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New Zealand businessman
Graeme Richard Hart is a New Zealand billionaire businessman and is among the country's richest persons. As of June 2024, his net worth was estimated at NZD$12.1 billion. He was the first New Zealander to be worth NZD$10 billion, topping the NBR Rich List for 20 years.
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The son of a radiographer, Hart attended Mount Roskill Grammar School in Auckland. After leaving school at 15, he worked as a tow-truck driver and as a panel beater before starting his first business at the age of 18 with the help of a loan from his father. In 1987, Hart completed an MBA from the University of Otago. His research thesis, as part of the MBA, outlined his strategy to grow Rank Group Limited, at the time a small "party hire" company servicing the greater Auckland area by integrating multiple acquired companies. Hart gained a big break when he purchased the Government Printing Office for less than its capital value in 1990. The purchase was 1.4x earnings and Hart was provided generous payment terms. Then New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange initially refused to sign off on the transaction. The following year he bought Whitcoulls Group, which at that time included a retail chain of bookstores as well as office and stationery concerns. Within two years of the acquisition, Whitcoulls controlled 40% of the book and stationery market in New Zealand. He has since sold off these interests.
Graeme Hart has multiple residences in New Zealand, including in Auckland, Queenstown, and Waiheke Island. Hart also owns an island in Fiji, as well as two properties in Aspen, Colorado in the US. Hart says he lacks interest in making money for its own sake. He describes his personal wealth as a "by-product" of what he does. While Hart prefers to keep a low profile in the general media, he was notable for the launch of his 58 metres (190 ft) luxury motor yacht Ulysses at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour in January 2006. The yacht was valued at nearly $100 million and took five years to complete due to it being gutted by a fire during refit at a New Orleans shipyard. In 2012 the Ulysses was put up for sale for $49-million. Hart had a 89m yacht named Here Comes The Sun, launched in 2016 at 83m, and transformed in 2021, adding 6 more metres to increase the length to 89m. Hart has a new 107-metre (351 ft) long yacht under construction at Kleven Verft in Ulstein Municipality in Norway. The yacht will also include a helicopter deck, a hangar, and accommodation for up to 60 persons. Hart's latest 107-metre (351 ft) "expedition yacht," formerly named Ulysses, was completed and eventually launched on 3 September 2014, in Ulsteinvik, north of Oslo, at the Kleven Verft shipyard. In 2017 it was reported that he purchased a new 116 metres (381 ft) explorer yacht, which was named "Ulysses", after his 107 metres (351 ft) yacht, formerly of the same name, had been sold. In December 2018, the Hart Family made a $10 million donation to the University of Otago to go towards opening their $28.2 million dental teaching facility in South Auckland. In February 2022, Hart donated eight tractors, 30 fishing boats and a container of food to the people of Tonga following the 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai eruption and tsunami.
Biographical detail compiled from Wikipedia and Wikidata, which are edited openly and may be incomplete or out of date. Fleet data is our own. Source →
