Dame Rosanne Philippa Meo (née O'Loghlen; born 1945/1946) is a New Zealand businesswoman based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. In 1991, she was the first female president of the Employers' Federation. She sits or has sat on the boards of NZ Forest Products,

Television New Zealand , type = Crown entity , industry = Broadcast television , num_locations = New Zealand , location = Auckland, New Zealand , area_served = Nationally (New Zealand) and some Pacific Island nations such as the Cook Islands, Fiji, and the Solom ...

Mercury Energy Mercury NZ Limited is a New Zealand electricity generation and multi-product utility retailer of electricity, gas, broadband and mobile telephone services. All the company's electricity generation is renewable. In August 2021, Mercury acquired ...

, Sky TV,

Ports of Auckland Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated fa ...

, and Baycorp.

Personal life

Meo was educated at

Baradene College of the Sacred Heart Baradene College of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic high school for girls aged from 11 to 18 (Year 7–13) located in Remuera, Auckland, New Zealand. It is based on the philosophy of Madeleine Sophie Barat, who founded the Society of the Sacred H ...

, Auckland. She has two daughters and was divorced in the early 1990s. Meo is the aunt of former

All Blacks The New Zealand national rugby union team, commonly known as the All Blacks ( mi, Ōpango), represents New Zealand in men's international rugby union, which is considered the country's national sport. The team won the Rugby World Cup in 1987 ...

captain,

Sean Fitzpatrick Sean Brian Thomas Fitzpatrick (born 4 June 1963) is a former rugby union player who represented New Zealand, and is widely regarded as one of the finest players ever to come from that country. Early life and family Fitzpatrick was born in Auc ...

Honours and awards

In the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours, Meo was appointed an

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, for services to business management. Also in 1993, she was awarded the

New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal The New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 was established by Royal Warrant on 1 July 1993. It was created to commemorate Women's suffrage in New Zealand and to recognize those New Zealand and Commonwealth citizens who had made a significant ...

. She was made a

Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit The New Zealand Order of Merit is an order of merit in the New Zealand royal honours system. It was established by royal warrant on 30 May 1996 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, "for those persons who in any field of endeavour, have rend ...

, for services to business, in the

2012 New Year Honours 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

. In 2016, Meo received the

New Zealand Women of Influence Award The New Zealand Women of Influence Awards are an annual set of awards which recognise women who make a difference to everyday New Zealanders' lives. The Awards were first made in 2013 and were initially sponsored by Westpac Bank. In 2016, Stuff N ...

for lifetime achievement.

References

1940s births Living people People from Auckland New Zealand women in business Date of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) New Zealand Officers of the Order of the British Empire Dames Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit New Zealand Women of Influence Award recipients People educated at Baradene College of the Sacred Heart New Zealand people of Irish descent Recipients of the New Zealand Suffrage Centennial Medal 1993 {{NewZealand-business-bio-stub