Avalanche victim worked in top f inancial roles
A MAN killed in an avalanche while heli-skiing near Queenstown was very driven, a former colleague says.
Roger Greville, 58, was pulled from the snow shortly before 3pm on Monday, but could not be resuscitated.
Greville was a successful businessman, working for AMP Capital in New Zealand and Sydney before heading a private equity business in London, then returning to Sydney.
Former AMP colleague Murray Gribben, now chief executive of Crown Irrigation, described him as a ‘‘good bugger’’.
‘‘He was passionate about most of the things he did.’’
Greville was a keen outdoorsman, Gribben said, but only took to skiing later in life. He travelled to New Zealand two or three times a year for heli-skiing.
‘‘It came as a huge shock to me this morning . . . that he’d passed away. He was just a bloody good bugger. I don’t know what to say. It’s come as a bit of a shock to all of us, I think. Very driven, knew what he wanted. He’ll be a real loss.’’
An economist, Greville held senior roles in New Zealand’s Reserve Bank, Treasury and biggest fund manager AMP. In 1998 he went to London and ran a private equity fund for investment company Henderson Group, which was later spun off from AMP.
Until December 2011 he was managing director of Henderson Equity Partners, which specialises in Asian private equity, infrastructure and private equity fund of funds, and he sat on the executive committee for Henderson Group.
Before that Greville was chief executive of AMP Henderson Global Investors (NZ).
The avalanche struck at Loch Linnhe in the Hector Mountains, south of Queenstown.
Greville was the only one in his group who was buried. He was found quickly but, despite the efforts of guides and paramedics, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police planned to spend much of yesterday at the site trying to determine the cause of the avalanche.