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Ernie Newman says there isn't a telco he hasn't clashed with in the decade that he's represented the country's phone and internet users.
"There is not a major phone company in New Zealand in which I haven't had a major dressing down from the CEO at some point since I've been in the job. I've been ticked off by various government agencies, I've come into controversy with other business groups who have had a different view at various times, but hey, if you believe you're on solid ground you actually have to stand that ground," he says.
"I always feel sad with some of the ill-will that results from some of those things. At the end of the day, if you believe in the cause you sometimes have to put the cause in front of the people and move on."
The organisation Newman heads - the Telecommunications Users Association (Tuanz) - pulls its membership from some of the major telecommunications users in New Zealand as well as most telecommunication companies.
The board includes representatives from Carter Holt Harvey, Foodstuffs, ASB Bank, the Automobile Association and technology giant Nortel Networks.
When Newman took charge as the first chief executive nearly nine years ago, the brief was to re-establish a broken relationship with Telecom, get the finances back into the black, recover some members and start getting some traction on regulatory issues.
Telecom's freeze-out had hit the organisation in two ways - not only the breakdown in communication with the industry's biggest player, but Telecom had also been a major financial supporter and sponsor.
"The organisation was in the doldrums - Telecom had literally cut off communication with us."
Newman got in contact with Telecom's communications manager at the time, Clive Litt, whom he knew well from a former job.
"I rang him up and said, 'I've got this job at an outfit called Tuanz. Can we go and have a beer and talk about it?'
"He said, 'We can go and have a beer but we can't talk about Tuanz because the firm instruction at Telecom is that Telecom does not engage with anyone from Tuanz."'
Newman said it took about a year and the appointment of Theresa Gattung as Telecom's chief executive to establish a cordial, workable relationship with the company.
He said part of the change in attitude came about as Tuanz became more influential within the sector.
In the past it was a matter of Telecom being seen to be talking to a group representing most of its major customers, said Newman.
"Now I think they talk to us because they want to and we can help them and that's reciprocated. Much as we have our stoushes with Telecom - as we do with other carriers from time to time - they are still the biggest carrier in the industry and they are a very important supplier of services to our members.
"We had a fractious relationship but there has always been good communication and ironically right now the relationship with Telecom is better than it has been at any point in the past."
Telecom spokesman Mark Watts said it was a constructive and important relationship for Telecom.
"We don't always see the world eye-to-eye but we're involved in big issues which attract big opinions, and I think Ernie's position on a range of those issue is well understood and I dare say he's got a very good understanding of our view of the world too."
Newman says it is not just Telecom he has clashed with.
He admits Tuanz has worked aggressively in some contentious areas which often have "big dollar signs for these people".
CallPlus executive chairman and founder Malcolm Dick is one to admit he hasn't always agreed with everything Newman has done.
"But he's a very genuine sort of a guy. He's very passionate about what he sees his role as. He has definitely helped move the environment to a much better position now than it's ever been, ever," said Dick.
Newman looks forward to going to work each day - "even though on occasion it drives me to distraction".
"I suppose I've got a little bit of a sense of mission with it and that mission is far from accomplished yet."
The ultimate goal for Newman and Tuanz is to haul New Zealand's communications technology ranking into the top 10 out of 30 OECD countries.
"When I can actually see we're on the right track for that, I'll move on to something a little more conventional."
Newman joined Tuanz with a background in what he describes as "business lobbying".
He had spent more than 20 years in a variety of business associations including the New Zealand Manufacturers Federation (the predecessor to Business New Zealand).
"Basically I've moved around business associations, which is an unusual sort of career but one that sort of seems to fit with my skill set," said Newman.
"I think I've become quite entrepreneurial over the years and I've tended to run business associations as if they were entrepreneurial small businesses."
His current job has been an exception to the rule in one respect - generally he has moved on after five years when he admits his concentration tends to run out.
However, Newman said the fast-paced world of telcos, technology, regulation, business and social change that encompasses the sector is all-consuming and incredibly stimulating from an intellectual point of view.
But it has led to long hours and little time for much else outside "the usual sort of family stuff".
"I've got an awful approach to work/life balance ... I could not have done this job if I had young kids."
A hobby that has recently come to wider attention is a passion for the piano accordion which has seen him appearing in a YouTube video playing Tulips from Amsterdam to promote the organisation's internet awards.
"It was just about the first time I've played it when I was sober. It's an instrument for a drunken party - it's not designed for promoting events."
Newman - who began playing as a teenager on a secondhand instrument - picks up the accordion and plays a couple of tunes two to three times a week when he gets home from work.
He said the accordion playing was going to lead to his retirement job, where he plans to work as a busker on the Paris Metro, moving between carriages with a little dog on his shoulder.
Newman said Tuanz had a vision to see information and communications technology as a source of economic growth and wealth for New Zealanders.
"That is actually the part of the role that I get the biggest buzz out of because that's actually much more positive than poring over Commerce Commission issues papers and writing submissions on them."
Newman is disappointed at what he sees was a missed opportunity six or seven years ago to use communications technology to get ahead of the rest of the world and beat the disadvantage of New Zealand's isolation.
He said the incentives for industry to put in the broadband infrastructure required to be a leading-edge technology country weren't put in place.
"What we're doing now is desperately trying to catch up with the rest of the world. People now know they are missing out on something."
He said the local and central governments were "nibbling at the edges" with some technology initiatives but there was still ambiguity around what the Government's future role in investment would be.
Newman added that signals the industry would hold off investment were not encouraging.
The worst possible scenario would be to get to the general election next year and have the political parties start trading off how much they would spend propping up New Zealand's broadband.
"If it gets to that stage, the private sector will look at its investments, sit back and do nothing and blame the Government when it all turns to mush."
However, he looks back over the past nine-odd years and sees a number of positive changes.
He rates the passage of the Telecommunications Act in 2001 as the first major milestone that the organisation had worked with others to achieve.
The announcement last May of the Government's plans to introduce further industry reform - which Newman describes as "a watershed" - vindicated the organisation's stance, he said.
Former technology journalist Paul Brislen, who now works for Vodafone, first met Newman shortly after he began technology reporting in 1997.
Having covered the battle to get local loop unbundling, Brislen recalls calling Ernie first to commiserate when a Commerce Commission press release announced it wouldn't be forcing Telecom to open up its network to competitors.
He said Tuanz was instrumental in raising awareness among journalists that local loop unbundling was an important issue and needed to be battled over.
"We fought a long battle over that one and I'm delighted that it's finally coming to fruition."
Brislen said he had always disagreed with Newman over mobile regulation, even before moving to work for Vodafone.
"I still don't see the argument about mobile termination rates the same way Ernie does. But he knows that and we've agreed to disagree," said Brislen.
"Ernie's heart is always in the right place. I know sometimes he doesn't quite get the message across that he wants to, but his heart is always in the right place. He is firmly on the side of the user, and that is just to be applauded really."
Tuanz chairman Merv Altments said Newman joined the organisation at a time when it operated with a part-time executive director and no staff.
"He's basically built a lot of the organisation and he's always available to make comments and he does that without fear of failure too."
Altments said Newman's extensive travel to meet similar industry organisations had given Tuanz an invaluable internationalperspective on telecommunications issues.
Ernie Newman
* Age: 61.
* Chief executive of the Telecommunications Users Association.
* Has worked in marketing for Carter Holt Harvey and various business lobby groups.
* Educated: Scots College, Wellington.
* Married to Lorraine, with two children and four grandchildren.
