Kevin Burgess
Cambridge’s Kevin Burgess has become a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) in the 2025 New Year’s Honours.
Kevin Burgess
Known for the quiet, tireless effort he has applied equally to the community and his business interests, Burgess was awarded the honour for his services to governance, the community and sport.
“I’m honoured, of course,” he said, “and very happy to accept it… not for me, but for all the organisations I support.”
His citation reflected more than 30 years’ involvement as a “prominent leader, contributor and advocate for Cambridge and Waipā”.
His contributions include to business development, district promotion, community funding for affordable retirement housing, strategic community investment, sports clubs, supporting athletes at all levels, assisting youth, and philanthropic support.
Numerous organisations have benefited from his leadership. He is a former trustee and chairman of Adastra Foundation, and co-founder and current chairperson of the Perago Sports Trust – both of which have raised funds for aspiring young athletes. He has been a trustee of the Grassroots Trust for 20 years, and for 15 years was involved with the Waipā and Waikato Secondary Sports Awards. He was also instrumental in establishing the Cambridge Information Centre, the Cambridge Retailers Association and the Cambridge Community Fund.
A trustee with the Cambridge Resthaven Trust since 2016, he is also a life member of the Hautapu Sports and Recreation Club, and facilitated a group of New Zealand pharmacists to fundraise to provide books and educational tools, air-conditioning and computers for a Fijian school.
In 2018, he won the Leader of the Year Award at the Waipā Business Awards.
Jane and Kevin Burgess navigating early retirement after 42 years in the pharmacy business.
It would be a weighty list on its own, yet together with his wife Jane, Burgess also spent 42 years in the pharmacy business, retiring in 2023 after selling his three Cambridge-based pharmacies. His community mindedness extended into Hamilton, where he and his partners started one of the first Māori health pharmacies in Hillcrest.
When talking to The News, Burgess credited his wife Jane, his business partner of 25 years Kim Munro, and other partners and work colleagues for their encouragement and for giving him the space to do his community work. He is grateful for the generosity of Cambridge folk.
“At the end of the day, I have got far more out of the community than the community has got out of me.”
His real hero and his greatest influence, he said, was his grandmother Mary Burgess, who died in 1996 at the age of 93. She worked at the charity St Vincent de Paul in Frankton until she was 90, was a devoted Christian who dedicated her life to helping those in need, had nine children and fostered another three, and turned down a QSM.
“I tried as a younger man, and continue to strive, to be like her. She had a significant effect on my life.”
Burgess derives great pleasure from contributing to his community. He speaks to three particular passions – the Grassroots Trust, his decade-long tenure with the Resthaven Foundation, and the Cambridge Community Fund. The latter, which is managed by Momentum Waikato, was launched in 2024 by Burgess and Cambridge businessman David Cooney, who wanted to set up a philanthropic endowment fund that would financially benefit Cambridge for generations to come.
Sport too has contributed a lot to his life. He played rugby from age five, is passionate about rowing and cycling, has been a supporter at four Olympic Games and multiple All Black tours, and was a former partner in a sports management company.
“Sport has had a big impact on my life … I know the positive effect it can have on our young people,” he said. “I am very honoured by this award. I don’t see it as being only for me, but also as a recognition of all the organisations and people who have influenced my life.”
Kevin Burgess has been made an MNZN. Photo: Viv Posselt
