‘President Pam’ took helm of fishing firm

‘‘She was totally driven by the failure of her marriage. She did not like failure one little bit.’’ Daughter Philippa

Afailed marriage provided Pam Williams with the motivation to become one of New Zealand’s most successful entrepreneurs. Williams, who has died aged 88, was a formidable businesswoman, who fought hard to create jobs in her home town of Whanganui.

Inducted (reluctantly) into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame in 2017, the former farmer was managing director and founder of Wanganui Trawlers, which later became Wanganui Seafoods, one of New Zealand’s largest seafood companies, exporting all over the world.

She also co-founded five other businesses, including Air Wanganui, and was a major philanthropist, giving away millions.

After selling the fishing business in 1994, for $36.5 million, Williams chaired the Fisheries Authority Committee, and spent nine years on the Accident Compensation Corporation board, serving eight different ministers. She received the Queen’s Service Order in 1997 for her contribution to business and to ACC.

Daughter Philippa Williams says her mother’s failed marriage was a turning point in the life of a woman noted for her drive and determination.

It left her with a desire to be financially independent, and she quickly realised that, for a woman, that was best achieved by working for herself.

Years earlier, she had displayed the determination to succeed that would be the hallmark of her more than 50 years in business.

Pamela Margaret Jean Pearce grew up in the remote upper reaches of the Waito¯ tara Valley, north of Whanganui, on a substantial hill country farm.

When her father, Frank Pearce, died she was still a teenager and, with help from two brothers, she quickly took control of the farm, doing the mustering on the tough terrain. Her schooling was done at home before spending her last two years as a boarder at Woodford House, in Hawke’s Bay.

Waito¯ tara Valley is one of the more remote parts of the North Island, and life for Williams could not have been easy. There were no girls on the neighbouring farms, and her male siblings were her only company.

The rough and tumble of having five brothers was good preparation for Woodford House, where she excelled at sport, particularly hockey and tennis.

In her early 20s, she married a local farmer and also ran a successful romney and southdown stud.

Years later, Philippa still speaks with pride of the success her mother had with the stud. The local farmers were not impressed at being outshone by a young woman.

Her marriage was never a happy one and, in the late 1960s, she separated. It was to be a turning point not only for Williams, but for the New Zealand fishing industry.

Given her relative youth and background in farming, deciding to invest in fishing was a brave move.

Teaming up with prominent Whanganui lawyer Gordon Swan, she set up Wanganui Trawlers.

Their first boat was a trawler called the Stella Maris. Inshore fishing was the initial interest, with the firm supplying fish and chip shops, but over time Williams looked to expand.

In 1977, the government extended New Zealand’s territorial waters to 200 miles and Williams lobbied the government for 18 months, successfully winning an offshore quota.

It was testament to her lobbying skills that some of the biggest names in New Zealand business, including Brierley Investments and Fletcher Challenge, were unsuccessful.

Daughter Nicola recalls her mother fighting hard for the quota, knowing it would be a huge boost to the Whanganui economy.

Her mother, she says, was a workaholic who was not intimidated by the men she dealt with, including Cabinet ministers.

he subsequently entered into a joint venture with Oyang Fisheries, from South Korea. It was in dealing with the Koreans, and later the Japanese and Russians, that Williams showed what an astute businesswoman she was.

Travelling to Seoul, she had to work with businessmen whose only experience was in dealing with men. They took her to the private clubs in which they did their business, but Williams was no country bumpkin, and the deals she negotiated served her firm well. ‘‘They called me President Pam,’’ she recalled, many years later.

With the Koreans supplying deep-sea trawlers and the business sourcing new fisheries, including orange roughy, business boomed. Later she expanded into squid.

Wanganui Fisheries held the sixthlargest quota and was soon exporting to 36 countries.

Williams travelled the world, but never lost sight of where she was from. She always made sure that locals were employed, and that as much work as possible went to Whanganui’s port.

A factory and 3000-tonne cold store were built in Whanganui, and her firm even took over the running of the port, to ensure it stayed open.

At its peak, 200 full-time staff were employed onshore, and the Korean crews were always popular with the locals. Later the firm entered a joint venture with a Russian firm.

Known to staff as Mrs Williams, she was also sometimes referred to as Ma Williams. As an employer, she took a deep interest in her staff, going as far as keeping in contact by radio with her trawlers to make sure the crew were safe.

When she sold the fishing business, she did not sell to the highest bidder. Instead, she chose Sanford, believing it was the most likely firm to retain the Whanganui part of the business.

After the sale, she became heavily involved in her local community. She served on the board of Cooks Gardens Trust, which ran the Whanganui stadium where Peter Snell had broken the world mile record in 1962.

Organisations to benefit from her generosity included Bushy Park, the Waimarie Riverboat Trust and Sport Whanganui. She gave $1m to the Sarjeant Gallery.

With her interest in regional development, she served on a number of organisations that looked to create jobs for locals. Longtime mayor Chas Poynter would call on her to stand in for him, if he was unable to attend meetings.

Philippa says that, like a lot of successful business people, she regretted not spending more time with her children. She made up for that by going the ‘‘extra mile’’ with her four grandchildren.

Michael Barnett, chief executive of the Auckland Business Chamber, which oversees the Business Hall of Fame, says Williams made an impression on everyone she met. ‘‘Pam was someone who, from the minute you met her, you could sense her objectivity and, if you were lucky enough, her sense of humour.’’

Her strength was in implementing change. ‘‘She discovered that, when change is required in the sector you are trying to operate in, you need to understand politics and the art of lobbying. She succeeded in business because of this.’’

She seldom spoke to the media, but in an interview with the Whanganui Chronicle in 2017 she said she was ‘‘uncomfortable’’ about being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Having always avoided publicity, she said she was not motivated by public recognition.

One thing everyone who met her agreed on was that her drive to succeed came from her failed marriage. ‘‘Failure was not in her vocabulary – she was totally driven by the failure of her marriage. She did not like failure one little bit,’’ says Philippa. – By Nicholas Boyack