Boyd on the line and listening

Wayne Boyd

One of the first commitments Wayne Boyd made this week after being appointed chairman of Telecom was to listen.

"We have to listen to Kiwis and we are going to," he said. "I am going ... to listen not only to our people but the wider stakeholders."

A similar promise by Telecom chief executive Theresa Gattung last month to pay more heed to customers after the Government's move to regulate Telecom has been met with widespread scepticism.

But those who know Boyd expect he will be as good as his word. "He's a good leader. He demonstrates good skills in extracting views from fellow directors. He's a good listener. He's very precise," says former Finance Minister Sir William Birch.

Birch gave Boyd his first big directorship when he appointed him a director of Auckland International Airport 10 years ago.

"He was identified about a decade ago as an up-and-coming professional director," says Birch.

"He was known to be somebody who applied himself to the issues of the business and had a good background and understanding of business issues.

"He demonstrated good commercial judgments. He just seemed to be a young, potentially good director."

Boyd, 59, takes over the $400,000- plus-a-year Telecom chairmanship from Rod Deane at what is probably the most difficult time in the company's history.

Last month, the Government said it would unbundle the local loop, ending Telecom's monopoly over the telephone network that has proved such a goldmine for the company and its shareholders over the years.

More than $2 billion has been wiped from the company's market value and investors are seeking answers from the company on how it will operate under the tougher rules.

Boyd made what could be considered his first step to becoming a professional director in 1987 when, aged around 40, he gave up his partnership in the Hamilton law firm Tompkins Wake to join the investment bank Bancorp Holdings.

The move was driven by "a desire to move from private legal practice into the world of commerce", said partner John Weir.

He described the move as courageous. "As a partner in a leading firm - as we are considered in the Waikato - he had what you might call a secure and comfortable existence and [took] a chance on a totally new career," Weir says.

"While that sort of thing might be more common in these days, in 1987 it wasn't."

Boyd's management style is described as consultative but, at the same time, authoritative.

"You wouldn't call him forceful ... but fair and firm where necessary," says Robert Sinclair, chief financial officer at Auckland International Airport, who has known Boyd for about five years.

"He really is somebody who has got a broad skill set ... but he mixes that with a warm, friendly, open personality that makes it a pleasure to be involved with."

Birch agrees. "He does seek consensus but he's very much a chairman who's in charge of the meeting, but he's not aggressive or autocratic. He's very much a consensus builder.

"He's good with management. He's disciplined and demanding but he's a good manager of people. He recognises strengths and weaknesses of managers and he drives them to give good outcomes."

Boyd himself sees his leadership style in a similar vein.

"I am about moving forward the board and the company. As chairman I engage with my board members," he said this week.

"I draw them out to ensure we get the decision-making and the diversity of thought that one would expect from that sort of group. I also have a track record of leadership in this type of environment."

In interviews this week, Boyd has declined to give unequivocal support for Gattung.

"We have a very able management team and that includes all the team," he said when pushed on the issue.

Despite the lukewarm response, Tru-Test 5 per cent owner Des Hunt says Boyd is unlikely to rush into any changes to Telecom's executive team.

"The first thing he'll do is review the whole organisation from the top. He'll give the senior executives the opportunity to prove themselves or to prove what they're planning to do," says Hunt, who has dealt with Boyd at agri-tech company Tru-Test.

"He won't make a rash judgment. He'll give Theresa Gattung an opportunity to put her case."

Hunt is also director of corporate liaison at the New Zealand Shareholders Association and believes Boyd is a good choice to steer the company in the new regulated environment.

"He's got a much broader background than most directors," says Hunt.

"He's had experience with international property, marketing internationally. He understands technology and marketing. He's got high governance standards."

Outside the boardroom, one of Boyd's main interests is hockey.

He played for the Waikato and, in 1986, he coached the New Zealand women's hockey team to fourth place in the World Cup held in the Netherlands.

Mary Deakins, who was captain at that time, said Boyd was the team's first male coach "and he brought a new professionalism to it".

He instilled the team with a new confidence. "He was prepared to listen to your ideas but, in the end, he was the coach and if he didn't particularly agree with you he'd do what he needed to do."

This professionalism came with a quiet approach. "He didn't overreact to situations. He just sort of quietly got on with what he had to do."

Boyd was also chairman of Hockey New Zealand from 1995 to 1999 and reorganised it along business lines with a board focused on governance, said chief executive Ramesh Patel.

"He knew when to cut the slack and let the management team run it. As a CEO, he lets you come up with the answers [and] solutions. I think he was good at that, as opposed to imposing what he wanted ," says Patel.

"So basically he does all his research first, just makes sure he has all the facts, and then he can, around the board table, be a lot more assertive."

Patel found Boyd easy to work with, approachable and a calm, dignified presence.

Telecom shareholders will be hoping Boyd brings that approach to his dealings with the Government and is able to repair relations, which appear to have hit an all-time low after Telecom acquired a secret Cabinet paper last month on unbundling.

"What Wayne brings is experience in dealing with Government in his involvement with other boards," says Neil Paviour-Smith, head of the sharebroking firm Forsyth Barr, of which Boyd is a director.

As chairman of the heavily regulated Auckland International Airport and Government-owned Meridian Energy, Boyd is certainly used to dealing with the Government.

Boyd has promoted a new approach from Telecom, saying that rather than fighting the tougher regulations that the Government has imposed, it will work within the rules.

Paviour-Smith expects the new Telecom chairman to be as good as his word. "If Wayne is saying those things, I would believe it 100 per cent. Wayne is true to his word."

Wayne Robert Boyd

Chairman-designate, Telecom.
Born: April 11, 1947.
Age: 59.
Family: Wife and four children.
Lives: Auckland.
Education: Wanganui Boys College and University of Auckland.

Present roles:
1995: Vulcan Steel (director).
1996: Auckland International Airport (chairman).
2001: Forsyth Barr Group (director).
2003: Freightways (chairman).
2005: Meridian Energy (chairman).
May 31, 2006, named Telecom chairman.

Recent assignments/directorships:
1992-2001: Ngai Tahu Fisheries.
1995-1999: Hockey New Zealand (chairman).
1996-2004: Ngai Tahu Holdings.
2002-2004: Vector.
2003-2005: Tru-Test.
2004: Appointed to Telecom board.

Former employers:
1970-1987: Tompkins Wake legal firm.
1987-1992: Bancorp Holdings merchant bank.

- additional reporting: Richard Inder