This year's winner of the Young Read Woudberg Business Owner award is Ryan Fowles director of RZG Construction who took home two major awards from this year's Young Read Woudberg LinkT Awards and Ball 2016.

In a field of high quality young businesses, employees and innovative young professionals Ryan not only took the Business Owner award, his company RZG Construction Limited of which he is founding director, also won the Priority One Young Innovator of the Year award.

The judges were seriously impressed by Ryan's entrepreneurial spirit having started his company from scratch and achieving significant growth in a short space of time. Ryan has grown the business organically and avoids external debt where possible by choosing to reinvest profits in plant and equipment. RZG was a company with 6 employees and now has a team of 16. Ryan values the support provided by his operations manager and construction crew at RZG Construction Ltd and it is obvious that his team has huge respect for him also.

The innovation award was because Ryan took a calculated risk that reaped huge rewards and gave his business a competitive edge. The investment in a robotic total station has ensured that RZG's projects are completed with accuracy and in the most cost effective and efficient manner possible. RZG is the only construction company in the Bay of Plenty using a robotic total station to implement BIM. RZG also uses an Australian software programme which gives the company great tendering capabilities. Ryan is continually looking for ways to grow his business through the use of innovative construction methods and by using the latest technologies available in the production of concrete structures.

This year's winner of the Holland Becket Lawyers Young Employee of the Year is Keryn Jarvis of Staples Rodway. Keryn was nominated for the award by Lisa Stirling and she is a Chartered Accountant and Manager at Staples Rodway Tauranga.

The ball was at Classic Flyers.Photo: Supplied.

Keryn is a committed and dedicated part of the Staples Rodway team. The judges were impressed by Keryn's attitude and drive to succeed in her professional career whilst also giving back to her community when the opportunity arises. Keryn's community involvement is commendable, and she is currently mentoring a Year 11 student as part of Project K, an initiative of the Graham Dingle Foundation.

This years inaugural winner of the Archistudio Social and Environmental Award is Kimberley Cleland and Night Owl Cinemas. Night Owl Cinemas was created by Kimberley in 2013, and having a strong emphasis on the environment, with a social outcome. Kimberley saw a gap in the market of outdoor movies – always a risky move at best and hugely weather dependant. For Kimberley her environmental outcomes were critical, and she has a waste minimisation strategy, which has resulted in a 50-95% diversion at events during the 2015-2016 summer season, and runs a Fuel reduction plan for 'Zero carbon off-the-grid events” with Film initiatives such as cycled powered cinema and use of solar powered generator.

Kimberley's social outcomes were to provide low cost events accessible for everyone for a gold coin donation. She has a strong passion to upskill volunteers and to hold smoke and alcohol free events for all the community to enjoy. Kimberley is a strong and committed environmentalist.

The inaugural Employer of the Year is Trustpower, with a very impressive list of specifically focused programmes and initiatives for their young employees. bespoke graduate programme – to assist them to develop the foundations skills for a successful career.

They have a Young Professionals group that holds events throughout the year where there's a speaker and an opportunity to network/get to know other people from across the business

They have a bespoke graduate programme where graduates are employed into positions that match their qualifications and move through rotations over a 2 year period that will assist them to develop the foundation skills required for a successful career in their chosen field.

There are summer internship opportunities – for example, we've just taken part in the 'Summer of Tech” which is an opportunity to attract and appoint students either part way through their studies, or ending their studies to work at Trustpower. This year they'll be working in 'innovation developer” roles.

The Rotary Young Leadership Awards (Ryla)which each year is offered to the opportunity for three 20-28 year olds to go on a week-long leadership development programme.

They have a Leading our future leadership development programme – Trustpower's in-house leadership programme. It's open to any age and is a really good opportunity for 'young” people within the organisation to develop their leadership skills and learn more about themselves as well.

There is secondment opportunities to learn how other areas across the business work. The Berwick Experience where each year we offer the opportunity for 3x people to do the Berwick experience. It's also been a really great way of getting our 'young people” to get out of their comfort zones.

They have a very dynamic working space and ABW working environment at Head Office and we're in the process of moving to this environment in our Oamaru office now as well and they also support training and development opportunities i.e. formal qualification if they are directly related to their role.

'As proud supporters of the Young Read Woudberg Rocket Awards and Ball 2014, we are delighted to help with a programme that inspires young professionals to strive for and celebrate success,” says Eric Woudberg, Partner, Young Read Woudberg.

'Congratulations to the Awards winners – we're sure this is a stepping stone to even greater business success.”