Sir Ronald Trotter
1927 - 2010
Sir Ronald Ramsay Trotter was the founding chairman of the New Zealand Business Roundtable, a position he held from 1985 to 1990.
Born in Hawera in October 1927, he was the son of the Hawera Farmers Co-op managing director. He was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School, then at Victoria University where he graduated with a commerce degree in 1947. In 1984 the university granted him an honorary doctoral degree in law.
Sir Ron was arguably the leading New Zealand business figure of his time, with a stellar career spanning almost fifty years. He was a vocal advocate of economic deregulation, and a driving force behind the economic reforms of the 1980s.
Among his many other roles he was chief executive and chairman of Fletcher Challenge Limited, chairman of the steering committee of the 1984 Economic Summit, a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, chairman of the State-owned Enterprises Advisory Committee, chairman of Telecom Corporation, chairman of the National Interim Provider Board, and chairman of the board of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.
He was also president of the New Zealand Woolbrokers’ Association, chairman of the Overseas Investment Commission, chairman of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, and a chairman or director of New Zealand Insurance, Air New Zealand, Wrightson, the group board of the ANZ Bank in Melbourne, Ciba-Geigy, and Toyota NZ.
Sir Ronald was made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business in 1985.
The Sir Ronald Trotter Lecture Series was inaugurated in 1995 to commemorate his many contributions to public affairs in New Zealand.
To read the eulogy given by Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr at Sir Ron’s funeral click here.
In 2007 the Business Roundtable presented Sir Ron with a collected volume of his speeches called The Trotter Times.
