Hugo Friedlander (born Friedländer, c. January 1850 – 1 October 1928) was a New Zealand businessman, local politician, and horse breeder from Ashburton. Friedlander was born in a Jewish family in Kolmar, in the Prussian Province of Posen in 1850. The Victorian gold rush attracted him and his two brothers, Rudolph and Max, to come out to Australia. The brothers came to New Zealand in the late 1860s. At first, Friedlander lived in Orari working for Joseph Mendelson, riding into Ashburton every morning for an 8 am arrival (a distance of about 45 kilometres or 28 miles).