Hats off to Sheppard, the shareholders' crusade

JOHN SELKIRK

GOOD MATES: Incoming Shareholders Association chairman John Hawkins, right, is embraced by outgoing chairman Bruce Sheppard at the association's annual meeting in Auckland yesterday.

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Former Shareholders' Association chairman Bruce Sheppard was the chairman of silly hats.

It all began with a tin hat spontaneously worn at a Brierley Investments meeting that set out to "dick everyone" and shift control of the company offshore.

Held in Auckland on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1999, Mr Sheppard was successful in getting two minutes silence for Remembrance Day and "bucket loads" of media coverage of the issues besetting Brierley's Kiwi shareholders.

It also set Mr Sheppard on a sartorial course now as well-known as the organisation he chaired for 10 years.

"It dawned on me that if we can be a little bit flamboyant we can get an outcome," he said at yesterday's annual meeting – his final as chairman.

"I tried to make the issues funny and amusing and entertaining because New Zealanders have no time for business or capital markets. This was about making investment meetings and business activities humorous and pointing out the idiocy and malfeasance."

Capturing the attention of the media and commentators was crucial in shining a light on the actions of boards and companies, he said. "The hats underlined the issues."

The hats included the tin one worn to the BIL meeting, a lumberjack one to Fletchers, a Viking helmet worn to a Tower meeting in a nod to chairman Olaf O'Duill's Norwegian heritage, and a clown hat to a Rubicon meeting because Sheppard thought company management was a "circus" and the board a "bunch of clowns".

The headgear now sit on his bench at work and new association chairman John Hawkins is welcome to borrow them, he says.

Reviewing his time with the corporate watchdog, Mr Sheppard noted the association's many successes in bringing higher levels of accountability to boardrooms.

While the triumphs were "drops in the bucket over time" collectively the association's activism had altered the thinking of directors and shareholders. The Shareholders' Association had "changed the world", empowering shareholders to exercise their rights, exposing corporate greed and had finally drawn long overdue attention to the sad state of New Zealand's capital markets.

Members also paid tribute to his efforts.

Stephen Lindsay described him as an inspiration. "Behind the scenes and his freakish efforts, he has been a great achiever."

- © Fairfax NZ News