He grew up there, then attended King's College Auckland, before moving to Dunedin where he completed a joint arts and law degree at Otago University.
"I did law because my friends were doing it, but I've ended up with quite a different career path than just pure law," he said.
After graduation, he signed up for the Royal New Zealand Navy where he ended up spending 16 years as a Defence Forces solicitor. That included having to pass regular naval officer training.
"I wore a uniform," he said. "I even had a sword."
Although he seldom served at sea, he did spend three and half years in Singapore from 1984-87 as legal officer for the army commander, in the final years when New Zealand had forces stationed in the island republic. The 1st Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment, was brought home in 1989.
When he completed his service in 1995, Mr Chapman became chief counsel and manager of the Commerce Commission's legal services division, where he managed in-house and external litigation.
He served under Alan Bollard, a future Reserve Bank governor.
"He was a very interesting person to work for. You didn't do cases because you could, they had to be enhance the commission's strategic plan. Alan taught me a lot about making sure you achieve things that have tangible outcomes, not just doing them because you could."
After five years, Mr Chapman took up the position of professional standards director for the Auckland District Law Society, with a membership then of about 2000 lawyers. The role involved investigating complaints about lawyers and regulating standards around issues such as managing trustee and nominee accounts.
His partner, who intended to come to Auckland, had meanwhile secured her job in Tauranga, where they both planned to retire. After a year and a half of commuting, Mr Chapman resigned from the Law Society to take up the Kiwifruit NZ position, which had become vacant.
He spent three and a half years in the role, becoming familiar with the kiwifruit industry, focusing mostly on regulatory and legal matters.
"Towards the end of my time I noticed KGI had scope for skills that were beyond my legal skills and I managed to get the job as their CEO."
The appeal of his new position at HortNZ, which he takes up in late January 2016, was the opportunity to work for better collaboration across all of the fruit and vegetable sectors, he said.
"What really excites me is linking all the networks and helping lead export outcomes for growers by influencing collaboration across all the networks."
Neil Trebilco, KGI's outgoing president, said Mr Chapman had a great capacity for work.
"His legal skills have been of huge benefit and he's also extremely knowledgeable," he said.
"And he has a lot of contacts not only within, but outside the industry, which have proved extremely valuable. The role he's had is one that's required a high level of skill in quite a few disciplines. I think he'll be a huge asset to HortNZ."
