For Duncan Croudis, there really is no place like home.
Mr Croudis (29) might have travelled the world with golf but being in Dunedin was where he now wanted to be.
"You don’t realise how good Dunedin is, maybe until you’ve gone somewhere else," he said yesterday.
In January, Mr Croudis joined Forsyth Barr as an associate adviser, and will soon become an investment adviser.
Sitting next to John Gallaher, with his decades of experience in the financial services industry, it was a role he was relishing.
"It’s different every day. I love it," he said.
Brought up in Dunedin, Mr Croudis studied economics and accounting at Otago Boys’ High School. After his first year of study at the University of Otago, he headed to the United States on a golf scholarship.
He completed a business degree, majoring in finance, from Iowa State University. American college life, he said, was just like it was depicted in the movies.
After his studies, he "tried to do the golf thing" and turn professional. It was tough and competitive and he found he did not enjoy the sport as much when it was a job.
Still, he acknowledged, he was "super lucky" with the opportunities that golf had provided him over the years.
He loved meeting people and travelling and he was also quite competitive. He was playing college golf with some of the big names now on the PGA tour.
He then worked as finance manager for a tech company and did his MBA before joining Forsyth Barr.
"Forsyth Barr is a cool company, so I’m stoked. I love our team and what we do," he said.
Every day was different and every client’s situation was unique. It depended on what they needed, whether it was income or growth, and it was rewarding helping people grow their wealth, he said.
He was pleased to see the increasing interest in financial literacy, particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic.
And, as for golf, he had got his love for the sport back again, and he also had his amateur status back.
He was enjoying a position as financial director at Golf Otago which was an opportunity to give back to a sport that had given him so much, he said.
Forsyth Barr now had just over 450 staff and recently opened its 23rd office, in Masterton. Growth had been most significant in the last 10 years, chief executive Neil Paviour-Smith said.
When he joined 22 years ago, there were about 50 staff and eight offices around New Zealand.
He believed that growth was a reflection of the firm being owned by staff — "we take a long-term view" — and also that if it was a good firm, then people liked working there and hopefully stayed.
He cited the likes of Val Braumann, who has worked in the company’s Dunedin office for 60 years, and former chairman and managing director Sir Eion Edgar.
"They are the most enthusiastic people and that’s very infectious across the South. One way of growing is to not lose what you’ve got ... whether good staff or clients," he said.
Growth was also very much a reflection of the opportunities the company had seen in the market and it had positioned itself for those.
"We have the luxury and good fortune of being supported by many. many clients who put their trust in us every day. We don’t take that lightly," he said.
Judges of the Institute of Finance Professionals (INFINZ) awards noted
Forsyth Barr’s "consistent strength across research, account management, corporate access and deal execution".
The awards were determined by polling New Zealand-based fund managers which were active investors in Australasian equities.
It was very pleasing to receive the award, particularly for the second consecutive year.
It was a whole company effort and something that everyone should be very proud of, Mr Paviour-Smith said.
Asked how Covid-19 had affected the business, he said all staff worked at home during the lockdown period, for the first time "and they did a fantastic job."
The amount of work the company was dealing with, particularly on the broking side, during the initial period of lockdown, was at "extreme" levels.
"We had clients looking at major swings in markets and wanting to invest or divest," he said.
The company went to considerable lengths, through its advisers, to contact all its clients, as best it could, to check in and give them assurances.
Typical feedback was that many clients, particularly older folk, would be watching the television news and hearing a lot of alarmist stories that it could be "catastrophic".
That was unsettling for them and to be contacted came as a great relief.
"It was reassurance at a time of stress and uncertainty for clients ," he said.
Work on the redevelopment of Forsyth Barr House in Dunedin’s Octagon would be completed in the next few months.
Staff have been temporarily relocated to the former National Bank building in Princes St. It would be a modern fit-out for staff and "almost like a brand new building", he said.
