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NZX CEO Mark Weldon to step down next year after almost a decade; no mention of his next role or a successor. Your view?

NZX CEO Mark Weldon to step down next year after almost a decade; no mention of his next role or a successor. Your view?

The NZX has announced that Chief Executive Mark Weldon will step down during the first half of 2012.

It made no mention of his likely next role or a successor.

“Mark has effectively been founder, as well as leader, of NZX, as we now know it, since 2002. Under his stewardship, NZX has grown from a small and threatened mutual exchange to a thriving information, markets and infrastructure business, with a range of integrated business lines, a healthy balance sheet and a valuable set of options for future growth,” said NZX Chairman Andrew Harmos.

“Following the successful execution of NZX’s second five-year strategic plan, Mark has indicated that the time is now right for him to leave the company. The Board respects his decision. We have been privileged to have someone with that amount of talent, energy and commitment as the driving force behind NZX’s first critical decade," Harmos said.

“NZX is in extremely good heart, with the Derivatives Market growing exponentially over the past 12 months, the Clearing House, Agri Information and Energy businesses functioning very strongly and, for the first time, the macro settings for savings, tax and investment equally strong, providing a welcome tailwind,” said Harmos.

The NZX had grown from revenues of NZ$10.4 million, a loss of NZ$500,000, no dividends and a valuation of NZ$15 million in 2002 to its current position of an operating profit approaching NZ$30 million, dividends in 2011 of NZ$17.24 million and a market value NZ$288 million. Harmos said the NZX had generated a total return to shareholders of 535%, or 24% per annum since its listing in 2002.

“Given the strength of the organisation and the wind that is now at our backs, I believe this is very close to an optimal time for both the individual and the organisation,” said Harmos.

Weldon said it had been a tough decision to leave, but now was the right time.

"The organisation is in such good shape, with momentum building that will provide a positive working environment for the next CEO,” Weldon said.

There was no comment on what Weldon would do with his 5% shareholding in NZX. Weldon sold 2.5 million shares for NZ$5.9 million in late June this year, reducing his stake from 6.63% to 4.98%. See the substantial shareholder notice here.

Last year's annual report listed Weldon as the NZX's fourth biggest shareholder at 6.6% behind ANZ at 8.6%, Fisher Funds on 7.9% and ACC on 7.0%.

Weldon received a salary of NZ$1.3 million last year.

'Mixed verdict'
 

Commentators, however, have given a mixed verdict on the NZX market itself, rather than the company that ran and regulated the market.

Goldman Sachs strategist Bernard Doyle wrote a research note last year that the value of the NZX had almost halved since 1997 relative to GDP, while Australia's had more than doubled. See more here in Gareth Vaughan's article

Doyle later said in a Double Shot interview that the NZX was "in god's waiting room". See the Double Shot here.

Milford Asset Management executive director Brian Gaynor last year said the market was the quietest he'd seen it in 35 years and desperately needed new listings. See his Double Shot interview here with Gareth Vaughan.

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Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

8 Comments

Whew ! ..... thank God for that , Weldon's gonna feck off  .  I breathe the same sigh of relief as when the country booted Clark & Cullen out : Not before time & good bloody  riddance !

.... shouldn't be too hard for the NZX to find someone who will not anatognise the business community generally , and who will not appear as such an arrogant little prat during television interviews .

Proof of the pudding is in the eating , and the companies on the NZX are far fewer in number ( about one half ) in 2011 , compared to 1987 ..... a loss of 50 % of the participants , in a quarter of a century .

...... Well done , Weldon !

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Nothing quite like going out on a high note there Marky boy....it leaves them wanting more..!

So can I take it he got wind of regulartory interference to come..? or relieved his position on a number of  things... 

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Who cares what he does next...  The NZX is too smalll to even give a passing though to

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.... the combined market capitalisation of all of the comapnies listed on the NZX is one tenth that of Apple , Steve Jobs old firm . Jobs turned Apple around , and built it into a $US 350 billion monster .

Mark Weldon , in a similiar time span , took a struggling NZX and turned it into an irrelevancy within a death spiral .

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The last government did give him a hand with a couple didn't they? AIA and Telecom. But yeh, good riddance.

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This is yet another example of a CEO of a NZ monopoly provider being paid a small fortune.  

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uncle mark should join forces with uncle rob alloway and form a super company that we could all invest in.

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Just because Henry van der hayden has been a director on NZX, Weldon wont have anything to do with the investment fund proposed under Fonterras deceptively named Trading Amoung Farmers!

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