Bruce McLaren wins Ryman’s Village of the Year award!

4:35

‘Amazing’ and ‘unbelievable’ were the words Village Manager Chantelle Hand used to describe her reaction on hearing Bruce McLaren Village had been named Village of the Year at the 2025 Ryman Awards.

“We’ve waited for this for a long time,” she said, as she struggled to contain her emotions.

“Thank you to my amazing team, I’ve just got the most amazing team! Thank you everyone!”

Announcing the accolade during the virtual event was Ryman’s Chief Operating Officer Marsha Cadman, who said a whole range of different metrics were considered to choose Bruce McLaren as the winning village out of 49 villages operating across both New Zealand and Victoria, Australia.

“These include financial performance, our newly developed clinical quality indicators, team engagement at the village, and of course feedback from residents and their next of kin,” Marsha said.

“We really aim to look at a complete picture of what makes a village stand out and use a special weighting system to ensure the assessment is as fair as possible.”

The Botany village celebrated its official 10^th birthday in December and with nearly 170 dedicated team members, or ‘Rymanians’, the village has built up a strong reputation for care and connection in that time.

Marsha said: “The exceptional resident satisfaction, high clinical standards, and strong financial results, all reflect the strength of the close-knit, high-performing team behind it all.”

Hearing the news....

....is worth the nervous wait!

The Kevin Hickman Award, presented by Ryman’s CEO Naomi James, was awarded to Sunny Sandeep, Clinical Manager at Kiri Te Kanawa Village in Gisborne.

This award embodies Kevin’s values of kindness, excellence, leadership and care while recognising high performing team members who are mentors to their teammates and the wider Ryman community.

Naomi said: “Sunny is a role model, a high performer and above all, a person of deep care and integrity.

“Excellence and high performance must go hand in hand with compassion. This award recognises someone who is already living that balance.”

Kiri Te Kanawa Village Manager Penny Forrester described Sunny as ‘a true Rymanian’ and ‘outstanding human being’ who was one of the reasons for the success of the village, which won Village of the Year award in 2023.

Sunny was momentarily speechless but credited his colleagues at the village for his success: “I got this award only because of my team.”

Other highlights from the night included Leader of the Year winner Eloise Viscarra from Weary Dunlop in Victoria, who was a finalist in the category in 2020 and previous winner of Sales Advisor of the Year Michelle Shaw from John Flynn being nominated in the category for the second time.

This time she was pipped to the post by Hamilton-based John Proudfoot, Sales Advisor at Linda Jones Village who had a big contingent of residents at the village cheering at the news.

While commending the finalists and winners, Naomi, who joined Ryman in November, said in that time she had been ‘blown away by the calibre of our people’ across Ryman.

“I’ve seen outstanding performance, deep commitment, and a genuine passion for making a difference in the lives of our residents and that’s no matter where someone works or what they do,” she said.

“Whenever I visit a village I have residents telling me how amazing Ryman team members are, how much they appreciate the care, love, laughter and support they receive.”

Addressing Rymanians, Naomi said: “It is a special privilege to be part of an organisation like ours. People choose to work here because what we do matters.

“We don’t just come to work – we show up to serve, to care, and to build communities that feel like home.

“So whether you’re in a village, a site, an office, or at home, please know this: You are valued!”