PRINZ names Mark Knoff-Thomas as Communicator of the Year 2025

Mark Knoff-Thomas has received the Communicator of the Year award at the annual Public Relations Institute of New Zealand’s (PRINZ) year-end celebration.

PRINZ partnered with Streem to relaunch the Communicator of the Year award this year after a period of post-Covid dormancy.

This award recognises an outstanding communicator outside the PR industry. PRINZ members were invited to nominate someone who sparks conversation, embodies the PRINZ Code of Ethics and inspires a ripple effect.

The nominations were narrowed down to three finalists, Mark Knoff-Thomas, CEO of Newmarket Business Association; Morgan Maw, founder of Boring Oat Milk; and Nathan Speir, litigation partner at Meredith Connell. These finalists were then voted on by verified PRINZ members.

Advocate for local businesses

Kelly Bennett of One Plus One Communications nominated Mark Knoff-Thomas for his strategic fluency, transparent credibility, and respect for the fourth estate.

As CEO, Knoff-Thomas advocates for local businesses, regularly meeting with ministers to ensure their perspectives are heard. He has contributed to the design and rollout of the Escape Hide Tell campaign, which educates the public on actions to take during an armed offender attack in a public place.

Knoff-Thomas has also built strong communications channels for his community such as the Newmarket magazine, the Newmarket Vox podcast and his regular appearances on RNZ’s The Panel.

Honesty, advocacy and independence

Knoff-Thomas exemplified the PRINZ Code of Ethics when responding to a misleading reputational error earlier this year. After providing a brief comment for a NZ Herald article condemning a man covertly filming women, the paper published his photo under the headline ‘Intimate recordings of women.’

By speaking out on LinkedIn with honesty, advocacy and independence, he sparked a debate on editorial responsibility and libel, garnering more than 400 comments and prompting a printed apology from the Herald – demonstrating how his communication inspired conversation and change.

The significance of effective PR

Dom Harvey and Jay-Jay Feeney of PodLab attended to present Knoff-Thomas with his award. They commented: “It was an absolute honour to be invited today to present the PRINZ Communicator of the Year. We’ve had a bit to do with PRINZ this year, it’s a fantastic organisation and it’s wonderful to be aligned with them. A lot of our success personally has been off the back of good PR, so we love the PR industry.”

Upon accepting the award Knoff-Thomas said: “I am incredibly flattered to have won this award. I get a lot of help from a lot of people, and I have the privilege of representing a very complex town centre environment.

“I’m glad that what has happened through the course of this year has sparked some conversations and people are taking interest, having conversations around perceptions and fair media portrayal. I think underlining all of that is the importance of good PR because that’s vital.”

The post PRINZ names Mark Knoff-Thomas as Communicator of the Year 2025 appeared first on stoppress.co.nz.

stoppress.co.nz