End of an Era

New Zealand businessman and former chairman of Fletcher Challenge, Sir Ronald Ramsay Trotter, who was a vocal advocate of economic deregulation and personified big business in this country for nearly three decades, has died in Wellington, aged 82. Hawera-born Trotter was a director of several companies in New Zealand and Australia, including Air New Zealand, as well as being a director of New Zealand’s central bank. He undertook several government assignments, including chairing the committee to advise on state-owned enterprises and urged the government to go ahead with privatisation of the public sector. “Sir Ron played a pivotal part in the modernisation of New Zealand’s economic direction during the 1980s and after, and all of us as New Zealanders have benefited from that leadership,” Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O’Reilly said. Trotter was knighted in 1985 for his services to business and in 1999 he was awarded membership of the Business Hall of Fame in recognition of his outstanding contribution to New Zealand’s development.

Sir Ronald Ramsay Trotter: 9 October 1927 – 11 August 2010