Foreman is CEO of the Emerald Group, an investment company with interests in healthcare in New Zealand, manufacturing in New Zealand and the USA, a boutique hotel on Auckland’s North Shore and property development and investment.

Her business empire also includes Emerald Foods, which won an NZTE International Business Award last month for companies with turnover between $10 million and $50 million.

But she is clearly an entrepreneur who has indentified opportunities across a vast array of business interests, says David Johnson, chairman of the panel of judges, chief executive of Trends International, and winner of the inaugural Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 1998.

“We grilled her: was she an investor or entrepreneur? And we absolutely got bitten back at 100 miles an hour. If she wanted to be an investor, she could be sitting on the beach talking to her accountant every two days.

“She bought the Emerald Inn in Takapuna and she has slept in every room in that place. She got the gardens out of Fiji, she brought the gardener and the plants back, and she’s just got resource consent for a $100 million plus project to turn it into a retirement home — she intends to live there one day — and she bought it out of receivership 15 years ago and identified its potential. That’s not an investor.”

Foreman will represent New Zealand at the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year Awards in Monte Carlo in May 2010.

Johnson, who has been on the judging panel for the past five years, says it was incredibly difficult choosing between the five finalists this year.

“I know it’s trite but any one of those five people could have represented us on a world stage. I think Diane will tick every possible box in terms of representing us in Monte Carlo.”

Foreman, a former vice chair of the Business Roundtable, struggled as a single parent before meeting and marrying Bill Foreman, who encouraged her to take over Trigon, the family plastics company, which she eventually sold to Sealed Air Corporation in 1996 for $130 million.

The five finalists were:

Products; Diane Foreman. Emerald Group Limited

Services; Ross Hyland. Seales Limited

Technology, health sciences and emerging industries; Graeme Clegg. New Image Group

Young Entrepreneur (35 or under when applications close): Derek Handley. The Hyperfactory.

Master Entrepreneur (leaders of well-established businesses who have demonstrated commitment to entrepreneurship): Peter Marshall. Tallon Systems.


Previous overall winners include:

Michael Hill - Michael Hill International Limited
Ashley Berrysmith - Freshcuts NZ Limited
Richard Taylor - Weta Workshop Limited
Sir George Fistonich - Villa Maria Estate


The 2009 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards judging panel comprises:

David Johnson. Trends International.
Bill Day. Seaworks Limited.
Erica Crawford. Kim Crawford Wines.
Greg Cross. Cross Ventures.
John Hynds. Hynds Pipes.