KEY POINTS:
Ian Farrant
Chairman of New Zealand Refining, Broadway Industries and Skeggs Group
* Companion of the Order of Merit.
* For services to business and the community.
* Age: 65.
* Family: Two children.
* Home: Wanaka.
Professional director and Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit Ian Farrant credits his success in part to a fair dose of luck.
The chairman of the listed companies New Zealand Refining, Broadway Industries and the privately owned Skeggs Group says he got a start on the professional director circuit because he was the right person in the right place at the right time.
"I lucked in," he says.
But his citation for this year's award shows that talent also counted.
"Mr Farrant has made a long-term contribution to local business and the community nationally.
"He has held appointments as a director of 25 [public and private] companies and been chairman or deputy chairman of 12 of them."
All this has been accomplished over a career spanning 40 years.
Farrant, 65, does not shrink from the honour, saying the recognition was not a surprise.
"I have done a lot with the Government [and] there are not that many people who have been on that many Government authorities and state-owned enterprises.
"Most people say 'God, I don't deserve this', and I am a bit in that category. Nevertheless, you do say 'well, yes, that is good'. You have an opportunity to turn it down, so having not turned it down you have indicated you are part of the system."
Farrant believes his recognition is important for raising the profile of the business community and the contribution it makes to the well-being of the nation.
"New Zealand does not quite recognise that we survive on how much we earn. It is the business that makes it. A Government can not survive without a very strong business community. The economy is based on strong businesses."
The recently widowed father of Louise (a lawyer) and Rachel (a chartered accountant) makes it clear that his views on the nation's governance may diverge with the Administration that conferred the recognition.
"I believe a good environment with appropriate taxes is where it all starts and ends - anything artificial I am not much in favour of."
But he still believes that this and previous Governments have largely got it right when it comes to the laws governing the corporate sector.
"New Zealand is in not bad shape. I think from time to time the systems break down. But we have a slightly light-handed governance regime, we have not broken that down that much.
"You can look at the rises and falls of the finance companies. You might have thought there would be a chain reaction from [the $300 million failure of ] Provincial Finance. But it hasn't happened.
"The pay-out on Provincial is probably not going to be spectacular, but the fallout has not been that bad - that is one indicator of us not being in bad shape."
The most pressing issue for Farrant is the country's small and dwindling pool of experienced company directors, now much shallower than the one he encountered in 1984 when he launched himself full-time on the professional circuit after a successful career as a tax specialist.
This reflects growth in the wider world outpacing growth in New Zealand as well as what he regards as unnecessary constraints on the professional service firms that serve as the nurseries for boardroom talent.
"It is still not easy to be a senior partner in a law firm or a senior partner in a big accounting firm and take these appointments on, the way I was able to do in the late '70s and '80s.
"[The firms] are all saying that we do not want you in directorships, first, because there is not enough money and, secondly, we do not want our independence compromised.
"The business community in New Zealand is so small that you are always going to face conflicts and you just have to manage them. Good people will manage them.
"At one stage I was chairman of [contractor] Fulton Hogan laying the bitumen, a Transit Authority member that allocated contracts and I was on the board of New Zealand Refining making the product - it was fairly integrated but it was fairly easy to manage the conflicts."
Farrant says the highlight was his 29 years on the Fulton Hogan board, including 24 years as chairman.
"That company is unbelievably outstanding. There was a turnover of $5 million in early 1974 when I joined and 160 employees. Last year's reported turnover was $1.3 billion and 5000 employees. That's a measure of the growth over the last 32 years."
Apart from his six directorships, he also has private interests, including a 40ha beef and deer farm in Wanaka and a trio of small aircraft leased to a Central Otago tourism operator.
He has some advice for those seeking to emulate his success.
"I have had an extraordinarily exciting time. I would have made a lot more money, I guess, if I had stayed in the practice. But the freedom, the ability to be your own person, the diversity you get from being a director. You meet so many good people and good management.
"People say to me 'I want to do what you do', but I say I can't actually give you a hell of a lot of advice. You have to be successful where you are to start with and then you have to strike a bit of luck, where somebody says that is the sort of person you want on that board."
