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WHINERAY: A national hero looks back.
Photos by (L) Getty Images; (R) David White/ New Zealand Herald
One of five brothers growing up in New Zealand during World War II, Sir Wilson Whineray (MBA 1969) experienced a childhood in which “the small coins had to be watched as carefully as the bigger ones,” the New Zealand Herald (January 16, 2012) reported. “Mum only had one coat…but we were always clean and tidy,” he recalled. From those modest beginnings, Whineray went on to star on his country’s legendary All Blacks national rugby union team and to be its all-time longest-serving captain.
Because he wanted to work with a global company, Whineray enrolled at HBS (and played for its nascent rugby club). It was at the School that Whineray said he “had an awakening” and became aware of “trade and business in other parts of the world.” He would rise to the chairmanship of Carter Holt Harvey, a New Zealand forest-products company, and later serve as chairman of the National Bank of New Zealand. He was knighted in 1998. “I am absolutely a contented man,” said Whineray, now retired. “Sometimes I wonder how it all went so well really.”
Did you play rugby at HBS? Don't miss the reunion in October 2013.
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