An award winning filmmaker, a leading New Zealand businessman and a key figure in the Christchurch rebuild will each be awarded honorary doctorates at the University of Canterbury (UC) graduation ceremonies in April.

An award winning filmmaker, a leading New Zealand businessman and a key figure in the Christchurch rebuild will each be awarded honorary doctorates at the University of Canterbury (UC) graduation ceremonies in April.

Academy award winning filmmaker Vincent Ward (Doctor of Fine Arts), corporate magnate Alan Gibbs (Doctor of Engineering) and Christchurch property investor and entrepreneur Antony Gough (Doctor of Commerce) will receive their doctorates during the April graduations.

Antony Gough has made a significant contribution to the development of Christchurch’s central city.

He is best known in Christchurch for creating The Strip, a stretch of bars and restaurants on Oxford Terrace that became a popular social precinct and tourist destination along the Avon River.

He is a strong supporter of the city’s rebuild following the earthquakes. As chairman of the Central City Retailers’ Association, Gough was instrumental in establishing the Re:Start container mall in Cashel Street.

He has begun a $140 million redevelopment project centred on his former Oxford Terrace precinct. This mixed-use development will be built around a central courtyard containing bars, restaurants, shops, a hotel, apartments and offices.

Once completed, it will include 40,000 square metres of built space where up to 2000 people will work. The creation of The Terrace precinct is seen as pivotal to the rebuild of the central city.

Gough graduated from UC in 1970 with a Bachelor of Science degree, with honours in nuclear physics. UC Chancellor Dr John Wood says it is appropriate and timely for the university to acknowledge the significant contribution that Gough has made to the development of the city over many years and especially since the earthquakes.

Filmmaker Vincent Ward is one of New Zealand’s most celebrated filmmakers, screenwriters and artists. His films have received critical acclaim both within New Zealand and overseas, and are known for their strong visual and atmospheric elements.

His first feature film, Vigil (1984), was also the first New Zealand feature film to be invited to enter the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey (1988) and Map of the Human Heart (1993) also featured at Cannes. His 1998 film What Dreams May Come, starring Robin Williams, received an Academy Award for best visual effects.

His films began receiving international recognition and critical acclaim even before he had graduated from UC in 1979 with a Diploma in Fine Arts.

While based in Hollywood in the late 1990s, Ward developed the initial story for Alien 3, executive produced the Academy Award nominated film The Last Samurai, which starred Tom Cruise, and directed the historical epic River Queen.  Ward received the New Zealand Order of Merit for his contribution to filmmaking in 2007.

Alan Gibbs has had a substantial influence across New Zealand’s business, economic, political and cultural spheres since graduating from UC in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in economics, having previously studied for three years towards an engineering degree.

During New Zealand’s period of economic reform from the late 1970s to the early 1990s Gibbs was active in restructuring inefficient businesses such as Freightways and, more significantly, Telecom so that their best elements could survive and prosper in competitive markets.

He helped establish New Zealand’s first pay television channel, Sky TV, and was key to the development of Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour. Over the past two decades Gibbs has developed one of the world’s great sculpture parks by Kaipara Harbour combining a unique landscape with exotic animals.

He has devoted the past 15 years to the immense engineering challenge of developing and commercialising the world’s first high speed amphibious vehicle technology, for which he is now being recognised by the awarding of the honorary Doctor of Engineering degree.

Media Release: University of Canterbury