KEY POINTS:
It's a great game to play over a few drinks - picking your "dream team".
Who would you have, dead or alive, in your best All Blacks squad of all time? Who would you select for your ultimate pub quiz team?
In the same vein, albeit on a slightly more serious note, the Business Herald conducted a straw poll of New Zealand brokers, fund managers and commentators last week and asked them to nominate Kiwi directors for their dream public company board.
A large spectrum of names shook out of the process. Anonymity of voting also encouraged frank comment about methods of director selection, depth of talent, and remuneration.
Several voters made the point that the same board is not appropriate for every company. Certain skill sets are needed for certain things and for particular periods.
One said he wouldn't nominate any state-owned enterprise directors, due to a lack of commercial nous.
"All they know is governance ... . All they can do is keep the company at where it's at ... You need one or two [people like that], but you don't want them running the company."
Another voter said while not all board members needed to be great entrepreneurs, "Not many money makers are going to step up and take the reputational risk and profile that comes with public company directorship for $65,000 a year. If they're really good at making money they're doing it themselves."
Another argued there should be more emphasis on equity rather than cash in directors' pay packets, to align their interests more closely with those of shareholders. "Intuitively, in my experience, equity is a very healthy thing to have in the equation."
Despite the venting, voters nominated a wide range of professional directors. Some worth mentioning who did not make the final list were Mainfreight managing director Don Braid, the Warehouse founder and non-executive director Stephen Tindall, and Pumpkin Patch and Hanover chairman Greg Muir.
New Zealand's lack of female directors showed up in the voting, with only three being nominated - Abano Healthcare chairman Alison Paterson, SkyCity and Air New Zealand director Jane Freeman, and Freightways director Sue Sheldon.
BRYAN MOGRIDGE
Long-time company director Bryan Mogridge appealed for the sheer depth and breadth of his experience, both as an executive and on boards.
The Rakon chairman is described as "a good thinker, pragmatic".
He has been a public company director since 1984. He is also currently chairman of UBS, Waitakere City Holdings, Designworks Enterprise, Guardian Healthcare, Momentum Energy and the Starship Foundation.
He is on the boards of Mainfreight, Marac and Pyne Gould Corporation.
In the past he has chaired the Wine Institute, the Food and Beverage Exporters Council, the Tourism Board and the Committee for Auckland.
As chief executive of 1987 crash survivor Corporate Investments in the 1990s, Mogridge is credited with stripping the company of unwanted assets to leave it lean and healthy.
It then changed its name to reflect its main asset, Montana Wines, and was eventually sold to Britain's Allied Domecq. When contacted by the Herald, Mogridge was unwilling to be seen blowing his own trumpet.
"I'm very respectful of people's comments, and that's what it's all about, growing the business for the shareholders and for New Zealand."
WAYNE BOYD
The undisputed leader in the voting was Telecom, Freightways and Meridian Energy chairman Wayne Boyd.
"As chairman he's quite a step ahead of everybody else," one voter said. If, for example, he was on a company that was a takeover target and he recommended the offer, "he's got the mana that the market would follow behind and not question it", the voter said. "Very few people have that status."
Boyd is described as having a collegial style, getting other board members to contribute without inflicting his dominance.
Others used the words "pragmatic", "understands business", and "keeps close to the street".
One voter said many people would not know him well in his role at Freightways, but he was rated by his fellow directors. He is also a director of Vulcan Steel and Landco.
He has also been a director of Sports and Recreation New Zealand, and worked on Ngai Tahu's commercial boards for more than 10 years.
Through a spokesman Boyd said he was honoured to be in the dream team, but declined to comment further.
TONY GIBBS
Colourful and eminently likeable, Tony Gibbs is equally well known as a corporate raider and right hand man to Sir Ron Brierley.
It was partly for his role as executive director of Guinness Peat Group that the Shareholders Association gave him their Beacon award for excellence in corporate leadership last year. One of their reasons was GPG's strong record in creating shareholder wealth - the London-based but heavily Kiwi-supported company announced a record annual profit for 2007 of $306 million.
Another factor was the stand Gibbs took at lines company Vector. He and two fellow directors quit the board, saying it was dysfunctional and describing chairman Michael Stiassny's style as abrasive.
Thirdly the association admired GPG's successful challenge to the Government over offshore investment tax rules.
Gibbs is also chairman of Turners & Growers, chairman of Staveley and a director of Coats, NGC Holdings, PrefSure Holdings and Tower. Gibbs said he was humbled by his dream team selection and said his strength was commonsense.
KEVIN HICKMAN
The co-founder of retirement village company Ryman Healthcare is admired for turning a small South Island business into the largest operator in the country.
Kevin Hickman co-founded Ryman in 1982, and was at the helm as managing director until 2006.
The company reached a market capitalisation of more than $1 billion by the end of that year.
A big expansion drive and strong demand for more properties delivered a record half-year profit to last September of $34.7 million after tax, up 22 per cent on the previous year.
"You don't do it on your own," said Ryman, who was amazed to be nominated.
He said one of his skills as a director was "weighing things up but then being reasonably decisive and determined to set a certain path and keep to it, and not get distracted".
"I think sometimes we over-complicate business, and it's relatively simple I think, in that you have to have a competitive advantage and then you have to pursue that and keep to it."
A keen racehorse owner, Hickman does not hold any other New Zealand public directorships and is looking forward to taking life a little easier.
RALPH WATERS
Queensland-born engineer Ralph Waters, Herald Business Leader of the Year in 2004, most emphatically got the nod for his work with Fletcher Building.
Waters was CEO of the company from 2001 to 2006, and is credited with putting in place the strategy that saw the company's market capitalisation grow from $800 million. to $4.1 billion.
Formerly managing director of Australian company Email before joining Fletcher Building, Waters is also a director of Fisher & Paykel Appliances Holdings, Fonterra Co-operative Group, Westpac New Zealand and Fletcher Building Finance.
One voter described Waters as "commercially smart", saying he "knows the street".
Waters said good executives and directors should have an innate commercial judgment. He compared it to a rugby player who may not necessarily have a great IQ, but who has an extraordinary vision and judgment of the game.
On top of that you add experience, he said.
"This is the fourth major down cycle in my working life. Well, you remember a few things from the three previous ones, I tell you."
LLOYD MORRISON
Herald Business Leader of the Year for 2006, Lloyd Morrison was described by one voter as having "always done the right thing by New Zealanders and his shareholders".
As executive chairman of Morrison & Co, Infratil's manager, and a director of both Infratil and Auckland International Airport, the takeover battle for the airport has seen him walk some very fine lines of late.
Morrison founded investment bank Morrison & Co in 1988 after the share market crash, which in turn saw the formation of listed investment company Infratil in 1994.
He was appointed to the Infratil board in 2002. He is also chairman of Infratil Airports Europe, and a director of Wellington Airport and TrustPower.
"Every board he's gone on he's added huge value and the company's performed extremely well," another voter said. "Lloyd always comes in with great insights and commercial wisdom."
Morrison established the HRL Morrison Music Trust in 1995 as a vehicle to support and promote New Zealand musicians and composers with a recording emphasis.
Lloyd Morrison was unavailable for comment.
