Greg Muir joins Hanover

Hanover Group has appointed Pumpkin Patch chairman Greg Muir as the chairman of its principal holding companies.

Muir is also a director of Vector and NGC Holdings and chairman of the Auckland Blues Super 14 franchise. He will take over as chairman from Mark Hotchin this month.

Muir has been appointed as chairman of Hanover Group and Hanover Financial Services Ltd (HFSL). HFSL is the principal holding company for the group’s financial services businesses, and the chief executives of each business will report directly to the HFSL board.

Hotchin said that the group had moved determinedly to establish better and more apparent governance structures.

"We have gone from having no independent directors 18 months ago, to a structure where the key financial services subsidiaries will have ‘tied boards’ with three independent directors and three company executives or shareholders."

"Based on the NZX Listing Rule requirement of at least two independent directors for boards of our size we are moving to a higher standard and in doing so have raised the governance bar for New Zealand finance companies."

Hotchin said that this should not be interpreted as meaning there was a listing intention simply that the group was determined to create a governance standard above that prescribed for public companies where it raised money from the public.