HBHS Old Boys' Foundation News
Old Boys Making the News
Professor Michael Baker
Michael Baker, NZ’s go to Covid 19 expert and HBHS Old Boy 1971-1975 is making headlines this year winning the PM’s science prize and being recognised in the New Year’s Honours list when he was appointed a Member of the NZ Order of Merit.
As part of the Government’s Covid technical advisory group, Baker pioneered a national elimination strategy that he says has now become the “dominant model” across the Asia-Pacific region. He was the lead author of the world’s first-published elimination strategy which was published in the New Zealand Medical Journal on 2 April 2020.
He was, he says, hugely relieved when the measures were adopted by the Government.
“I felt absolutely compelled to communicate because at some points I thought New Zealand was heading off a cliff, particularly a year ago when we were at a real crossroads as to whether to follow a flatten the curve approach or to forge a different direction to eliminate the virus.”
Baker says “there’s a huge global influence for zero-Covid” that he believes has been spearheaded by the strategy.
Black Cap BJ Watling
BJ Watling, Black Cap and HBHS Old Boy 1999-2003
Unfussy and imperturbable, BJ Watling has called time on his excellent career at the end of next month’s tour to England, which includes the inaugural World Test Championship.
His test career started with a curtain raiser as an opening batsman in 2009, before his main act as a wicketkeeper batsman of the highest order. In his wonderful career BJ has wrung every ounce of talent he had out of him to become a pivotal figure in New Zealand cricket’s improbable rise.
