Owen Glenn - Making a Difference: How One New Zealander Created a Global Business, and His Thoughts on the Countrys Direction

W hat on earth is a dyslexic butcher supposed to say in a foreword to a book about Owen Glenn? Owen is a multi-millionaire businessman who built a network of hugely successful companies that he then sold, while I am just a humble working class lad from Newtown in Wellington who made a few bob with a chain of butchery stores and some cracking sausages.

But the truth is I had never heard of Owen Glenn until one day when the Americas Cup was in town and I visited the Viaduct to take a peep at the super yachts. Just like the rest of the country, I was fascinated by how the other half live. Then I got chatting to a bloke about one particular boat moored there that day and he told me the one I was admiring belonged to a bloke from Mount Roskill.

For those of you who are not familiar with Auckland, Mount Roskill is not the sort of suburb you associate with super yachts. And then this chap told me something even more interesting. It was owned by a man called Owen Glenn, and the day before he had taken a group of sick kids for a bit of a ride out on the harbour.

That didnt seem like something your average super yacht owner would get up to, and I was taken by the story, so I checked this Owen Glenn fella out. Turns out he was very far from a silver spoon in the mouth rich kid with all the toys and trappings of wealth.

Certainly he was not short of a bob or two, but his story was compelling for many more reasons than that. Born in Calcutta, he arrived in New Zealand in 1952 with his family, going on to attend everyday schools like Balmoral Intermediate and Mt Roskill Grammar. He went on to be a bank teller, worked for what was then TEAL now called Air New Zealand and ended up doing the same thing young Kiwis still do, going on his big OE.

I wont pretend to understand all the business adventures he got up to, but its safe to say he was no mug, and he ended up involved with a global logistics company, before setting up a Sydney-based freight company called Pacific Forwarding, and eventually going on to head DCL, Direct Container Line, which was so successful that US President Ronald Reagan gave it an award.

While I was chopping chops in Mangere he was being named the United States Entrepreneur of the Year and creating the OTS Logistics Group, which is the organisation bought up in 2012 by the London-based private equity group Man Capital.

In other words, this bloke Owen Glenn was the ultimate self-made man.

But while all this was going on, he didnt put the cash under the mattress and indulge himself with a flash new car every five minutes. He set about forming the Owen Glenn Foundation and finding ways to make the money work for other people, and always those with fewer advantages in life than himself.

To be fair, I would only do him a disservice if I tried to list what he has done for others, because the list is so long that Id almost certainly leave something important out. Safe to say he supports hundreds of causes around the world. He is the person they invented the word philanthropist for. His donations to the University of Aucklands School of Business are well-documented . They tell me the $7.5 million he handed over is the largest private donation in New Zealand educational history.

But what really struck me was his response at the time of the devastating Christchurch earthquakes. In he stepped, unprompted, and donated $1 million. I still have a newspaper clipping of what he said at time: I grew up in New Zealand, it holds a special place in my heart and to see such devastation, such hurt and such loss makes you want to help. This donation is something I can do and I strongly urge other expatriate business people to do the same. We all need to pull together and while we are a small country, it is a country made up of people with huge hearts. Thats what gets you through in times like this.

Now lets be fair, New Zealand is a tough place, and we have a reputation for knocking tall poppies down, but I have only ever heard good things about Owen Glenn.

I finally got to know him a little better when he bought into the Vodafone Warriors, and I was often asked at the time what I thought about that. The answer was simple. I was delighted. Why wouldnt you be? Here was a self-made man with enormous intelligence, integrity and business acumen opting to throw his lot in with a bunch of working class people who love the great game of rugby league.

He even turned up at the official opening of my museum in Manurewa, where a big collection of sporting memorabilia is on show, and queued up like the rest of the fans for his sausage off the barbecue.

I do not believe for one minute that Owen Glenn needs the endorsement of a meat man like me, but I was very proud to be asked to write these words, because he is a truly unselfish and giving man. And frankly, there are not enough of them around. In fact I would go so far as to pay him the ultimate working class butcher accolade: Hes not a bad bloke.

I hope you enjoy his story. My book What A Ride Mate: TheLife and Times of the Mad Butcher got translated into Braille, which I remain very proud of.

So he might have the super yacht and own a chunk of the Vodafone Warriors, but hes got a way to go yet. Tell you what Owen, when this one gets a Braille edition, Ill do you a barbecue of your own so you dont have to stand in line.

Sir Peter Charles Leitch KNZM, QSM

The Mad Butcher

(For anyone who lives overseas, Sir Peter Leitch is an iconic New Zealander who, aside from being a successful businessman in his own right, is incredibly generous philanthropically, particularly with his time. He is loved by New Zealanders young and old.)