MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CEO
Mr Ralph Norris took up his appointment as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Air New Zealand Limited in February 2002, having been on the board of the airline for over three years.
Mr Norris is 54, was born in Auckland and educated at Lynfield College and is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and the New Zealand Computer Society.
He started his working career as a commercial cadet with Mobil Oil New Zealand in 1967 before joining the Auckland Savings Bank in 1969 to specialise initially in the development of data processing services. After a series of promotions through the bank's management structure, he was appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ASB Bank Limited in 1991 and retired from that position in September last year.
He played a lead role in the nation-wide expansion of the ASB Bank and the introduction of New Zealand to interactive telephone banking services, internet banking, and its first "virtual bank" BankDirect.
During his tenure as Chief Executive, the ASB Bank won the New Zealand Marketing Award for the Service Industry three times and was the first bank in Australasia to win the international Arthur Andersen Quality Service Award. Mr Norris was judged New Zealand Executive of the Year in 1997.
He is a director of Fletcher Building Ltd and a member of a number of trusts including the Starship Foundation Trust, and the Northern Lifeguard Services Trust.
He is a former Chairman of the New Zealand Bankers Association, the Business Roundtable. He was a member of the Prime Minister's Enterprise Council, the Prime Minister's Y2K Taskforce.
Mr Norris is married with three children.