physiotherapists, doctors, chiropractors and allied health professionals in 37 different countries have been educated in the McKenzie Method.His last major achievement was an animation that he and a fellow physiotherapist released last year, to show people what was really happening inside their disks. Even at 81 he was still very involved, even with current technology!

Robin was a huge inspiration to patients, scientists and clinicians worldwide. He was very much a family man, and his hobbies were sailing and gardening and he established a beautiful native plant garden at this home.

Though he gradually eased away from work over the past few years, Robin is sadly missed by the teams at Spinal Publications and the McKenzie Institute, who appreciated his visits and regular email contact.

Applications are now open for the 2013 CLNZ Writers’ Awards.

Two talented applicants will be selected by a panel to receive $35,000 each and the title of CLNZ Writers’ Award Winner 2013! This is the largest monetary prize of its kind.

If you (or anyone you know) have a non-fiction project on the boil and would love to see it published, we invite you to apply.

For more information go to www.copyright.co.nz/Writers-Awards/.