Sir John Anthony Anderson, KBE (born 2 August 1945) was the Chief Executive and Director of ANZ Bank New Zealand (then ANZ National Bank Ltd) and after retiring at the end of 2005, become the chair of Television New Zealand in April 2006, the former employer of the controversial TV-host Paul Henry. He was awarded the New Zealand 1990 Commemoration Medal and was knighted in 1994.
He began his career in accounting, followed by sharebroking in Melbourne. He returned to New Zealand in 1972 to help form the merchant bank South Pacific Merchant Finance (Southpac). He became Chief Executive of Southpac in 1979 and within a year of Southpac merging with the National Bank of New Zealand in 1988, he become Chief Executive of the National Bank. Anderson oversaw the National Bank's merger with Rural Bank in 1992 and Countrywide Bank in 1998. In 2004 Lloyds TSB sold The National Bank to the ANZ bank. After ANZ's acquisition of the National Bank he was responsible for ANZ's New Zealand businesses until his retirement at the end of 2005.
Anderson was on a number of business boards in the 1980s, including New Zealand Steel and Petrocorp, where he was Chairman.
He was on the international board of the World Wide Fund for Nature for four years as well as being the New Zealand Chairman. He was also a member of the Prime Minister's Enterprise Council from 1990 to 1999.
He was appointed Chairman of New Zealand Cricket in 1995 and continues in this role today, as well as being New Zealand’s representative on the International Cricket Council Executive Board.
In 2005 he was the inaugural winner of the Blake Medal for demonstrated leadership in many fields – business, sport, environment and the community.
In December 2007 he was appointed by the NZ Government to be the Chairman of the Capital and Coast District Health Board, responsible for medical services in the Wellington and Kapiti Coast, after a series of significant financial and operational problems. In February 2008 he was appointed commissioner of the Hawkes Bay District Health Board after Health Minister, David Cunliffe, sacked the DHB board due to the minister's dissatisfaction with their running of the DHB.
In 2010 Anderson joined the board of PGG Wrightson and become Chairman.
He was born in Wellington, and was educated at Christ's College and Victoria University of Wellington. He married Carol Tuck in 1970, and they have 3 children Sarah, Robbie and Dave.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Oh, the days dwindle down to a precious few.”
—Maxwell Anderson (1888–1959)
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)