Firm favourite a rising force at TVNZ

Outside the boardroom, Joan Withers - pictured at home in Karaka with dressage horse Magic Genie - is a keen equestrian. Photo / Sarah Ivey.

Joan Withers said she wanted to ease back when she ended four years as chief executive of Fairfax New Zealand in June last year.

Within weeks the Government was talking to her about appointments to the board of directors for two state-owned enterprises.

Why is the former media boss so popular with this Government?

Withers has become one of New Zealand's highest-flying company directors but likes to say that she has her feet firmly on the ground.

She left school in 1970 with School Certificate and few ambitions beyond getting married and having children.

Her first job was a trainee cadetship at the local branch of the Bank of New Zealand.

Within four years she had achieved those early ambitions, marrying her teenage sweetheart Brian Withers, who lived in her street in Papatoetoe.

But after having a child she drifted back to work. Becoming editor of the South Auckland Gazette indulged her interest in media and got her writing restaurant reviews.

She moved through advertising to be general manager of Radio i - co-owned by Brierley Investments and Metromedia - before she was headhunted for Radio New Zealand commercial stations in the late 1990s, which became The Radio Network.

Some believe that media privatisation experience has made her a popular choice with the Government and played a part in her role at TVNZ and the Treasury.

Withers has always lived in South Auckland. Her parents emigrated from Manchester in England when she was 5.

She has been married to Brian for 37 years and they have an adult son.

Brian Withers has been involved with manpower planning for Air New Zealand engineering, working at the airline's base at Auckland airport.

The couple live in a 8ha farmlet in Karaka where Withers rides her horse to wind down after a stressful day in the boardroom.

"It's great - you only think about one thing - how to stay on the horse," Withers says.

There are probably not many company directors living in South Auckland, but there are advantages to living away from common company director habitats.

"We like it here. We do our shopping in Papakura and I suppose you probably get to see a side of life you would not see in Remuera or Takapuna," Withers says.

That fits with her own analysis on why she has become a popular choice for government directorships.

She says she is seen as down to earth with "useful skills for the current environment".

Forty years after joining the BNZ, Withers is seeing a very different side of the business world.

She has been a director for Ceramco and The Warehouse and has had long stints on the board for Auckland International Airport and state-owned energy company Meridian Energy.

She stepped down from Meridian Energy but last month the Government appointed her chairwoman of Mighty River Power, the country's third biggest generator with an expanding retail presence through Auckland-based Mercury Energy.

Last month her 14-year directorship of Auckland International Airport was turned into the chairmanship, replacing Tony Frankham.

In June she was appointed a trustee of the Tindall Trust - a philanthropic trust that has a significant stake in The Warehouse.

In October last year, the National Government appointed Withers to the board of Television New Zealand amid reviews of its structure and speculation it is being prepared for sale.

Then just 10 months later she was appointed deputy chairwoman.

Speculation is rife that she may replace chairman Sir John Anderson when his term ends next June.

Changing the guard at state-owned enterprises is not unusual with changes of government - sometimes to people from the same political persuasion.

Withers was appointed to chair Mighty River as former National Party Prime Minister Jenny Shipley was appointed to Genesis Energy.

Inevitably there will be those who question where there is a positive discrimination toward women in directorships.

New Zealand has a dearth of experienced directors with CEO experience and business leaders such as Shipley and Theresa Gattung have been pressing for New Zealand to match the number of women board members across the Tasman.

Withers says: "I don't believe the Government - or any other shareholder appointing directors - would be driven by tokenism."

She agrees her politics are to the right of centre but insists that a flurry of state-owned enterprise appointments have nothing to do with politics or alignment with National.

Political sources say some key government ministers like the cut of her jib.

That is apparent, with her being named one of three non-executive directors on the Treasury board.

In September, Treasury secretary John Whitehead said the new advisory role "monitors its performance and provides challenges to its thinking".

Rumours persist that National will put the state-owned energy companies on the block if the party wins a second term.

And if you could find a buyer, TVNZ would make sense as an early sale in a second term.

So it would be interesting to know what the TVNZ deputy chairwoman's advice would be to Treasury and the Government.

Withers appears to have a kinship with journalism and a view that media products are more than chattels.

Fairfax's purchase of the Independent in February 2006 raised eyebrows given its history of poor financial returns. But even after the closure she remembers it as a commitment to quality business journalism that was about creating an informed financial market.

"It was something I felt passionate about," she said.

Withers' defence of media standards will have been music to the ears of Fairfax staff - but what about her business contemporaries?

Did they ever bend her ears with complaints about the perceived deficiencies of financial coverage?

"A bit of that," she says.

"Some of the positive stories do not make the news and that is inevitable - newspapers have to sell advertising and broadcasters have to rate."

Withers was the Independent's biggest defender and its last issue was published the day she left the chief executive role.

But she has not always enjoyed good press herself.

In particular, shareholders criticised directors' fee rises at Auckland International Airport that were approved by Withers in her first annual meeting as chairwoman.

Last month she was forced to explain to an airport shareholder her involvement in the Feltex Carpets fiasco, saying she has learned a lot from the problem and had been haunted by the loss in value.

Withers, who was re-elected to the airport board with a 99.5 per cent vote, said one benefit was what could be learned from such experiences.

"There is not a day goes by that I don't think about the Feltex situation and the Feltex experience.

"Because being involved in a company where, for whatever reason, shareholder value is lost is deeply disturbing to any director worth his or her salt.

"I have to tell you that those learnings continue to inform my performance as a director," she said.

But when asked what she had learned from Feltex she said that might be the subject of a book.

Meanwhile, there will be a close watch on Withers' progress at TVNZ.

Chief executive Rick Ellis joined TVNZ five years ago and under chairman Anderson it has enjoyed a stable governance structure where the board stays out of day-to-day business decisions.

Withers has no history of meddling, but a TVNZ source says her media experience is daunting for a chief executive.

Withers says there is no confusion for her at all in the dividing line for governance.

"Rick has done a fantastic job." When she was revving up her company director career in 1988 she wrote A Girls' Guide To Business.

One of her suggestions was to get ahead they could consider plastic surgery - a relatively unorthodox view 12 years ago.

TV shows like Extreme Makeover meant it was no longer a big thing.

"I don't think I was recommending it. Just saying that you should do whatever you want to get ahead."






Company director and media executive

* Married to Brian with one adult son.

* McAuley High School, a Catholic girls' school, Otahuhu.

* MBA Auckland University 1989-1990.

Current Roles

* Chairwoman, Auckland International Airport.

* Chairwoman, Mighty River Power.

* Deputy chairwoman, Television New Zealand.

* Non-executive director, board for the Treasury.

* Trustee, Tindall Foundation.

Past Roles

* On boards of Meridian Energy, Feltex, The Warehouse, Tourism Holdings, John Fairfax & Sons.

* Former chief executive of Radio New Zealand Commercial and Fairfax Media New Zealand.