Harry Price's leadership is credited as helping Westpac become the largest bank in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Harry Price's leadership is credited as helping Westpac become the largest bank in New Zealand. Photo / Supplied
Credited with driving the bank to the top in the 1990s, Westpac New Zealand's longest-serving former chief executive, Harry Price, has died aged 80.
Price joined the bank in 1961 as a junior in Dunedin and remained a loyal employee for 40 years. He worked in several senior executive positions, including as New Zealand's chief executive from 1992 to 1999. He then held a senior role with Westpac in Sydney.
In 2000, Australia's former Westpac Banking Corporation CEO, David Morgan, said: "Mr Price's leadership has resulted in Westpac becoming the largest bank in New Zealand. Over many years Mr Price drove Westpac's New Zealand business, including the acquisition of Trust Bank in 1996."
Harry Price was appointed as chief executive with a brief to implement change, boost efficiency and customer satisfaction, and turn the bank around with a new strategic direction. Within a few short years, New Zealand's Westpac was outperforming its Australian parent.
Price regarded the merger to form WestpacTrust as a success. Photo / Supplied
Based at the bank's former head office at 318 Lambton Quay in Wellington, Price was the first Kiwi to be appointed leader of Westpac New Zealand and the first not to have previously worked at Westpac's Australian headquarters.
"Harry was an excellent CEO and the last of the real leaders who worked from shop floor to top floor by the power of character, intelligence, and pure horsepower - no fancy school, impressive qualifications, and smooth talking ... Everyone who followed was in his shadow, literally and figuratively," wrote former Westpac employee, Stu Woollett, on a tribute site.
In the 1990s, Westpac's 14 per cent market share was too small to be a success in the wider retail market. To be a credible force, it needed market share of at least 20 per cent - something it could only attain through acquisition. Westpac launched a $1.3 billion bid to acquire Trust Bank which was already in negotiations with The National Bank. Westpac won.
Reflecting on his time at the top, Price regarded the merger to form WestpacTrust as a success, having exceeded its cost savings targets - nearly $300 million annually - and with customer attrition during the merger well below expected levels.
When leaving the role, he noted that the job had been a lonely one, with the ongoing challenges of balancing the competing demands of shareholders, customers, and staff.
Throughout his four decades, Price was viewed as a strong advocate for women in the banking profession, with many since acknowledging the break he gave them.
As chief executive, he worked tirelessly to ensure Westpac New Zealand maintained as much autonomy as possible yet played a key role in the group. "Basically, I don't want to see this bank do what all the others have done, and that is everything ends up in Australia," he said in 1999.
For years he fought for Westpac New Zealand to be listed on the local share market and at the end of his tenure was successful. At the time, he said the move was not driven by a need to raise capital but "to get more New Zealanders owning the shares".
After leaving the bank in the early 2000s, Price took on several directorships. He and his wife moved and developed a property near Queenstown where he died peacefully on May 9 – just days after his 80th birthday.
Harry Price is survived by his wife Margaret, his daughters Kristen and Glenn, and their respective families.
