Ryman MD secures corporate leadership award
Shareholders' Association also awards former justice and commerce minister Simon Power.
Friday, December 09 2011 || News || BY Richard Meadows, Businessday.co.nz
A special merit award was also made to former Justice and Commerce Minister Simon Power, who has left politics for a career in banking.
Since Challies joined Ryman in 1999, the retirement village operator's profits have grown from $6.2 million to $100m, without leaning on shareholders for extra capital.
NZSA chairman John Hawkins said Challies' performance laid to rest the myth that swapping CEOs every four or five years was necessary to get results.
''A number of our best performing companies have enjoyed management continuity, and Challies' record at Ryman is proof positive of the merits of that approach,'' he said.
The special Merit prize for Power, which is the first time the association has made this award, recognised his contribution to the complete overhaul of capital markets law and regulation.
Hawkins said Power had achieved more in a three-year tenure in the justice and commerce roles than his predecessors had managed in 30 years.
''Even more astounding is that he has actively engaged all participants in the process and achieved a remarkable degree of consensus,'' he said.
''We think Simon's approach is an object lesson to other politicians. His decision to retire from politics was a huge loss and he leaves a pretty big set of shoes to be filled.''
The NZSA also usually recognises the villains of the investment world each year through the Golden Glob booby prize.
''This is reserved for the other end of the scale where unfortunately we still seem to find plenty of candidates,'' said Hawkins.
However, this year the NZSA board decided to delay announcing the winner of this award until after court action against him had been resolved.
Hawkins said the NZSA was hopeful the Golden Glob recipient would have plenty of free time to contemplate the merits of his award once it was announced.
