After Chris returns from his fabulous Tuscany jaunt, maybe it's time for some Syd roadies to befriend him? Allies are good. 😉
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Corrigan's life cycle shifts gear
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,19105593-643,00.html
Glenda Korporaal. May 12, 2006
AS Chris Corrigan leaves Sydney today for a bicycling holiday in Italy, he can at last begin thinking about his third career.
After more than 15 years building corporate giant Patrick Corporation, and the last nine months trying to fend off the advances of Toll chief Paul Little, the 59-year-old former merchant banker has again been thrust into unfamiliar territory.
Few think that the man - who built the Australian arm of Bankers Trust into one of the country's top fund management houses, took on Australia's cosy stockbroking monopoly and revolutionised Australia's wharves - will retire.
Corrigan stands to make $150 million from selling his 2.5 per cent stake in Patrick Corporation. He doesn't need to work.
He has a passion for bicycles and motorcycles, as well as gliding.
But, even yesterday, he made it clear that his real passion was still building and running companies.
"I can't see him disappearing from the corporate scene," his long-time friend Jill Broadbent, a Reserve Bank director, said last night.
"People think he does it for the money. But he doesn't. He loves the work. He works very hard."
Corrigan quit the New York-based Bankers Trust empire in the 80s, ending a 15-year stint in Sydney and Asia after disagreeing with headquarters over Asian strategy.
He then teamed up with the Melbourne-based former executive of Elders IXL, Peter Scanlon, to set up an investment company called Jamieson in 1989 and look for companies that were undervalued after the 1987 stock market crash.
In 1991, he bought half of Strang Patrick Stevedoring, eventually buying full control and building the company into a major ports operator, expanding into rail freight with a half-interest in Pacific National, and then taking control of Virgin Blue.
Corrigan yesterday compared his battle against the unwanted takeover bid from Toll Holdings with his fight on the wharves in 1997 and 1998 in terms of its intense emotional drain.
He won at the wharves, went on to take Patrick Corporation to new heights and eventually earned the support of his workforce.
With Toll, he said, he may have lost the battle to retain control of Patrick, but he won the war by getting the best value for his shareholders. "My job was to defend the company and try to get the best price I could for the shareholders," he said.
Earlier this year, Corrigan joined the board of James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd on the suggestion of his old friend, John Alexander, who is now its managing director.
Both are low-key, workaholic, highly disciplined operators with a dry sense of humour and share a passion for Italy.
But Corrigan made it clear yesterday that he had no plans for a comfortable, post-CEO roster of company directorships. "I am not planning a career on boards," he said, almost disdainful of the prospect. "I don't think it would suit my talents."
At Patrick, Corrigan retained an interest in funds management - the company holds an 18 per cent stake in Kaplan Partners, currently run out of Patrick's dockside headquarters in Sydney by his friend, Sam Kaplan.
As he cycles around the hills of Tuscany over the next six weeks, Corrigan will be thinking about his next move.
He comes back to Sydney only weeks before his 60th birthday.
What he does after that will be closely watched by many who have followed his unique career.