Richard Chandler says he loves to take on big global challenges - and de-carbonising aviation is one of the biggest around.
The Kiwi billionaire helped grow a fortune out of a Hamilton-based department store chain and is now at the forefront of the push for emissions-free air travel. This week he was on-site in the United States for the landmark flight of a battery-powered plane developed by two of his companies.
In a rare New Zealand media interview, Chandler told the Herald he wanted to bring his Clermont investment group's philosophy to aviation. The firm has experience of investing in challenging environments – including being the biggest provider of private medicine in Vietnam, and small business lending in India.
Chandler has a family connection to pioneering aviation and now has the financial means, motivation and opportunity to shake up air travel with technology that can be scaled up.
"We have an opportunity to really make a contribution with our creativity and our capital and our heritage and leaving a legacy in a very important industry," he said en route to the test flight in Washington state.
He's the cornerstone owner of Eviation which has built the plane, called Alice, and owns the firm MagniX, the engine-maker which has developed a high-torque battery-powered propulsion system.
According to the Forbes billionaires index, Singapore-based Chandler is worth US$2.6 billion ($4.6b). So far he has invested "hundreds of millions" of dollars in capital-hungry aerospace development.
But he's taken a different approach than others in what is the increasingly crowded field of electric plane development.
"A lot of people raised a lot of capital very early in the programme; that can often lead to capital indiscipline," he says.
"We've tended to raise capital in line with milestones, and I think it's been a much more productive approach."
One other key difference is that the nine-passenger Alice - its name inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland - has already won scores of orders.
Cape Air and Global Crossing Airlines, both US-based regional airlines, have placed orders for 75 and 50 Alice aircraft respectively. DHL Express is Eviation's first cargo customer, with an order for 12 Alice eCargo planes. Also taking notice is Air New Zealand, which is seeking partners in its drive to fly emissions-free by the end of the decade. The airline is expected to make announcements on this soon.
Chandler says there needs to be a "total game approach" to tackling climate change by cutting emissions.
"I think it's essential for all countries to be part of it, whether it's tourism, commerce, trade, communication between nations getting people together, we can't do without air travel," says Chandler who gets back to New Zealand occasionally.
The challenge of using battery technology in planes is "dramatically more complicated" than the electrification of cars or trucks.
The hope is that the Eviation aircraft will be developed and certified to enter service by as early as 2027.
Power to the people
Just as the Boeing 747 jumbo jet is frequently credited with bringing long-haul travel to the masses at an affordable price, a plane like Alice could democratise regional travel.
Regional carriers which link small centres in the US would be the first out of the blocks but the aircraft would also be ideal for New Zealand conditions, where towns surrounded by mountains or water are otherwise expensive to reach.
Battery power for planes would be cheaper than aviation gas, and with many fewer moving parts than conventional aircraft engines, they were much easier and cheaper to maintain.
"I think New Zealand is an ideal market for Alice," says Chandler. "As soon as you're crossing water or going over mountains, you can shorten those routes and do so very efficiently."
The cost of operations could be less than half of what it is with current aircraft, opening the way for not only low-price scheduled tickets, but also affordable charters.
"There's going to be the opportunity for on-demand, low cost, point-to-point travel."
There has been a big cut in the availability of regional flights in America over many years and people are forced to travel through the large hub and spoke system with multiple stopovers.
Short hops are the least efficient, creating more emissions per passenger than long-haul flights.
"If we can replace expensive, inconvenient and highly polluting short air travel with Alices - and then hopefully in time larger aircraft as well - I think that's the fastest pathway to significant carbon reduction."
Chandler backed the Israel-founded Eviation after weighing up whether to retrofit engines to existing aircraft or go for a clean-sheet design.
The MagniX – which last year won a US$74m award from Nasa – has successfully trialled its engines in two conventional light aircraft, but Chandler decided investing in an airframe start-up was the best strategy.
He says that to shake up the culture of aviation, it was important to back clean-sheet design.
At the end of 2018 Clermont invested in Eviation to ensure the Arlington, Washington state company had the best chance of success because at that point it lacked the capital to progress the plan.
He says the fundamentals of civil aircraft design haven't changed much for years.
"Most aircraft that are in operation today were designed 50 or 60 years ago. The industry, in many ways, has not had seen a lot of innovation for several decades and the current fleet is on the verge of obsolescence."
Alice uses Tesla-style batteries, and advances in battery technology are essential for the commercial viability of the new generation planes. Chandler says the pace of improvements is picking up.
Alice's flight this week from the Grant County International Airport, a former Cold War air base at Moses Lake, was brief, at around eight minutes, but it was closely scrutinised by the aviation industry.
The Seattle Times reported test pilot Steve Crane, as saying Alice "flew and handled wonderfully." It was fast and very responsive on the flight to 1200m.
The flight was brief but allowed checking for pitch authority, stability and the ability to land safely, the Times reported.
Chandler is keen to ride as a passenger when regulators permit, and is already very familiar with the plane.
"It's a beautiful plane to be on. It's just a wonderful passenger experience - it's better than going to Disneyland."
Business for good
Clermont's philosophy and goals are lofty.
"Our story is that of a Business House built on the foundations of big dreams, courage and integrity. We seek to be a 'good ancestor', building on this inheritance and leaving a legacy for others," says the company's website.
In his annual letter, Chandler says "Our dream is to see a world flourishing with everyone's creativity – and we are passionate about the role we can play in building it".
And he's keenly interested in governance. This year the second edition of the Chandler Good Government Index (CGGI) came out as part of the "mission to support effective governance globally".
New Zealand ranks ninth (Finland is top) and the report notes that good governments are more prepared for pandemics and other crises.
He likes where New Zealand is heading with an inclusive style of government.
"I think New Zealand's endeavouring to build an inclusive democracy. And so it's wonderful to see again New Zealand leading with women in government," he says.
"I think we've learned from some of our economic challenges and I think the country's become pretty pragmatic."
He says the global economy is facing some enormous challenges, but he singles out for praise something that is a target of criticism here.
"The Reserve Bank of New Zealand was one of the first to start raising interest rates so they were ahead of the game where arguably the [US Federal Reserve] is significantly behind the game."
Engineering a country or a business to become resilient is essential in uncertain times, argues Chandler.
"You've got to create a business model, whether it be for a company or a nation, which is diversified and is able to withstand anything from pandemics to wars, to trade policies that can be less than friendly."
He says Singapore got it right by establishing a sovereign wealth fund in 1981. Although it doesn't publish the total it manages, Bloomberg this year reported the Singapore fund was as high as $US744 billion, or $1.3 trillion.
After decades of globalisation, the world now faces a period of deglobalisation.
Chandler and his brother Christopher were early investors in Russia, taking stakes in electricity utilities, a steel company and Gazprom, the state-controlled oil and gas producer. That was in the early 1990s. He says the invasion of Ukraine is a failure of leadership after early signs that the former Soviet Union could have become a democracy.
"That was the hope throughout the 1990s until Putin came into power and leadership changed and things went the other way."
Global turbulence is a reminder of the need to think long term.
"I think we come back to that subject of sustainability and how do we all live on the planet happily, get on with each other, trade with each other and increase each other's prosperity," he says.
"And in many ways, maybe there's an opportunity for New Zealand to lead."
The Chandler story
The Chandler brothers' legacy began in Auckland in 1903, when Chicago-born Edward Chandler founded an advertising firm, Chandler & Co.
In 1973, his son Robert and his wife Marija opened Chandler House, a department store in Hamilton. In 1982, sons Richard and Christopher joined the business. The company grew to include a department store in Auckland and a chain of fashion stores.
Four years later, Richard and Christopher began their own story, establishing Sovereign Asset Management.
They invested in emerging markets, often at times of political and economic uncertainty. Sovereign began by investing in Hong Kong real estate in 1987 and went on to be among the first portfolio investors in Brazil and Russia.
In the 2000s, Sovereign returned to Asia, investing in listed companies in Japan, India and South Korea.
In 2006, following the de-merger of Sovereign, Richard Chandler established the Clermont Group, in Singapore.
Christopher Chandler, meanwhile, is based in Dubai where he founded the Legatum Institute, a think-tank involved in global projects, and did have links to backers of Brexit. He's also invested in GB News, a right-leaning British TV channel that has had a bumpy first year on air with high staff turnover and recently attracted new backers after Discovery sold out.
The Clermont Group
Clermont's conglomerate business model comprises two divisions. The first is Clermont Holdings, which owns and operates a group of businesses in healthcare, financial services and aerospace - Eviation and MagniX.
Hoan My is Vietnam's leading private healthcare group. Comprising 15 hospitals and over 5500 staff, Hoan My has 3.8 million outpatient visits annually.
In India, SBFC has provided loans to more than 240,000 customers through 135 branches in 111 towns and cities.
The second division, Clermont Capital, invests in private and public securities.
