Fletcher 'good guy' just a tad red-faced by investor honour

Ralph Waters (front) received the award for good corporate behaviour from Bruce Sheppard. Picture / Paul Estcourt

"I find awards a little bit embarrassing," said Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters as he picked up this year's Shareholders Association "Beacon" - the trophy for the corporate good guys.

He was just doing a job and getting paid for it, he told a function the association held at the Auckland Club to hand over the lighthouse trophy and to celebrate the absence this year of any awards for bad behaviour.

Waters said he was like a jockey on a champion horse - required only to be halfway decent and not steer the thing into a fence.

He said he had run another listed company that was "a damned sight harder" and never got any public accolades.

Waters also paid credit to the Fletcher Building management team.

Association chairman Bruce Sheppard gushed at Waters' leadership, clear vision, "and absolute integrity".

"You have turned around a company that many would have written off."

Talking later, an association member noted, also, his ability to communicate.

That was where another local business leader, Air New Zealand chief Ralph Norris, was quite special, "and this guy is exceptional".