Old Fletchers hand Ian Boyd takes the reins at Te Arawa

Old Fletchers hand Ian Boyd takes the reins at Te Arawa Group Holdings

By Pattrick Smellie

Oct. 7 (BusinessDesk) – Bay of Plenty iwi Te Arawa has appointed one-time joint chief executive at Fletcher Forests, Ian Boyd, to head its commercial entity, Te Arawa Group Holdings.

Te Arawa settled its Treaty claims in 2009 with a $34 million cash settlement and established TAGH to undertake its commercial operations, which include forest and farm ownership, as well as the recently purchased Waiotapu geothermal tourist park, near Rotorua.

Boyd held senior management and leadership positions in Fletcher Challenge Forests, but “retired” from the forestry company in 2003 after a stint as a joint chief executive following the Fletcher Challenge group break-up.

He became a senior manager at Zespri in 2004, but has not worked for the company for some time.

Boyd is also a past chair of Tarawera Forests, past CEO of the Forest Industries Training and Education and on the board of the Tertiary Education Commission.

“Ian Boyd has had an extensive and successful management career and has the skills and experience
which will complement the assets TAGH administer on behalf of its shareholders,” said TAGH chair Wallace Haumaha said.

Boyd said he brought extensive primary sector experience, and had spent much of his career in the Bay of Plenty. He remains listed at the Companies Office as the director of a forestry company along with another former Fletcher Challenge senior manager, Ian Donald.

Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa Trust, which represents the 11 tribes covered by the Te Arawa settlement,
went looking for a new chief executive after the resignation earlier this year of TAGH’s chief executive since 2010, Roger Pikia after a court found he had transferred land from his grandmother’s estate without authorisation to help fund a farm purchase in 1999.

Boyd is not Maori, so has no iwi affiliations.

(BusinessDesk)

© Scoop Media