INTHEBLACK May 2022 - Magazine - Page 21
GAME OF
BALANCE
PHIL NEUTZE FCPA ABSORBS HIMSELF IN THE CHALLENGE OF BALANCING MULTIPLE
COMPETING PRIORITIES AND APPROACHES AS AUCKLAND AIRPORT STARTS TO
SHAKE OFF THE EFFECTS OF THE PANDEMIC.
AS TOLD TO ADAM COURTENAY PHOTOGRAPHY ANDREW COFFEY
MY ROLE
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND OPERATIONS
As CFO, I lead four teams – strategy, planning
and performance, finance, and regulatory and
procurement. We are responsible for corporate
strategy, business planning, M&A, debt and equity
financing, investor relations, aero pricing, budgeting,
board reporting, statutory reporting, regulatory
disclosures, tax, procurement and capital expenditure
governance. I am also a director of our Novotel and
Pullman Hotel joint ventures with Tainui Group
Holdings.
My role involves a lot of “airtime” with our board
and leadership team, lately focused on the budget
and timing for restarting COVID-19-affected
operations, paused strategic initiatives, a multibillion-dollar infrastructure development plan and
the aeronautical pricing implications for our airlines.
Plus, there is also engagement with our equity
investors and bankers who are eager to understand
the same things.
GAME CHANGERS
LEARNING MOMENT
My first job was as a scientist for the New Zealand
Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. My statistician
actively traded shares. I’d ask him, “How do you know
what to buy?”, “What’s a PE ratio?” He tired of
explaining and told me to go and do an MBA. I
researched it that night, resigned the next day and
signed up for an MBA at Massey University.
After a stint with ANZ’s graduate program, a friend
suggested investment banking. It sounded great, but
I didn’t think my agricultural science degree and MBA
would cut the mustard. He said Treasury analysts
make good investment bankers. A tax policy analyst
role came up at the Treasury. After a good interview,
they asked me to stay and complete an essay on
microeconomics. That sounded ominous, so I said I
was too busy at work and asked if I could do it after
hours. They said fine, so I bought a little Penguin
economics dictionary on the way home, found
phrases like “Keynesian economics” and
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