Jon Mayson

Mayson was born in 1945 in Oamaru. Growing up in Christchurch, then in rural areas of Whanganui and Dannevirke, his parents were Christian pacifists who he credits as instilling him with a social conscience. Aged 16 he went to sea as an apprenticed cadet with the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand Limited.[1][2] His seagoing career was with Union Steam until 1968 then Shell Tankers(UK) Limited until 1971 culminating in gaining his Foreign Going Masters Certificate in Southampton in 1970. In 1972 he came ashore, initially as a stevedore in Tauranga, then joined the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board initially as Tugmaster then as a Harbour Pilot for 16 years before moving in to operational management with the Port of Tauranga Limited. switching to a career in waterfront operations.[3]

He opposed the Vietnam War and sporting contact with apartheid era South Africa, leading him to join the Values Party upon its foundation in 1972, later becoming a co-leader of the party in the 1980s.[2] He contested the electorate of Kaimai as the Values candidate at the 1978 and 1981 elections, where he placed fourth on both occasions.[4] Mayson was elected a member of the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board and served in that capacity from 1974 to 1980.[1]

In 1988 he became The Port of Tauranga's assistant Operations Manager and represented the Port through the waterfront labour reform process in 1989–1990, in 1992 he graduated with a master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) and became the Operations Manager. In 1994 he was engaged in consultancy for the Asian Development Bank and also for an Australian consultancy firm contracted to studies relating to ports in Indonesia and Malaysia. He became CEO of Port of Tauranga Ltd in 1998.[2] During his tenure as CEO container volumes rose from 70,000 to 440,000 annually, Metroport an inland port in Auckland was established in 1999 with its associated rail shuttle to and from tauranga to serve the Sulphur Point container terminal, a joint venture was entered into with Northland Port Corporation in 2001 to build and own Northport at Marsden Point and a nationwide joint venture in stevedoring and marshalling in conjunction with Toll, known as C3 Limited was entered into after the purchase of Owens Bay of Plenty services limited in 2002.

In October 2005 he resigned as Chief Executive to pursue a career as a professional Director, this encompassed a wide variety of roles from 2003 to 2022 chairing publicly listed companies (Scales Corporation, Martin Aircraft), private companies such as Ziwi Petfoods Ltd, Trevelyans Pack & Cool Ltd, legacy Funerals Ltd and Fronde Ltd, the Crown Entity New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE), as well as a director of Ontrack, directorships with the investment entities of Te Arawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa, port related companies including Northport, Port Marlborough, and Ports of Auckland, The Chiefs Rugby Club Ltd, and finally chairing the start up social investment fund Purpose Capital from 2020 until 2022. He also chaired Tauranga Arts Festival Trust for 4 years from 2006 to 2010, and was President of Export New Zealand from 2006 to 2008 prior to being appointed Chair of NZTE in 2008.

In 2002 he was made a Fellow of the NZ institute of Management

In 2003 he received the Bob Owens Award from Logistics and Transport NZ for "Outstanding contribution to logistics/supply chain and the community"

In June 2005 he was awarded the Taura Award for "services to exporting" at the Bay of Plenty Export Awards. of E[3]

In 2006 two case studies written by the Darden Business School, Virginia, U.S. on the Port of Tauranga and his leadership were published in the Harvard Business Review.

He was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the shipping industry and to export, in the 2006 New Year Honours.[5]

In 2010 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato, received the "Excellence in Business leadership" Award at the Tauranga Business Awards, and was made a member of the World Class New Zealand network.

In 1964 he was awarded the Royal Humane Society of Australasia Certificate of Merit for saving the life of a drowning crewman in Adelaide whilst serving on SS "Waihemo".

In 1967 he and Beverley Robertson, a nurse from Rotorua were married, they have three daughters.

In 1996 he was the navigator for three weeks on the square-rigged replica of HMS Endeavour which retraced the journey of Captain James Cook around New Zealand and Australia.[2]

In December 2005 he was diagnosed with colon cancer, subsequently underwent chemotherapy treatment, he has been in remission since 2006.[3]

• Norton, Clifford (1988). New Zealand Parliamentary Election Results 1946–1987: Occasional Publications No 1, Department of Political Science. Wellington: Victoria University of Wellington. ISBN 0-475-11200-8.