Don McLaren receives New Year Honour

Don McLaren, a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2014 New Year honours’ list, has been a longtime supporter of the horse industry.

Don was previously awarded an ONZM for his services to animal health and the racing industry in 2000.

As the founder and owner of the NZ veterinary pharmaceutical company Bomac Laboratories, which he set up in 1958 and sold to Bayer New Zealand Ltd in 2011, Don has been a generous benefactor to the NZERF. The popular Bomac Lecture Series (now Bayer Lecture Series) was an initiative that Bomac sponsored since 1987, as was the half-yearly NZERF Bulletin.

He has also established the $750,000 Don McLaren Fellowship Fund, an investment fund from which dividends will be directed to branches of the NZ Veterinary Association including the NZ Equine Veterinary Association.  These funds will be used to support research and to fund continuing education for the country’s equine veterinary surgeons.

In 2002 Mr McLaren was inducted into the NBR Business Hall Of Fame. He is also a past Chairman and Life Member of the Auckland Racing Club, the Patron of the NZ Racing Hall of Fame and in 2012 became the first non-veterinarian elected as an Honorary Life Member of the NZ Equine Veterinary Association.

He also established Northfields Stud, a boutique Thoroughbred stud from which he has bred and/or raced some outstanding horses.