LLOYD MORRISON HONOURED
Continued..........The founder of Infratil, the infrastructure giant valued at $1.2 billion, Mr Morrison was given a lifetime achievement award last night at the Gold Awards at the TSB Bank Arena in Wellington.
In 1988, aged 30, he founded the investment bank that would create Infratil. From humble beginnings it now owns assets including airports in Wellington and Britain, power companies on both sides of the Tasman, and more recently, the Shell petrol stations in New Zealand.
Mr Morrison has become one of New Zealand's top businessmen, and was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2009, the year he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He has founded a musical charity and a campaign to change New Zealand's flag. He said last night's award reflected his success at hiring the right people to work with him. "It sounds trite, but it's not personal: it's a reflection of all the effort a lot of people have put in," he said. "If you were to go back to when the business began, it would have been inconceivable that we would have bought Shell in New Zealand, and yet it looks as though we'll do a lot more than that over the next 10 years or so."
Still having chemotherapy, Mr Morrison said he was "doing a lot better than anyone expected, given the prognosis when I was diagnosed".
The Gold Awards have been proudly celebrating outstanding business performers in Wellington, Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua and Kapiti since 1999.