Q. What do you say of criticism of your housing plans at Three Kings and Mangere?
A. I'm very interested in listening to the people living in communities in and around our proposed developments and I thought they expressed their views with great passion at the ASM.
However, I also care very much about the need to provide new communities for those who are not fortunate enough to be able to find housing in today's market.
Auckland has an immediate need for many thousands of new homes and Fletcher Building can build high-quality homes at the scale the city needs within a master planned community with the necessary infrastructure and amenities.
Consultation is critical for us because we want to create vibrant communities with parks and green spaces that are close to transport, shops and other infrastructure.
We want to create places where people can enjoy living, working and playing. In terms of Mangere, we've just started on the master plan process and will keep talking with all the relevant groups. We've been developing our Three Kings plans for 10 years and we've had a very robust consultation process.
We've changed our plans for the development in response to feedback. Auckland Council's Development Committee and its Independent Commissioners recently found in our favour and we are pleased they recognised the value of our vision for Three Kings.
Q. You were appointed chief executive in 2012 and have since been busy selling assets. Why?
A. Fletcher Building is a portfolio of businesses and we aim to be smart about balancing the portfolio, investing in assets when it makes sense and divesting businesses which don't have a long-term strategic fit within the group.
In the years before I took over, Fletcher Building had invested billions of dollars expanding into new geographies and business sectors.
I felt we needed a pause to get our arms around a business that was three times bigger than when it emerged from Fletcher Challenge in 2001 and yet had the same systems, processes and management skills.
There is no point in being big for the sake of being big. You have to be confident that you can bring something to an asset that the current owner can't before embarking on an acquisition.
Whether buying or selling assets, you should ideally get ahead of trends and transact at the right time for shareholders. This is what we've strived to achieve with the companies we have divested in recent years.
Q. What's up for sale next; is it the big insulation businesses as has already been tipped?
A. While people are always interested in speculating about the future, I don't think it's particularly useful to employees, investors or other stakeholders to talk about a process before it is completed.
We are actively managing our portfolio of businesses, which means simplifying the portfolio, selling businesses which don't fit with our strategy and combining businesses to create fewer, larger business units.
If we do decide to sell a business it's no reflection on the quality of that business " it's because it doesn't fit with our strategy or because the business is worth more to a strategic owner.
A great many hours of analysis, research and negotiation are involved in this process and during those conversations we are always considering what is right for Fletcher Building and what is right for our shareholders.
Q. Do you ever plan to buy anything in the longer term?
A. Having gone through a consolidation phase we do have a desire to grow.
However, our preference is to grow organically through our existing assets, people and markets. We are open-minded about further acquisitions, but we will only pursue opportunities that fit strongly within our identified growth areas.
At the ASM we clearly identified construction, residential development and distribution in Australia and New Zealand as areas for organic growth. Any acquisitions would have to support our growth strategy.
Q. How long do you intend to stay in the job?
A. The tenure of any CEO is determined by a number of factors including their performance, what the board thinks of them, shareholders' views and their own family situation and personal motivations.
I'm very proud to be the CEO of Fletcher Building and I intend to stay on as CEO for some time yet. I don't have a fixed term " my employment is open-ended.
We have worked hard to build a management team and culture that engages everybody in the success of the business and my continued motivation comes from the desire not to let these people down.
Q. You worked in Ohio for quite some time, and in Paris. How does Auckland compare?
A. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to live and work all over the world. I get a real buzz from living in a new place and getting under the skin of the cultures in the place where I'm living. Everywhere is superficially different, but human beings, no matter where they live, have much more in common than they have differences.
Q. You're off to Sydney, to an outdoor opera, to celebrate turning 50 last month?
A. It will no doubt surprise many people to hear I'm looking forward to an opera in Sydney. I'm a working class guy whose idea of a good day out is a trip to the football match and a pie at half time. Sydney is such a great city, though, and the whole concept of creating an outdoor stage on the harbour, the spectacle of it all. I'm really looking forward to experiencing it with my family.
