Obituary: Sir Rod Weir, business giant who was always at home on the farm
Rod Weir, who has died aged 94, started his career as an office junior at the age of 15 with the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Company, a prominent stock and station agency in Wanganui. Forty years later he had negotiated the merger of two major companies, Dalgety and Wrightson, to become one of the largest rural companies in New Zealand.
He was a self-made man who made a fateful decision in 1963 to pursue his dream of owning his own business and doing things his way. With few resources, but possessing a charismatic personality and a shrewd assessment of the world, he made a go of it and became a well-known part of the New Zealand business community. Despite his rise to prominence in Wellington boardrooms, however, he was always at home in a paddock, chewing on a blade of grass and talking with the “cow-cockies” about their heifers.
He joked that his first job’s main duty was “trying to balance the stamp book”. Despite his lack of skills initially, he was promoted many times over a few years. He was a livestock manager in Ōtaki, a stock and station agent in Levin, and a manager of the Wellington branch of the New Zealand Loan & Mercantile Agency (which merged with Dalgety & Co). He was the youngest manager in Dalgety history.
His private directorships included Sun Alliance Insurance, Amuri Corporation, Sherwood Mercantile, McKechnie Pacific, and he was vice chairman of Rangitira. He was made an honorary doctor of science by Massey University, and was a laureate of the Business Hall of Fame
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