Deloitte Top 200: Chairperson of the Year: Mark Verbiest - Meridian, Summerset

Mark Verbiest’s respected and trusted governance style, along with the success of the companies he chairs, is what distinguished him as the Chairperson of the Year in this year’s Deloitte Top 200 awards.

Verbiest is chair of Meridian Energy and Summerset Group and a director of ANZ Bank New Zealand. He previously chaired Spark, Transpower, Freightways and Willis Bond Capital Partners, and was a director of the Financial Markets Authority.

“He operates with a respected and trusted governance style, a highly collaborative approach, and clearly relishes the diversity of thought that comes from working as part of a team,” says Deloitte Top 200 judge Hinerangi Raumati-Tu’ua. “The companies Mark is involved in are all quite different, and are all performing well.”

Verbiest says he is a good listener and has always had a very keen eye and ear to the wider stakeholder set.

“That is really important,” he says. “I am not one to shut people down in conversation or steer people in a particular direction.”

The judges recognise that it speaks to the way someone is regarded around the board table when they become the chair of multiple boards as Verbiest has done — especially since the workload of a chair is multiples of that of a director.

Meridian’s net profit after tax rose 55 per cent in the year to June, with the company reporting customer sales volumes growing six per cent. Summerset Group delivered an underlying profit of $82.5 million for the six months ended 30 June 2022, a 9.2 per cent increase on the first half of 2021.

Verbiest says it is important to him that the roles he takes on not only make a meaningful difference to New Zealand, but they must also involve a challenge. He points to Summerset Group, one of New Zealand’s leading retirement village operators, as an organisation that fulfils both these requirements.

Like many countries around the world, New Zealand has an ageing population, and it is projected that by 2034 there will be 1.2 million people aged 65 and over. With this, it is expected that demand for aged care services will also increase.

“I am very conscious that we need facilities that provide care not only for our residents, but also for people that come in from outside,” says Verbiest. “That has become a challenging space given the dearth of people, including aged care nurses, that are currently available. It is a problem that is becoming progressively worse, with the burden falling more and more on the public sector which is already stretched.”

For Meridian Energy, Verbiest says the bold climate change and clean energy aspirations the board and management team have agreed is another big challenge but will also make an important difference to New Zealand.

As part of Meridian’s refreshed Climate Action Plan, the country’s largest renewable energy generator plans to take ambitious action on climate change to achieve its ‘Half by 30′ target, halving its FY21 baseline emissions by FY30 — including all scope 1, 2 and 3 categories. Meridian is also supporting New Zealand’s efforts to achieve net zero emissions for all greenhouse gases by 2050, which Verbiest says the entire organisation from top to bottom is committed to.

“Given we produce 30 per cent of New Zealand’s needs, there is a massive amount of capital investment we need to commit to over a long period of time — these are not short-dated assets.”

Meridian recently announced a target of bringing seven new large-scale renewable generation projects into operation around New Zealand in the next seven years. “We focus on this a lot, even though some investors might say we can’t be certain on returns because the policy isn’t clear at the moment,” Verbiest says.

“But we are going to go for it anyway because it needs to happen, and we are making some assumptions that the things we can’t control will work out.”

Finalist: Prue Flacks

Prue Flacks has chaired Mercury since 2019, having been a director since 2010. She was previously a director of Chorus, BNZ and chair of Queenstown Airport.

The Deloitte Top 200 judges applaud the role Flacks has played successfully navigating the electricity generator and retailer of electricity, gas, broadband and mobile services through significant change recently.

“Flacks has overseen some of the most challenging aspects the role of chair carries with it over the past few years, while the organisation continues to deliver for shareholders,” says Deloitte Top 200 judge Raumati-Tu’ua.

In 2020, Mercury’s chief executive Fraser Whineray left after five years as chief executive and 11 years service with the business. The judges note the transition to Vince Hawksworth, previously chief executive of Trustpower, is an example of a great CEO transition which has gone well.

“We were lucky to get Vince on board, one of the most experienced chief executives in the industry,” says Flacks. “He has a very clear understanding of the expectations and priorities of the board and I support him to do what the company needs to deliver. We operate a very high trust model, which has been very effective.”

She describes the role of chair as providing an important bridge between the board and management and says the composition of the board is something that must be carefully managed.

“Having the right people with the right skills around the table, and balancing that with experience and personalities is easier said than done,” she says. “I try to create an environment where everyone feels they can contribute.”

The judges congratulated Flacks for overseeing meaningful acquisitions. The New Zealand operations of Tilt Renewables was acquired in late 2021, followed by Trustpower this year. The latter has doubled Mercury’s total customer connections and accelerated its entry into the telecommunications market.

“We are now New Zealand’s biggest electricity retailer by customer market share — that is the opportunity Trustpower gave us,” Flacks says.

“It is not that being biggest is best, but scale does matter. Trustpower and Mercury were two complementary businesses but putting them together has given us scale and a good platform to invest further.”

Flacks says that the challenge for gentailers is fulfilling the critical role they play in the transition to a low carbon economy, while also being mindful of the current economic climate.

“We need to ensure Mercury is able to contribute to the significant investment that will be critical if the country is to achieve its 2050 carbon objectives, but at the same time we acknowledge that electricity is an essential utility and the electricity bill is a large component of some household budgets.”

She says Mercury has been providing support to customers facing financial difficulties, working alongside Kāinga Ora, budgeting agencies and community organisations.

“We are trying different ways to make sure our customers aren’t left behind as we also invest in the new generation that is required,” she says.

“It is a difficult challenge. We tend to attract a lot of criticism that I don’t think is always deserved.”

Finalist: Dame Therese Walsh

The Deloitte Top 200 judges say that as chair of both Air New Zealand and ASB Bank, Dame Therese Walsh has demonstrated her mettle as a chairperson throughout the pandemic.

Walsh also chairs the Chapter Zero NZ steering group, part of a global network of directors committed to taking action on climate change. She is a director of Antarctica New Zealand and On Being Bold — a collaboration of business leaders inspiring women at all stages of their careers.

Walsh was previously chair of TVNZ and Pro-Chancellor of Victoria University of Wellington and was made a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2015 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her contribution to sports administration.

Deloitte Top 200 judge Raumati-Tu’ua says Walsh has an engaging and inclusive style, and has defined herself as someone who excels in the role.

Walsh likes to oversee a “slightly more extrovert board”, by making sure directors get out of the boardroom.

“I don’t want to be hidden in the boardroom the entire time,” she says. “It is really important to understand what your customers, staff and other stakeholders are truly feeling about the business.”

This is, in part, why Walsh convened the recent Air New Zealand business mission to New York.

She says that trip, led on the ground by Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, was a chance to remind some of New Zealand’s top business leaders what they had been missing out on as Air New Zealand gets back to doing what it used to do: “being a really important part of NZ Inc thinking and the country’s economic development”.

Air New Zealand was hit hard by the pandemic and had to react swiftly to the curve balls of Covid which saw international borders closed and severely restricted domestic travel.

Walsh oversaw the airline through the turmoil, including a successful $1.2 billion equity raise, which will be used to repay its government loan and strengthen its financial position for recovery.

“This was fundamental to the ongoing ability for Air New Zealand to operate and support the NZ economy — it was mission critical,” she says.

Raumati-Tu’ua says that alongside Air New Zealand, Walsh has also competently led ASB Bank through a period of deep global and domestic financial and economic uncertainty.

Walsh says uncertainty, and “picking what needs to be done and the right time to do them” has been something that unites her role as chair of ASB Bank and Air New Zealand.

“The broad and deep global and domestic financial and economic uncertainty means that ASB is continuing to identify ways to assist and support its customers to prosper and make financial progress,” she says.

Despite her corporate successes over the past 12 months, Walsh says what has been most rewarding has been the ability to reconnect in person with the teams across the organisations she is involved in.

“It has been the ability to have them back in the office, interact with them and hear what has been happening in their lives and how passionate they remain. People have endured a lot. It is those smaller moments from reconnecting that have been the real highlight.”

The Chairperson of the Year award is sponsored by Forsyth Barr.