Founder of accounting company Xero, Sir Rod Drury, who has been made a Knight Companion in the New Year Honours, says he has loved using his business skills to help the community in recent years.

Drury has been made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to business, the technology industry and philanthropy.

Drury co-founded Xero in 2006 and helped develop it into a billion-dollar global company.

Drury moved to Queenstown in 2019 after he retired as chief executive of Xero.

He said since then he has enjoyed using his business skills to help the community in Queenstown in a variety of ways.

"Working on getting a hospital down to the Southern Lakes, putting in a lot effort into that," said Drury. "And working on solving the public transport problems with a new gondola, and those are projects

that if you were sitting inside a normal company it would be hard to do, but if you have the time and resources to throw at thing, you can do things a lot more quickly."

Drury has also been involved in environmental restoration through Mana Tāhuna and Project Tohu, funded equipment and facilities for Surf Lifesaving New Zealand, and supported Ngāi Tahu students

and artists.

He established Southern Infrastructure to support Queenstown public infrastructure projects and Tāhuna Ride and Conservation Trust which supports regenerative planting along with creating mountain

bike trails.

Drury said the accomplishment he was most proud of was twice taking his company public, with Xero listing first on the New Zealand stock market and then in Australia.

"One of the things I have learnt over time is if you take a company public it gives a whole lot of other people the opportunity for financial security," said Drury.

"If you do list a company it creates a product that people can put money in, and they can move themselves ahead forward too.

"It's a pretty noble cause. So of all the highlights I think creating a public company that still lives today, 20 years later, is something I am very proud of."

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Drury was a titan of New Zealand business.

Christopher Luxon visits Xero's London headquarters earlier this year. Photo: RNZ / Soumya Bhamidipati

"While at the helm of Xero, it became New Zealand's second largest tech exporter, generating thousands of jobs and supporting more than four million customers worldwide. The company were

pioneers in mental health and diversity. Since 2020 he has spearheaded public good infrastructure and philanthropic projects. His entrepreneurial career has seen New Zealand benefit in the fields of

education, the environment, and renewable energy."

Sir Rod Drury is one of four new knights, and three new dames named in the New Year Honours.