Holdsworth family to help arts and environment

Peter and Bronwen Holdsworth founded Pultron Composites Ltd in 1983 which, through a focus on innovation and international competitiveness, became a world leading industrial technology manufacturing company with factories in Gisborne and Dubai.

Renowned as an innovative engineer and inventor, Peter began experimenting with pultrusion technology in his shed in Te Karaka in 1981 while looking for a lighter, stronger alternative for wind turbine blades. He applied the technology to electric fence posts and clips, transforming the New Zealand fencing market and breaking into the global market.

Further innovation saw Peter’s pultrusion technology used for sail battens, optic fibre cables, mining rockbolts, ladder rails, snowmobile tracks, and pontoons - to name but a few of the many products. Pultron was also the development partner and exclusive supplier to high-tensile springs for the ‘SpringFree’ trampoline, a revolutionary design which eliminated 80 perecent of trampoline accidents, becoming an international success.

Dame Bronwen was educated in Wellington at Samuel Marsden College (where in 2007 she was the inaugural laureate in the Marsden Hall of Fame) and at Victoria University. In 1966 she joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was posted to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 1970 she married Peter and moved to Gisborne. They have four children, all highly educated, who live and work around the world.

She was MORE Business Woman of the Year in 1988; was awarded a NZ Commemoration Medal in 1990; an ONZM in 1997; a Gisborne Millennium Medal in 2000; and was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in June 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her contribution to the arts, business and the community.

A long-time supporter and advocate of the arts, Dame Bronwen helped establish the Arts Fund at Sunrise. A musician herself, she believes creativity is an integral part of every aspect of our lives - through all stages of education, culture and technology.

Bronwen believes “vibrancy and diversity of the arts is a vital component in enhancing the cultural, social and economic life of our community”.

Bronwen and Peter have also established the Dame Bronwen and Dr Peter Holdsworth Family Endowment Fund. It is invested in perpetuity, every year some of the investment income will be retained to protect it from inflation and future investment market fluctuations. The surplus income will be granted to local causes of their choosing in the fields of the arts, music, and environment. 

A named endowment fund will be established when your donations total $50,000 or more, you can choose:-

• To have the fund in your name, your family name or any name of your choice. 
• Which charities or causes will receive distributions from the income from your fund.
• To receive annual reports on earnings and distributions from your named endowment fund.

Read more about the Arts Fund

Read more about the Holdsworth family fund