An ‘astute and courageous businessman’
Sir Douglas Myers, the long-time chief executive of Lion Breweries and Lion Nathan, has passed away. He was 78.
Myers was one of New Zealand’s most prominent businessmen, having worked his way up through Lion Nathan to build a personal fortune estimated to be worth $900 million.
In 2008, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and spent much of his later life fighting the disease. In 2013, he revealed that the cancer had returned fiercely. Doctors told him he had only a matter of months to live.
Myers turned to new cancer drug Keytruda, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars per month.
He was knighted in 2010 for services to business and the community.
He is survived by his wife Barbara, and three children from an earlier marriage, Jessica, Laura and Campbell.
Rory Glass, managing director of Lion NZ, described Myers as ‘‘an astute and courageous businessman’’.
‘‘He was deeply passionate about Lion and about New Zea- land, and he instilled in us a belief that we could take on the world – and we did,’’ Glass said.
Myers was a strong supporter of the reforms begun in 1984 by the Fourth Labour Government, and was convinced the average Kiwi was the main beneficiary.
Michael Barnett, chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, said New Zealand’s business community would also remember Myers for his role in the NZ Business Roundtable, a rightwing policy think tank.
Myers was a co-founder of the lobby group and its chairman from 1990 to 1997.
‘‘That was a great opportunity to influence government policy and he participated strongly in that and provided great leadership there. Because it was right-wing, there were probably a lot of people who didn’t agree with him but great leaders have a firm belief in the way things should happen and are prepared to give strength to those convictions. He certainly did that.’’
Myers was born in 1939 and came from a high-profile family. His grandfather, Sir Arthur Myers, was Mayor of Auckland from 1905 to 1909.
Myers attended Cambridge Uni- versity and Harvard Business School before forging a highly successful business career.
He began his ascent of the corporate ladder in 1965, when he was appointed chief executive of Campbell & Ehrenfried. After a number of mergers, Lion Breweries was created, which went on to become Lion Nathan.
Myers was managing director, chief executive and chairman of the firm. He sold out in 1998 in a deal that earned him $473m.
Myers was New Zealand’s richest man for years until he was overtaken by Graeme Hart in 2002, according to the NBR Richlist.
He was based in London but regularly travelled back to New Zealand, where he had a property in Matauri Bay, Northland. It was there that he suffered broken bones when he fell 18m down a cliff in 2014.
Myers travelled the world aboard his 59m luxury superyacht, Senses, for some years, before selling it in 2011 to Google billionaire Larry Page.
Myers was also a philanthropist, setting up the Sir Douglas Myers Scholarship which awards Year 13 students $100,000 to study at Cambridge University.
He also gave millions of dollars to Auckland University’s Kenneth Myers Arts Centre, and supported the university’s Business School.
He was semi-retired until his death, maintaining business interests in the private equity group Bayard Capital, and Downtown Music.
Myers was active until the end – he was one of the signatories to a letter last week arguing that free speech was under threat at universities.