LUXON’S BUSINESS CAREER

Much like his rise within the National Party, Christopher Luxon took just over a year to reach the top at Air New Zealand.

But the newly-minted Opposition leader has received both praise and criticism for his leadership at the national carrier.

Before securing the Botany electorate at the 2020 general election Luxon, 51, spent seven years as chief executive of Air NZ, taking over from Rob Fyfe at the end of 2012.

Born in Christchurch in 1970, his mother was a psychotherapist and his father was a sales executive for Johnson & Johnson. He and his family moved to Auckland when he was seven but at age 15 Luxon returned to Christchurch where he studied at Canterbury University, graduating with a master in commerce majoring in business administration.

He was later recruited into the management trainee programme Unilever, one of the world’s largest multinational consumer packaged goods firms. He spent the next 18 years working for Unilever in New

Zealand and around the globe.

He finished his time with the company based in Toronto as president and chief executive of Unilever Canada.

In 2011, Luxon, having just turned 40, returned to New Zealand to the role of group general manager international airline at Air NZ. The following year he was appointed chief executive.

Under his leadership Air NZ signed numerous codeshare agreements and alliance deals, and opened a bunch of new and exciting international routes.

As profits soared to record levels, helped by a booming tourism industry, Air NZ placed orders for the latest and greatest planes, upgraded Koru lounges and was named Australia’s most trusted brand several years in a row.

The success of the company was reflected in Luxon’s whopping pay packet. In 2018, he was the highestpaid chief executive of all listed companies, earning more than $4 million a year. But it wasn’t all clear skies, with Luxon making the unpopular decision in 2014 to axe seven economically unsustainable regional routes.

Towards the end of his time at the airline Luxon worked alongside former National Party leader and former Prime Minister Sir John Key who was an Air NZ director.

In 2018 Luxon was named chair of a newly-formed Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council to advise Jacinda Ardern on how to supercharge the New Zealand economy. But it was short-lived with Luxon resigning from Air NZ in September 2019, just months before the pandemic devastated the aviation industry.

Former Air NZ executive and now chief executive of MediaWorks Cam Wallace, who worked closely with Luxon for seven years, said he was an exceptionally hard and dedicated worker and an ‘‘inspirational leader’’.

Aviation consultant Irene King said Luxon was the epitome of what a chief executive should be.

Although he inherited an airline with a strong balance sheet and ‘‘a dream team’’ of executives around him, Air New Zealand was ‘‘a bloody tough business to run’’ even at the best of times, she said.

However, E tū head of aviation Savage said Luxon was all too often style over substance.

‘‘He very rarely attended the monthly leadership meetings between union and company and was not close to the problems the unions and company were trying to sort out.’’