Richard’s pedigree/whakapapa includes his father Group Captain George Westlake of the RAF and aviation in general which he reckons is in his DNA. In 1969 he got his private pilot’s licence but failed shortly afterwards to get his driving licence. Luckily his pilot’s licence stood him in good stead and before long he was in the RAF flying Hawker Hunters which he described as like driving a Jaguar in the air – it just felt right.
While he was a pilot he was ‘volunteered’ to run a refugee camp of around 4,500 people on Cyprus. This went well, except when it did not, and the potential revolt was doused by patience and a shower of cold rain. Then it was back to blighty and flying Harrier jump jets. However, as many of us remember, the mid-1970s were a time of fuel shortages and this also applied to fuel for the planes. Being limited to eight hours flying in a month meant there was not much flying and Richard decided a change in direction was needed. This time it was to New Zealand, then Australia.
Richard spent the 1980s in Australia in merchant banking then back to New Zealand where he became CEO of Canterbury Trust Bank. He said his experience running a refugee camp came in useful when he had to reduce the staff numbers by half. Then it was time to go it alone and run his own company. He became, in his own words, a banker with a heart, which included helping in the set-up of Kiwibank. Since then he has been on many company boards and is now chairman of the forest research organisation Scion. He hopes to make sure they can develop a lot more added-value to trees grown in New Zealand, instead of exporting them as logs. We wish him good luck with that because it has been tried many times before.
With his New Zealand pilot’s licence, and being in a top-notch Rotary club, we wait for more great things from one of our newest members. No pressure.
Richard spent the 1980s in Australia in merchant banking then back to New Zealand where he became CEO of Canterbury Trust Bank. He said his experience running a refugee camp came in useful when he had to reduce the staff numbers by half. Then it was time to go it alone and run his own company. He became, in his own words, a banker with a heart, which included helping in the set-up of Kiwibank. Since then he has been on many company boards and is now chairman of the forest research organisation Scion. He hopes to make sure they can develop a lot more added-value to trees grown in New Zealand, instead of exporting them as logs. We wish him good luck with that because it has been tried many times before.
With his New Zealand pilot’s licence, and being in a top-notch Rotary club, we wait for more great things from one of our newest members. No pressure.