Angus Tait

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=July 2024}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Sir Angus Tait

| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=NZL|KNZM|OBE|size=100%}}

| image = Angus Tait.jpg

| alt = a bronze bust

| caption = Bronze bust of Sir Angus Tait as part of the Twelve Local Heroes sculpture

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1919|7|22}}

| birth_place = Oamaru, New Zealand

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|2007|8|7|1919|7|22}}

| death_place = Christchurch, New Zealand

| occupation = Electronics innovator, philanthropist and businessman

}}

Sir Angus McMillan Tait {{post-nominals|country=NZL|KNZM|OBE|size=85%}} (22 July 1919 – 7 August 2007) was a New Zealand electronics innovator and businessman.

Tait had a childhood fascination for electronics and during and after high school at Waitaki Boys' High School, he worked in a friend's (Kempton Collett) radio store. He served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force and also the Royal Air Force instructing as a second lieutenant on radar in Britain, during World War II.

After the war, he designed and built mobile radio equipment, although his first company went into receivership. In 1969, he founded Tait Electronics Ltd, now operating as Tait Radio Communications, Christchurch (New Zealand), with men who had decided to remain loyal and see him through; now his company is considered a world leader in mobile radio{{By whom|date=March 2016}}. He had persisted in keeping his manufacturing base in New Zealand, with 95 per cent of production exported to 160 countries.

In the 1992 New Year Honours, Tait was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to manufacturing and export.{{London Gazette |issue=52768 |date=31 December 1991 |page=30 |supp=2}} In 1996, he was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame.{{cite web |url=http://www.businesshalloffame.co.nz/past-laureates/ |title=Past laureates |website=Business Hall of Fame |access-date=16 February 2023}} He was awarded the IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition in 1998.{{cite web|url=http://www.ieee.org/documents/weber_rl.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100619230236/http://ieee.org/documents/weber_rl.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 June 2010 |title=IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition Recipients |publisher=IEEE |accessdate={{Format date|2010|11|20}}}} In the 1999 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to technology, manufacturing and export.{{cite web |url=https://dpmc.govt.nz/publications/queens-birthday-honours-list-1999-including-niue |title=Queen's Birthday honours list 1999 (including Niue) |date=7 June 1999 |publisher=Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet |accessdate=5 July 2020}} In 2003 he was the Inaugural New Zealand High Tech Award Winner.{{cite web|url=https://www.hitech.org.nz/awards/flying-kiwis/sir-angus-tait/|title= New Zealand High Tech Award Winner|date=2003}} Presently, Tait's company employs in excess of 850 people. In March 2009, Tait was commemorated as one of the Twelve Local Heroes, and a bronze bust of him was unveiled outside the Christchurch Arts Centre.

He died in 2007, at the age of 88.{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/49104|title=Electronics company pioneer Sir Angus Tait dies at 88|date=7 August 2007|work=The Press|publisher=Stuff.co.nz|accessdate=5 October 2010}}