Wood swaps rush hour for beach

By PETER GRIFFIN

Internet entrepreneur Nick Wood is to trade the bustle of running internet provider ihug for a beach paradise.

Last night he was hosting a party in Auckland to celebrate his departure from the company he co-founded eight years ago. His destination - the holiday resort he owns in Fiji.

Wood is stepping down from the day-to-day running of the pioneer internet company he created with brother Tim, but he is not selling his stake in ihug and will remain on the company's board.

Former Simpson Grierson chief executive and Telecom legal veteran Martin Wylie will take up the position of ihug's chief executive. Tim Wood stays on as sales and marketing manager.

It is a move that has been on the cards for some time as Wood indicated he wanted to spend more time with his family and pursue business side interests.

He said in the next six months he would spend much of his time in Fiji running his resort, which has a phone line to the outside world but no internet access.

"There'll be a little bit of sitting on the beach. I've got young children, I want to spend some time with them and my wife and do some fishing and diving. It gives me a place to sit with a clear head and think up new things," he said.

Ihug, the third-largest internet service provider in the country after Telecom's Xtra and merged internet companies of TelstraClear, has more than 80,000 customers.

It came through the tech wreck largely intact while consolidation claimed several competitors and competition pressure from the main internet providers had intensified.

"We've been so lucky," said Wood. "Fate's looked after us."

Ihug was now ready to "step into the next phase of its business plan", which would involve negotiations with the telecommunications carriers over network access rates. Wylie's experience in telecoms deregulation would be invaluable in those negotiations, said Wood.

According to the National Business Review's Rich List the Wood family have a combined fortune of $30 million. Despite lucrative buy-out offers during the height of the dotcom boom, the Wood brothers resisted the temptation to sell out and have kept a hands-on management style.

Last year, Auckland telecommunications company CallPlus acquired a 10 per cent stake in ihug.

CallPlus chief executive Malcolm Dick was unaware of Wood's decision to leave ihug when contacted by the Business Herald last night, but he was not surprised by the move.

"It's been on the cards for some time, ever since he bought the resort," he said, from a golf course in Fiji.

Ihug has also made two new appointments to its board. Keith Goodall takes up the role of chairman while Joe Duncan becomes a director.

Wood has several business projects on the boil, none of which he is willing to talk about just yet.