June 06, 2022
Ms Jo Mere Pilkington-Queen’s Birthday and Platinum Jubilee Honours 2022
To be a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit: PILKINGTON, Ms Jo Mere
For services to the events sector and the community
Ms Jo Pilkington is a long-standing member of the New Zealand events industry and has worked with a wide variety of professional, community and voluntary organisations to raise their profile and share their kaupapa through the running of successful events, festivals and commemorations.
Ms Pilkington has used her experience to assist organisations nationwide, in many cases on a voluntary basis, and has been particularly active in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay. She helped develop the events industry professionally by being instrumental in the design and implementation of the Diploma in Event Management for Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in 1999. She followed this by guest lecturing and mentoring Event Management students at AUT, Unitec and the Eastern Institute of Technology between 2005 and 2013. She was a Board member of Creative Napier from 2006 to 2008, the Kingsland Business Society from 2010 to 2012 and Chair of the Northcote Intermediate School Parent Teacher Association from 2012 to 2014. She has supported Auckland’s LGBTQI+ communities, as a Board member of the Auckland Pride Festival Trust from 2014 to 2016 and Event Producer for the Rainbow New Zealand Charitable Trust’s annual fundraising gala since 2018. Ms Pilkington became Co-Chair of the Rangitoto Island Historic Conservation Trust in 2020.