That has been the philosophy of Dunedin business leader Neil Finn-House, who leaves the city this week for a new role in Wellington as chief commercial and operating officer at Business Central NZ/Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
Mr Finn-House has spent nearly 12 years as chief executive of the Mitre 10 Mega Dunedin business, alongside a strong involvement in the business community since moving south from Tauranga in 2003.
“It’s been very, very good to me, this city,” he said.
The Englishman started in the retail industry as an 18-year-old and moved to New Zealand in 1996 to work for Progressive Enterprises.
He moved to Dunedin to open the FreshChoice supermarket in Roslyn as area manager, having never previously been to the city.
He said since then, he had enjoyed all the jobs he had taken on. From the supermarket trade, he went to department store Arthur Barnett in 2011 as chief executive and then on to Mitre 10 in 2013.
Describing Mitre 10 as a “very loved brand”, he said leading a large team there had been a highlight along with growing that business to where it was now.
In 2021, Mr Finn-House was elected as the inaugural chairman of Business South following the merger of the Otago Southland Employers’ Association and the Otago Chamber of Commerce.
He led the merger negotiations and acted as interim board chairman through to appointing the chief executive, Mike Collins, and associated governance tasks, resigning the chairman’s role in November 2023 and retaining a directorship.
He also became an elected member of the board of Business NZ and was appointed co-vice-president in late 2023.
He has resigned from those roles and said he was humbled recently to be presented with life membership of Business South.
Mr Collins said Mr Finn-House had balanced his job as chief executive with the demands of the chairman role and, through his involvement with Business NZ, had contributed at a national level, including chairing the finance, risk and audit committee.
Mr Finn-House said seeing through the successful Business South merger had also been a highlight and one that he was proud of.
It had been attempted several times previously and had not gone through and, while it involved a lot of work at the time, he was proud to have achieved it and to see the organisation where it was today.
Being trusted to run some decent-sized organisations in Dunedin had been beneficial to his career and he felt “very blessed” to have worked with such good people.
He had found Dunedin to be a community where people helped each other and there were some “fantastic businesses” thriving in the city, Mr Finn-House said.
“It’s in my heart, Dunedin — I really like it.”
While there were plenty of friends he would miss in the South, he was looking forward to living with his partner in Wellington, after a long-distance relationship.
As for his own DIY abilities, Mr Finn-House said he had renovated two apartments in Dunedin, adding he loved a project.
sally.rae@odt.co.nz
