By PAUL PANCKHURST and NZPA
One of New Zealand's richest men, farmer and innovator Howard Paterson, was found dead in his hotel room in Fiji yesterday.
Paterson, 50, of Dunedin, was a biotechnology investor, one of the country's biggest farmers and one of the best-known names in South Island business.
Initial reports
said he died of a heart attack on a business trip.
A friend, Dunedin stockbroker Eion Edgar, said: "It's a total tragedy for the south and for the whole of New Zealand. He broke the mould."
Dunedin Mayor Sukhi Turner said Paterson's death was a great loss for the South Island.
Self-made in business - his father was a builder - Paterson had interests in New Zealand, Australia, Fiji and the United States.
The National Business Review's "rich list" last year estimated his wealth at $120 million.
Paterson's business interests included:
* Property development.
* Large-scale corporate farming in dairy, deer, sheep, beef, fine wool and poultry.
* Hotel and resort developments in New Zealand, Fiji and the United States.
* Biotechnology based on discoveries by New Zealand scientists.
Most New Zealanders meet the Paterson empire when they buy K12 Throat Guard at the pharmacy - or eggs or milk at the supermarket.
A company he founded, Mainland Poultry, claims to produce 40 per cent of the country's eggs.
A2 milk, which went on sale in May amid claims and counter-claims over its health benefits, comes from Paterson's A2 Corporation.
Klaus Sorensen, a public relations man who worked for Paterson, said Paterson was proud to get A2 into the consumer market this year after battles with Fonterra and the Dairy Board.
Paterson was also the founding shareholder and a director of:
* New Zealand Deer Farms, described as the world's largest deer farming group, with nine farms and nine stations in three South Island provinces.
* Hirequip, a listed industrial company formerly known as Southern Capital.
* Botry-Zen, a listed company with a product for the control of botrytis fungal infections in grapes.
* Lakes District Trust, a fine wool producer in Queenstown.
* Pharmazen, which is commercialising animal health remedies.
* Blis Technologies, a listed company with products such as K12 Throat Guard.
* CG Surgical, which is commercialising a patented medical implant used in spinal operations.
Edgar said Paterson's businesses would not collapse without him.
"In a lot of ways, he was stepping aside - standing back. At most, he was a director of a lot of them."
Friend and business associate Alistair Broad said many of the Paterson companies were no longer under his day-to-day administration.
"What we have lost is the process we had of new ideas coming on to the start of the conveyor belt.
"I have no concerns about the companies already on that conveyor belt.
"Howard was very good at identifying ideas and picking the people to run with them. Those people will carry on."
Edgar said Paterson was an innovator in farming and biotechnology, a man of "incredible energy", and a person who stayed loyal - "particularly to the south".
He was educated at the University of Otago. As Edgar recalled, Paterson's major for his bachelor of arts degree was in philosophy.
"He was a wonderful thinker," Edgar said.
Paterson is survived by his wife, two children from his second marriage and one from his first.
On the board
* Howard Paterson's directorships
* A2 Corporation
* Blis Technologies
* Botry-Zen
* Hirequip (formerly Southern Capital)
* Mainland Poultry
* NZ Deer Farms
* Pharmazen
* Tasman Agriculture
* Quest VC
* 90 other New Zealand-registered companies
By PAUL PANCKHURST and NZPA
One of New Zealand's richest men, farmer and innovator Howard Paterson, was found dead in his hotel room in Fiji yesterday.
Paterson, 50, of Dunedin, was a biotechnology investor, one of the country's biggest farmers and one of the best-known names in South Island business.
Initial reports
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