Wayne Boyd was a director on 167 boards in his career, before retiring from his last one, Vulcan Steel, in November. Photo / NZME
Wayne Boyd was a director on 167 boards, although he says he’s never really counted.
Of course, the one he’s most remembered for is Telecom – now Spark, where he oversaw a transformation for New Zealand’s largest communications company.
Taking over from high-profile chairman Rod Deane in 2006, Boyd was thrust into the media spotlight during the complicated and often contentious structural separation process that eventually resulted in lines company Chorus and retail company Spark.
He also served on Meridian Energy, Auckland International Airport, Freightways and Vulcan Steel, to name a few.
Speaking on the Money Talks podcast, we ask Boyd to explain what a company director does in a way a child (his grandchildren, perhaps) would understand.
“Well, you have to first persuade them that you’re not the CEO of the company because that’s their immediate default position,” he says.
But his definition is very much to the point: “Keeping an eye on managers, just as simple as that really.”
Boyd grew up working-class in Whanganui. His father was a cooper (barrel maker) at the local freezing works. His mother worked at the hospital as a nurse’s aide.
“When I was a kid, I was definitely poor. I needed borrowed money to actually buy my clothes and pay for my bike and so on.”
That instilled a strong understanding of the value of money, which he carried with him as a director.
“I saw myself as a steward of other people’s money. I made a decision to invest in the companies that I was chairing. And so I took that responsibility heavily. You want to get them an appropriate return for the investment they made.”
Since stepping down from Vulcan Steel last November, Boyd, who was named a companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the King’s Birthday Honours List, has been enjoying retirement.
“I’ve got one little charity that I’m still [with]. I’ve got someone in mind to take over my place.”
And so is he managing to keep busy? “I’m actually enjoying it,” he says.
The first couple of months were a bit odd, he admits. The phone went quiet.
But now he’s happy reading and keeping up with the international news. It’s a retirement he has certainly earned.
Boyd studied law at Auckland University and after graduating, he took a job as a lawyer in Hamilton.
He stuck at that for 16 years, getting married and becoming a father.
A passion for sports – something he’d had since school – inspired him to try something new.
A passionate hockey player, he got increasingly involved with coaching, which eventually led him to become the coach of the New Zealand women’s team.
“I got parachuted in to go to the Olympic Games with the women in 1984. And then in ′86, we had the World Cup in Holland.”
“I learned a lot from both those outings,” he says. “In particular, the importance of team culture. Making sure you had bench strength and the like.”
When he returned to New Zealand the second time, he decided it was time for a change.
“I came back and thought I needed to move on. I still remember the day I told them I was going to be leaving. It was a bit of a shock.”
Boyd chose a career in Auckland as an investment banker. But his timing wasn’t great.
With a wife, two children and a mortgage, he left his steady income to try his luck in the world of finance and investment.
“Of course I chose to leave in ′87,” he says.
“I still remember the day,” he says of the big sharemarket crash.
“We were sitting in [a] team meeting and a young man came in and said: hold the phone, this is the news and it’s not good.”
In the days and weeks after, all the corporate activity just stopped, he recalls.
“Suddenly, suddenly that base was gone.”
But Boyd stuck with it, and eventually his skills led to being offered board roles by the Government of the day.
As an adviser first to the New Zealand Māori Council on the first major Treaty of Waitangi settlement, the 1992 “Sealord deal”, he came to know Sir Tipene O’Regan and was a close adviser to Ngāi Tahu Holdings.
He now describes the experience as one of the highlights of his career.
“When they had their settlement, I was appointed an independent director, and we had to select some assets. I think we chose wisely,” he says. “I still follow what they’re doing.”
In the year ending June 2024, Ngāi Tahu Holdings reported total assets of $2.096 billion. This includes investments in tourism, property, seafood, farming, and other investments.
It has been one of the enduring success stories of the Treaty settlement process.
“It was a privilege to be there,” Boyd says. “I was lucky enough to chair that company for a short time before I left. But Telecom got on the way there. I really enjoyed the different cultural way of working and things. It was marvellous.“
More corporate board roles followed.
Boyd says he was never interested in management. He recalls surprising a recruitment specialist by turning down a big role and declaring his plans to be a professional director.
“You start working with people and create relationships,” he says.
“I realised that I probably had something to offer management teams, but I didn’t really want to be an executive. So I had to balance that. And I was lucky enough to get some roles from the Government.”
“The float of [the Auckland] airport was a big job,” he says. “They trusted me to lead that, so suddenly I had a bit of momentum. That led to lots of other opportunities.
“Once you’ve got some runs on the board in the public company space, you seem to be attractive to others.”
So what makes a good company director?
“You’ve got to have an open mind,” Boyd says. “You don’t learn the business by just reading the board papers.”
You’ve got to get out and talk to the staff and ask them what keeps them awake, he says.
“You’ve got to have the ability to bring a diverse group of people to the board table together so that they’re in a safe environment where they can actually say what they really do want to say about whatever the issue is of the day.
“I’ve always said you’ve got to have the courage to speak up.”
Boyd says he has concerns about the lack of dynamism on the New Zealand market these days.
He still invests in venture capital and start-up companies, something he mentions when asked if he still buys lotto tickets.
“I’d like to think we could grow some big companies in New Zealand and we’ve got these very bright young people creating businesses in the new world.”
“But we don’t have them necessarily based here.”
Once they get to a certain scale, they are often quick to move offshore, he says.
“That’s something I think we should be concerned about,” he says.
“I say to my wife – we invest a little bit of money in seed funding and the like – that we really should be creating these jobs for our grandchildren.”
“That’s an aspect of New Zealand commerce that troubles me, actually.”
The New Zealand stock exchange is certainly not as dynamic as it was in the prime of his career.
There are other pathways now because many people are happy to be investing off-market, he says.
“But I think one of the problems is we’ve got some really good private companies in New Zealand. But when they look at listing, they go: ‘Oh, hang on a minute, Liam Dann’s going to come and talk to me and he’s going to have an article in the paper’,” he says.
“Then you’ve got all the regulatory things that you need to take account of. And I wonder just how much time boards are spending on all that stuff. Rather than on how do we get the best out of this business?”
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Wayne Boyd.
Money Talks is a podcast run by the NZ Herald. It isn’t about personal finance and isn’t about economics – it’s just well-known New Zealanders talking about money and sharing some stories about the impact it’s had on their lives and how it has shaped them.
The series is hosted by Liam Dann, business editor-at-large for the Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
Money Talks is available on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.