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Former Auckland Airport chairman John Maasland says he stepped down from the board of wirelesss internet company Woosh because it now takes more guidance from major foreign investors.
"I've been a director for seven years and clearly in the last few years the major investors offshore have become the ones who are calling the shots in the company, which I'm very happy about," he said from Sydney yesterday. "But the result is that as the sole independent director the time was right for me to step down."
The timing of the decision had nothing to do with the performance of the company, which was fine, he said.
But his departure from the airport board last week had prompted him to take a look at some of his directorships.
"I guess you could say it's a time for me to to clean up some of my other directorships," Maasland said. "It just seemed a good opportunity, having stepped down from the airport board, to also step down here where I felt that in the end I could play no real role without being a major investor."
Maasland said he wasn't giving up on being a professional director.
"Far from it, I'm very keen to work a bit more with the companies I am involved in and happy to be involved with more companies in the future.
Maasland retains a small shareholding in Woosh.
