The Front Page: Who is Simon Henry - and why should we pay attention to what he says?

DGL Group chief executive Simon Henry. Photo: New Zealand Herald/Michael Craig

At the start of 2022, few people in New Zealand would have known who Simon Henry was. The chief executive and founder of DGL Group to most was just an anonymous millionaire running his successful business.

It wasn’t until May that he found himself as one of the most controversial men in New Zealand, after he made comments in an interview about My Food Bag founder Nadia Lim. His comments criticised Lim’s appearance in a photo featured in the prospectus for My Food Bag, referring to her as a “TV celebrity showing off her sensuality”.

“When you’ve got Nadia Lim, when you’ve got a little bit of Eurasian fluff in the middle of your prospectus with a blouse unbuttoned showing some cleavage, and that’s what it takes to sell your scrip, then you know you’re in trouble,” he said at the time.

His comments sparked a swift public backlash, with Henry eventually apologising for his comments after his personal share price tumbled by $140 million.

For the last six months, NZ Herald investigative journalist Carolyne Meng-Yee has been trying to secure an interview with Henry ever since those comments were made - finally getting him on the record earlier this month.

Talking to NZ Herald’s The Front Page podcast, Meng-Yee said that she wanted to get his side of the story as it’s important to get balance, particularly when a person is making national headlines.

“And also why they said what they said, and also who are these people because people have the right to know what makes someone like that tick and feel comfortable on this day and age to say such outlandish comments.”

When she finally got to meet him, she got a deeper look into his personal life - including his plans to have more children, his sparse home life and his unusual travel habits. But one thing that stood out is that, while “cancel culture” may get a lot of oxygen these days, Meng-Yee said that she got no indication that Henry’s life was severely affected by the controversy, asides from a dent to his ego and the loss of part of his fortune.

“I think Henry, because he is so wealthy, was in a position where it’s like water off a duck’s back and I suppose successful business people probably have to tend to be a bit like that anyway.”

Today, Meng-Yee explains to The Front Page why it took six months to get her interview with Henry, what she learned about him during their discussion, what Henry’s future looks like, and how this scandal could change CEO culture in New Zealand.