Runaway faced changes at work

Grant Atkinson

While finance company executive Grant Atkinson was away on holiday, his bosses were advertising for a new head of his department to "work closely" alongside him.

The 48-year-old disappeared from his Campbells Bay home last week, a day after he returned from the South Island with his wife and three children.

Police found him dishevelled and slightly disoriented on Saturday morning outside cricket clubrooms in the Huapai Domain, northwest of Auckland. He is understood to have been sleeping rough in the area.

His boss at Marac, Craig Stephen, acknowledged Mr Atkinson had been stressed but said it was no more so than he had been for the past 14 years. He dismissed concern about pressure felt by Mr Atkinson after the company offloaded $173 million of property loans for $90 million.

A job was advertised for a new position, a head of internal audit, on January 19 while Mr Atkinson was away.

It said the applicant would involve "working closely" with the chief risk officer, Mr Atkinson, and responsibilities would include the direction, organisation and planning of the risk management team's internal audit function.

The person would report to the chief financial officer of Pyne Gould Corporation, Marac's owner.

Mr Stephen said a whole range of new systems had been put in place since a new management team started in October and the new position was about filling the gaps in Mr Atkinson's team. Three people had been hired for the risk management team in the past couple of months.

"Our desire is to become more bank-like and our systems and processes are becoming more bank-like. We're filling the gaps in his team."

A profile on the company website said Mr Atkinson's role meant he was responsible for "all aspects of Marac's credit business".

It is understood Mr Atkinson was not yet back with his family yesterday.

Mr Stephen said the company had not been able to speak to him yet but staff had visited his wife, Christina.

Mr Atkinson was taken to the North Shore police station when he was found and his wife was asked to visit him there.

His sister, Debbie Rollings, told the Sunday Star-Times that two police officers had visited the family home to break the news. His children were asleep but were woken with the news. "They were ecstatic," Ms Rollings said. "We screamed, we hugged and we cried."