Business as usual for Eagle Technology

By TOM CLARKE

Corallie Eagle has stepped in as chairman of high-flying Eagle Technology Ltd following the death of her husband Trevor in December, and says it will continue its pioneering role.

She is still suffering terribly from losing him, she says, but she feels quite excited about the future.

"... I feel we have very sound management in place and I anticipate going forward quite successfully."

Mr Eagle, a pioneer of the information technology industry who was the chairman of the company, died suddenly on his 18m launch in the Hauraki Gulf while entertaining members of the Unitec Honours Board, which he chaired.

He formed Prime Computer, the forerunner of Eagle Technology, with his wife in 1969, and was one of the country's wealthiest people. Eagle Technology is recognised as one of the country's most successful systems integration companies and a dominant player in the domestic IT industry.

In a restructuring following his death, son Craig became chief executive officer, while Rob Waters, who has been with Eagle for 10 years, has been appointed group general manager.

Craig Eagle formerly worked for Databank, Imagineering and Telecom, and joined the family business in a sales role in 1991, later becoming group general manager. He holds directorships with several other companies, including Aquagas Holdings Ltd and IFR Technologies Ltd. Mr Waters has an engineering and management background with Winstone Group and Fletcher Challenge, and joined Eagle in 1992. Most recently he has headed the firm's applications systems business unit.

"Trevor was actually focusing on a lot of other things and the management that is in place now was run
ning things under him, so it's business as usual," Mrs Eagle says.

Six of the couple's seven children have worked for the company at various times and Duane Eagle is one of the company's top salespeople. Mrs Eagle says that family involvement is one of its strengths, but she does not rule out the possibility of some ownership changes in the future.

Merger talks between listed network infrastructure company GDC Communications and Eagle Technology broke down in March. While Mrs Eagle will not "confirm or deny" this, she says there are no merger negotiations going on with another party at present.

She would be reluctant to see the company go public, "but I could be interested in a merger if it was synergistic. In fact I think it would be very good for a few New Zealand companies to join forces and then we could take on some of the larger companies on the huge contracts.

"I think that would be very favourable as long as they are Kiwi-owned - that's something I feel very strongly about."

The Eagles built the company into a $35 million-a-year operation which now employs more than 160 staff. It has service centres throughout the country and exports its services to Australia, Asia and North America. It does computer training through its New Horizons subsidiary.