Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch. A native of New Zealand, Robert worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ, before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
Here are the three names, together with the reasons why. Each of them is a no-brainer – the question is why haven’t they already been knighted?
First on the list is Graeme Hart. Maybe he’s been offered one in the past and refused? Otherwise it’s a scandal. Why bestow the title Sir on NZ’s richest, or second richest, man? Because he’s a symbol of the returns to hard work, being energetic, figuring out where value lies, and adding to it. There are other reasons – he’s a rags-to-riches story. But maybe most importantly, he proves you can be a global player, investing around the world, and still be based in NZ, living with your extended family. He proves to youngsters that you don’t have to leave the country to make it big.
Second, economist Peter C B Phillips, who went to Mt Albert Grammar School and, for many years during my career, was ranked in first place on the world’s most respected rankings system, called RePEc, which judges research by quality of publications, as well as citations. Phillips still lies in the world top 10, whereby seven of those 10 have been awarded Nobel Prizes. At number 10 is Eugene Fama, who coined the phrase “efficient markets” and became a founder of modern finance theory.
Phillips spent much of his career at Yale in the US, and now lives back in Auckland, where he grew up. What amazes me is that he’s way higher ranked than nearly all of my former teachers in England who have been knighted by the UK government – like Sir Tony Atkinson, Sir Steve Nickell, Sir John Vickers, Sir Tim Besley, Dame Carol Propper, Sir James Mirrlees, and more. Seems its far harder to be knighted for contributions to economics in New Zealand than in the United Kingdom.
Third, Shane Legg, from Rotorua, who coined the phrase “Artificial General Intelligence” and is currently working to achieve it, within the next decade, which will revolutionize the world and potentially the whole of human life. Voted one of the world most influential people in AI, he founded Deep Mind and is Google’s Chief AGI Scientist. His fellow Deep Mind founder, Demis Hassabis just won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, which wouldn’t have been possible without Legg.
Amazingly, he received a Commander of the British Empire honour by the Queen, but has never been honoured in his own country, where he grew up, and where he went to Waikato University. Again, seems it’s way, way harder to be recognized in NZ than in a country of 60 million people, where you weren’t even born.
In many ways, the fact that these three – one of the world’s most successful business men on Bloomberg’s billionaires list, a decent person to go with it, and a family guy whose grandson just finished at Auckland Grammar – together with the Kiwi who has ranked top of the world in economics for decades – together with the founder of the AGI revolution whose company Elon Musk and Peter Thiel desperately fought to buy – have not been knighted tells you meritocracy has been on retreat in NZ. That situation must now be righted, starting with these three, each of whom is world famous and at the very top of their international tree.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
