Community-minded accountant retires
Kaikohe accountant Cliff Whitelaw is set to retire from his nearly four-decade career, but is determined to continue his community involvement.
Whitelaw will retire on March 31, and says he is looking forward to spending more time on the golf course, visiting his family overseas and his work with a local education trust. Whitelaw was born in Whangarei and his family moved to Kaikohe when he was six. From there he went to Kaikohe Primary School and Northland College. He spent three years truck driving before working at the National Bank of New Zealand and studying part-time for five years in Auckland.
In 1979, he moved back to Kaikohe, became a partner in Fletcher Whitelaw, which later became Whitelaw Weber, with offices around the Far North. Whitelaw was a councillor for a term during the Far North’s reshuffle from the county councils of the Bay of Islands, Hokianga, Whangaroa, Mangonui and the Kaikohe and Kaitaia Borough councils to become the Far North District Council.
‘‘It was an interesting journey completing the merge and making sure the council was in good financial shape.’’
He was a member of the Kaikohe-Hokianga community board for nine years and chairman of the finance committee between 1989-1992. Whitelaw was also a member of the Kaikohe Rotary Club, then the Kaikohe Lions Club where he was a president
‘‘It was an interesting journey...’’ Cliff Whitelaw
for a year. ‘‘The club’s did amazing projects such as playgrounds in Kaikohe, Trefoil Park projects, Lonsdale Park and other projects around Kaikohe,’’ Whitelaw says. ‘‘Those were some really fun times.’’
Whitelaw sees education as being vital to helping children in low socio-economic areas reach their potential.
The Kaikohekohe Education Trust where he has been chairman for the past four years has seen Chromebooks and teacher training provided to schools from Waima through to Paihia. The trust is a local off-shoot from the Manaiakalani Education Trust.
During his accounting career Whitelaw has been on the Northland committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants, while also being the head of the tax committee. Whitelaw’s first postretirement trip is to meet his fourth grandchild in London in July.