Next-generation wealth: Many of the adult children from New Zealand’s wealthiest families are following their parents’ footsteps, while some have branched out and are running their own businesses. Image / NZME
They grow up enveloped in wealth, raised by parents tagged with labels like rich lister, multi-millionaire or self-made entrepreneur. Jane Phare and Anne Gibson look at New Zealand’s ‘heir apparent’ generation to find out what they’ve done with their lives and careers.
One glance at the Instagram accounts of some of the country’s young-and-intergenerational wealthy and it’s obvious there’s no shortage of dosh. Social media is full of Kiwi lovelies partying in Ibiza, skiing at Whistler, holidaying in the Med or, closer to home, helicoptering to the exclusive Tara Iti golf course north of Auckland before jetting down to Queenstown for some R & R at Ayrburn.
They’re living life on the back of billions of dollars worth of baby boomer wealth, which will one day pass to them, accumulated through property development and investment, farming, retail, hospitality, transport, food manufacturing, packaging, retirement villages and technology. Their surnames are synonymous with success – Hart, Spencer, Farmer, Todd, Fletcher, Fay, Richwhite, Friedlander, Masfen, Kirkpatrick. (See more in a list below)
Together, they hold enormous wealth. Many of them are UHNWIs – an elite group who qualify as an “ultra-high net worth individual”. Data from global real estate consultants Knight Frank shows that 2587 Kiwis qualified for UHNWI status, wealth of more than $52 million, in 2023. That number is expected to rise to 3285 by 2028.
But even the trust-fund babies are expected to do something with their lives, particularly the Kiwi ones. Some of the second-and-third-generation descendants head off to do their own thing, or gain university qualifications before returning to learn the ways of the family business. Still others turn their parents’ multimillion-dollar fortune into a billion-dollar one.
As far as Annabel Fay is concerned, one of the best decisions her parents, Sir Michael and Lady Sarah Fay, made was to move the Fay Richwhite entourage to Geneva in the late 1990s.
In Geneva, she was just an anonymous kid. Sure, her parents were rich, but their wealth was dwarfed by many living in the global Swiss hub. No one knew or cared about the Wine Box Inquiry or how much money merchant bankers Fay Richwhite had made.
They’d never seen the 29-storey bronze mirror-glass Fay Richwhite skyscraper, built in the opulent 80s at 151 Queen St. Nor did they know that the Fay/Richwhite families bought Ahuahu Great Mercury Island, off the east coast of the Coromandel, where Sir Michael still lives. In other words, the Fays were relative nobodies in Geneva.
Looking back, she’s thankful that her parents gave her and her two siblings, James and Jessica, the space to figure out what they wanted to do. None of them have gone into merchant banking.
Fay, 37, is currently a lecturer in sociology at the University of Denver in the US while completing her PhD. Before that, she was a pop singer for nearly 10 years and then trained as a chef at the Culinary Institute of America in California’s Napa Valley.
Fay’s US-based brother James has invested in a group of medical clinics run by Providence, with his father Sir Michael and David Richwhite. Fay, the father of twins, is married to celebrity artist and model Beau Dunn, who has an Instagram following of more than 940,000 and is known for her pop art based on Barbie dolls.
Jessica Fay is a partner in a London law firm, practicing family law.
Annabel Fay thinks the adult children from inter-generational wealth put themselves under unnecessary pressure, trying to make sure they are viewed as successful.
That’s one of the reasons she gave up social media, a decision she describes as one of the best she has made.
Those growing up in high-achieving families need to examine where the pressure to excel is coming from, she says.
“A lot of the time, that pressure is not necessarily coming from the parents. It’s coming from themselves.”
Although thousands of baby boomer offspring will inherit a small fortune, and in some cases a large one (an estimated $1.2 trillion will transfer to Millennials and Gen Z in the next two decades), most will be expected to earn their keep.
And not all will inherit their parents’ vast wealth. After Brendan and Jo Lindsay became overnight rich listers after the $660m sale of their plastic container company Sistema in 2016, the couple made it clear their four children would not be inheriting millions. Instead, they set up the Lindsay Foundation to give their fortune to charity during their lifetime.
The 15 heirs of the late construction pioneer Hugh Green, who were set to inherit a fortune worth billions, have elected to instead give their inheritance away. A family trust will control the assets of the Hugh Green Group of companies until 2069, at which stage 75% of the trust’s assets will be transferred to the control of the Hugh Green Foundation and given away to charities.
Last year, hundreds of beneficiaries related to the Todd Corporation, worth an estimated fortune of $4.3b, had their shareholder dividends “temporarily” suspended after the failure of some of the company’s large-scale international projects. A Todd Corporation spokesperson declined to say whether payment of the dividends has resumed.
Heir apparent: here’s what some of the adult children from New Zealand’s wealthiest families are doing, listed in alphabetical order.
Neville Cook, the son of Suzanna and pioneer businessman and philanthropist Cliff Cook, remembers boyhood summer holiday jobs working in the gardens of his parents’ Metlifecare retirement villages.
Years of exposure to his father’s business acumen had a big influence on his business career.
“You don’t learn it in a single session, but with decades of exposure. He [Cliff Cook] taught us the benefit of not only hard work but also smart work.”
The Auckland-based managing director of family office NSI Management describes his father as “a fantastic deal maker”.
Cliff Cook sold his remaining 25% shareholding in the NZX-listed Metlifecare in 2005 for $85m, but the family still own Britain’s LifeCare Residences with villages at London’s Battersea Place and in Hampshire. They also have a wide spread of New Zealand assets, including in energy, technology and water infrastructure.
Cook’s London-based brother Daniel also works for the family business. He is executive director of LifeCare Residences, responsible for the company’s UK investment and growth strategy. Three other siblings, Vanessa, Josh and Vincent, took other career paths.
Jonty, Hamish and Adam Edgar, the sons of Queenstown multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Eion and Lady Jan Edgar, are involved in sharebroking and investments like their father.
Sir Eion, who died in 2021, spent nearly 50 years with investment company Forsyth Barr and was chairman until his retirement in 2019. He was also known for his generosity and philanthropy, a legacy the family has continued.
Investment banker Jonty Edgar is an executive director and co-head of markets at Forsyth Barr. Edgar is one of several high flyers who have invested in privately-owned tourism business RealNZ. He lives in Auckland with his wife Amber, and owns a property at exclusive golf course Tara Iti. Edgar is a shareholder in luxury goods company Faradays in Auckland’s Parnell and in Urban Polo.
Hamish qualified as a lawyer, worked at Russell McVeagh in Wellington before moving into the finance industry in London. He returned to New Zealand in 2014 and helped establish the Edgar Capital family office, alongside his father, which he continues to manage as CEO.
Hamish co-chairs the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi, co-founded by his father, and lives in Auckland with his wife Victoria and two daughters.
Adam joined Forsyth Barr Wānaka last year, having worked in the financial services industry for more than 20 years in New Zealand, the UK and Hong Kong. He is on the board of the Winter Games NZ, Mitre 10 Ferry Mead and on the investment committee for Plunket NZ. He lives in Wānaka with his wife Anna and their three children.
The offspring of the global hotel-owning Faull family didn’t get a cushy time as kids.
Matthew, Oliver and Edward Faull, sons of Carol and Gavin Faull, a Taranaki farmer who established the Swiss-Belhotel International hotel management group in 1987, were taught the value of money at an early age.
Oliver Faull recalls that during trips to the supermarket, he and his brothers were told to find the best deals on the family shopping list. And they were expected to find holiday jobs.
The Faulls might have appeared on NBR’s rich list in 2017 with an estimated wealth of $85m, but the family still has a policy of flying economy.
“Dad says you get there at the same time as all the other passengers,” Oliver Faull said.
Gavin Faull is chairman and president of Swiss-Belhotel International, and the three brothers serve as executive directors and senior vice-presidents. Auckland-based Oliver Faull, who initially worked as a chartered accountant for BDO in Auckland and later in New York and London, now helps run the hotel business.
Matthew and Edward Faull also hold senior executive positions in the business, which employs 1200 people operating 125 hotels in 20 countries. Matthew is based in Jakarta, and Edward divides his time between Jakarta and Vietnam.
Gavin Faull and his four brothers also own the 200ha Faull Farms in Taranaki.
Seph “Sticky” Glew, ex-Chase Corporation, has handed over the reins of his multimillion-dollar office space company to his daughter Jessie Glew. She is chief executive of flexi-office space landlord WOTSO, which owns $332m worth of property in New Zealand and Australia. Seph Glew is chairman of the company.
Jessie Glew, based in Sydney, who has worked closely with her father for the past 15 years, says she learned financial discipline from him.
“I studied international communications, but I’ve been involved in the property business since I was very young, just because of the dinner table conversations we would have.”
Warehouse billionaire Greg Goodman, the son of the late Sir Pat and Lady Hilary Goodman, is chief executive of industrial property company Goodman Group, a $65.7 billion powerhouse listed on the ASX with a trust offshoot listed on NZX. The company specialises in owning warehouses, logistics and industrial storage around the world.
Goodman’s mother died in a car crash in Australia in 2014, and his father died three years later. He credits both his parents with instilling family values of hard work and integrity.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported Goodman and his wife Anna paid $7.7m for a Victorian cottage in the suburb of Woollahra. In 2015, they paid $16.5m for the nearby mansion Orama and $8.9m for a neo-Georgian property the same year, which backs onto Orama. The nearby cottage is believed to be for the couple’s three sons, Josh, Sam and Harry.
Greg Goodman and family are listed in The Australian’s Rich 250 list this year with an estimated wealth of $5.45b.
Goodman’s brothers, Patrick and Craig, work in the Goodman Family Office in Sydney, overseeing global investments. Local investments include the recently launched Kingston Village development on the southern shores of Lake Whakatipu.
Graeme Hart and Robyn Hart’s son Harry has been groomed to go into business with his billionaire dad and is now managing director of major food company Walter & Wild. Harry Hart was New Zealand’s most eligible playboy bachelor until five years ago when he met Australian cattle baron heiress Cartier Lee.
The family are close, with three generations living across a sprawling estate on the cliff top at Glendowie. The family often holidays together, either on Graeme Hart’s latest super yacht – currently a 102m Feadship named Ulysses – or at his holiday homes on Waiheke Island or Closeburn Station at Glenorchy, near Queenstown.
Harry Hart has a 33% share in Walter & Wild (his father holds the remaining 67%).
Hart junior is also a shareholder of the exclusive Tara Iti Golf Club, as are his parents, and his brother-in-law, Duncan Hawkesby, married to Hart’s daughter Gretchen.
The Hawkesbys and their four children live next door to the Hart compound. The Hawkesbys’ eldest son, Miller, now works in the US as a sales analyst for Nick and Mat Mowbray’s business, Zuru Edge, in Minnesota.
Gretchen and Duncan Hawkesby owned transport and logistics company, Fliway, which listed on the NZX in 2015. It was acquired by Singaporean logistics firm Yang Kee Logistics in 2018 after a $55.4m takeover offer. At one stage, Gretchen and her brother Harry went into business designing and building houses on Waiheke Island. Hawkesby is known to be a tireless fundraiser, including years chairing the Starship Foundation and working with the Friends of Starship committee.
From the age of 7, when her parents, Sir Michael and Lady Christine Hill, opened their first jewellery store in Whangārei, Emma Hill has been part of the business. She remembers emptying rubbish bins and cleaning counters before graduating to work in the shop.
As the business expanded in New Zealand and into Australia, she took up executive roles after completing a BCom and an MBA. Eager to prove herself as capable as her father, Hill moved to Canada in 2002 and led the expansion of the brand across the country.
A director of Michael Hill International since 2007, Hill served as deputy chair in 2011 and as executive chairperson from 2015 to 2021.
Last year, Hill and her father entered a partnership with US private equity investor Ric Kayne and business partner Jim Rohrstaff, the duo behind Tara Iti and Te Arai Links near Mangawhai, to redevelop the family’s golf course, The Hills, near Arrowtown.
Says Hill: “I’ve always drawn great strength from Dad’s boundless enthusiasm and positive outlook to business, and from my mother’s incredibly pragmatic advice.”
Hill’s brother Mark is a successful sculptor and artist, working from his studio at The Hills. Hill is known for creating large-scale welded corten steel sculptures, some as high as 12m, including three towering Māori warriors outside Queenstown Airport, and a series of giant dragonflies suspended over a lake at The Hills.
He has created sculptures for the past 25 years, everything from giant bugs, birds and kelp to human figures of skiers and swimmers.
Chris, Paul and Michael Huljich are the sons of Elizabeth and Peter Huljich, who was a restaurateur and property developer. The three brothers founded small goods business, Top Hat Bacon, in the mid-1980s, then food manufacturing company, Best Corporation. The company was listed on the NZX in 1991 and was sold to French food company Danone.
After the sale, the three brothers went their separate ways in business and careers.
Chris and his son Peter founded Huljich Wealth Management (NZ) in 2007, which they sold four years later to Fisher Funds for $20.9m. They invested in a number of start-ups and technology businesses, and were early investors in digital donation firm Pushpay.
In 2021, they sold a 16% stake to American investment firm Sixth Street Partners for a reported $320m.
Michael Huljich lives in Australia and invests with Chris and Peter. He and his wife Svetlana, paid $15.4m last year for a three-level property in Sydney’s affluent harbourside suburb of Darling Point.
Huljich’s nephew, commercial real estate guru Jason Hulich (son of Chris and Colleen Huljich), also lives at Darling Point with his wife Lucy. In 2020, he paid $25m for a five-bedroom, five-bathroom gothic mansion, Callooa, built in the 1850s.
Jason’s siblings, Peter and Elizabeth, live in Auckland. Sister Rachel lives in Sydney.
Jason Huljich is co-founder and joint CEO of ASX-listed Centuria Capital Group, which oversees more than $23b of assets under management and has a market capitalisation of A$1.3b.
Huljich is in business with old school friend Mark Francis, son of Peter Francis, who developed cinema company Force Corporation and was a former director of Chase Corporation.
Mark Francis co-founded Augusta Group, taken over by Centuria NZ in 2020. Francis is chief executive of Centuria’s New Zealand division and is managing director of NZX-listed landlord Asset Plus.
The third Hulich brother, Paul, who now lives in Auckland, has been open about his stress-induced mental illness, which caused him to move to the US to seek treatment. He became an author, public speaker and a leading stress expert. He has three sons, Mark, Simon and Richard.
Third-generation Huljich, Mark, is a movie producer. His brother Simon, known as Simon Spire, is a musician.
Richard describes himself as a “life strategist” offering coaching in business and public speaking, leadership training, life coaching, and team building.
The family support the Huljich Foundation, a charitable trust that supports seriously ill children.
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Topher Richwhite, the son of London-based merchant banker David and Libby Richwhite and his wife, Bridget Thackway, have applied for consent to build a $15m bunker-style glowworm cave about 2km outside central Queenstown.
The Queenstown-based Expedition Earth influencers, who were detained in Iran for four months in 2022 during their round-the-world trip, have also built a high-end private hideaway in the Far North called Faraway Cove. Built on pristine coastal land, the designer home is available for guests to hire.
One of Topher’s sisters, Rebecca, trained as an architect in London and designed temporary spaces with exclusive event company Urban Caprice for clients including Estee Lauder, Giorgio Armani, Jo Malone and Air New Zealand. In 2018, she was commissioned as an interior designer to revamp London’s Old Vic Theatre. She is now based in Arrowtown.
Topher and Rebecca’s sister, Louisa, did a degree in fashion and apparel design at Regent’s University London, working in the fashion industry in New Zealand and London.
In 2010, she launched her successful Violet Darkling jewellery brand, known for its gothic and “spooky” offerings; think spider necklaces and skull rings.
Kiwi billionaire Berridge Spencer, son of toilet paper baron the late John Spencer, might have started his career as a hedge-fund expert, but making fine wine is his true passion. He’s the fourth generation in one of New Zealand’s wealthiest families, with a fortune built from the 1880s on the back of his grandfather Albert, who founded Caxton Pulp & Paper, inherited by John Spencer in the early 1980s and sold in the late 80s for an estimated $300m.
Berridge Spencer planted grapes on the family-owned Stoney Batter estate, gradually developing Man O’War vineyard and restaurant.
Last year, he launched Forest Flight, a series of ziplines enabling visitors to fly through pristine bush down to Man O’War’s beachfront cellar and restaurant. The move is in stark contrast to the intensely private John Spencer, who battled Auckland Council and locals for nearly two decades to stop vehicle access to the historic Stony Batter gun emplacements and tunnels.
Berridge Spencer also owns half of Peninsula Capital, a company which bought more than $40m worth of properties fronting Devonport’s main street with plans for a $400m development.
He lives in a vast, park-like family estate on 1.5ha of land on Stanley Pt in Devonport with his wife Olivia, a fashion creative director, and their three children. Much of the land has been in the Spencer family for three generations.
Little is known about Berridge’s sister Mertsi, who lived in Dubai for some years and ran bespoke home furnishing company, Falcon Coast. The family’s Bruce Clarke-designed 21m yacht, the Mertsi Louise, which cruised the world, was named after her. In 2001, she and Berridge entered the yacht in the Sydney to Hobart race. Mertsi Spencer is believed to live in Australia, does not own property in New Zealand and has withdrawn from family-owned companies.
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 25 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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