Who are the other directors?
Richard Yan
Aside from Dame Jenny Shipley, Richard Yan is the most highprofile of the directors, as the founder and head of Richina Group, the parent company of Mainzeal Group.
He was born in China in 1963 but had a long association with the company, having worked for it during his school holidays while on a Rotary scholarship to New Zealand in 1981.
He went on to complete degrees at the University of Auckland and Harvard Business School before masterminding the takeover of Mainzeal, and the creation of the Sino-new Zealand Richina Pacific group, owning assets here and in China, including Mainzeal.
Commentators had described Yan as the type of person who was always in pursuit of the next big thing. Columnist Brian Gaynor once wrote in The New Zealand Herald that Yan chased a ‘‘new pot of gold’’ every year and had problems focusing on one activity, setting goals or achieving them.
Richina still operates in financial services, real estate, consumer products, retail, manufacturing, tourism and travel, and has head offices in Shanghai.
This week’s judgment noted that Yan purchased a vineyard on Waiheke Island, using Mainzeal funds, with the intention of developing a hotel for Chinese Communist Party Officials.
Peter Gomm
Peter Gomm worked for Fletchers in Wellington from the time he arrived in New Zealand in the early 1980s, before moving to Australia.
On his return, he worked for shopping mall owner Westfield, overseeing projects such as the Nuffield Precinct in Newmarket, before taking up a role with Mainzeal in 2007.
As well as his board roles, Gomm was chief executive and chief operations officer of the firm.
Originally from Britain, in 2007 he was described as a ‘‘product of the English construction industry’’. He said during his early career that he dealt with procurement problems, a dichotomy of design and construction, documentation errors and administrative waste.
Gomm said the major industry improvement was the adoption of best-practice procurement.
He seemed to notice a crunch coming. In 2013, shortly before Mainzeal failed, he warned there would soon be too many builders chasing too few contracts. ‘‘This is a very good time for clients to have construction work competitively priced,’’ he wrote in a company newsletter.
After Mainzeal, he was involved in the startup of a leaky homes remediation business, which he said grew to $25 million turnover. He is now a consultant offering advice on construction projects.
Clive Tilby
Tauranga businessman Clive Tilby is a qualified civil engineer with disputes resolution qualifications.
He was an independent director of Mainzeal.
Tilby was the Wellington regional manager for Fletcher in the late 1980s and early 1990s before moving to Asia. He returned to New Zealand in 2000 for a role as executive general manager of New Zealand and the Pacific for Downer Engineering.
In 2003, he became an independent consultant. In 2006, he was made chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Group on Roading Costs.
Tilby still offers consultancy services to the infrastructure market. He is also a director of Spartan Construction, based in Hamilton.