{"id":320191,"date":"2026-03-09T05:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320191\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:38:08","slug":"kiwirail-director-scott-odonnell-leaves-board-2-years-early-after-only-months-in-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/320191\/","title":{"rendered":"KiwiRail director Scott O\u2019Donnell leaves board 2 years early after only months in role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peters told RNZ the donation from Dyne\u2019s Transport played no part in O\u2019Donnell\u2019s appointment to the board and that he was aware of the extent of the conflicts of interest.<\/p>\n

At the time, Peters said O\u2019Donnell would be effective in his role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Mr O\u2019Donnell has direct experience in the freight sector among other things, a conflict-of-interest management plan has been developed and will be followed while he is a director of KiwiRail,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Peters said Treasury did not advise against the appointment of O\u2019Donnell.<\/p>\n

During Parliament\u2019s \u201cscrutiny week\u201d in December last year, where MPs publicly examine public agency performance, Tindal said O\u2019Donnell\u2019s conflicts of interest affected the board\u2019s capability and efficiency.<\/p>\n

She said \u201cmore importantly\u201d that directors needed to consider whether they could discharge their duties as required in accordance with the Companies Act.<\/p>\n

Documents released under the Official Information Act (OIA) to RNZ show Tindal expressed unease about O\u2019Donnell\u2019s business interests before his appointment and recommended he be removed from a process to make his role official while the conflicts were analysed.<\/p>\n

Tindal said Scott\u2019s interest in HW Richardson (HWR), which owns 46 companies, could prove a test of loyalties for him.<\/p>\n

The OIA documents showed Tindal checked publicly available information in the Companies Office register and hand-drew what she described as an \u201cinterests diagram\u201d, which included 11 companies. This was later redrawn by Treasury staff.<\/p>\n

Some of the 10 companies he is involved with supply services to KiwiRail, and the conflicts required Treasury to put a management plan in place.<\/p>\n

\"ChartChart displaying analysis of interest held by Scott O’Donnell. Photo \/ RNZ, Treasury OIA<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell\u2019s appointment went ahead, but with a slew of measures in place to manage any conflicts between his new role and the 10 companies he is involved in \u2013 many of them in transport.<\/p>\n

The conflict of interest mitigation plan contained seven measures to manage conflicts, including recusing himself from board meeting discussions where there was a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donnell attended at least three KiwiRail board meetings and RNZ knows of at least one item O\u2019Donnell had to step aside for in December. He also missed two agenda items at the end of the December meeting as he needed to leave early.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr O\u2019Donnell will be thanked for his service at our board meeting on March 24, which will be his last day as a KiwiRail director,\u201d Tindal said in a statement. He leaves after having served fewer than seven months of an appointment that was due to finish on August 31, 2028.<\/p>\n

A statement from the HW Richardson Group said O\u2019Donnell brought a strong commercial focus to KiwiRail\u2019s non-freight operation during his time on the board.<\/p>\n

The conflict of interest management plan is outlined below.<\/p>\n

\"ConflictConflict Management Plan \u2013 KiwiRail board \u2013 Scott O\u2019Donnell. Image \/ RNZ, Treasury OIA<\/p>\n

The mitigations for these companies outlined in the plan include:<\/p>\n

Where appropriate, limiting or eliminating access to sensitive, confidential or restricted information on issues or work relating to KiwiRail, including rail network options or Cook Strait ferries.Additional scrutiny of board agenda and papers prior to sending to Scott O\u2019Donnell.At the beginning of every board meeting, or prior as necessary, Scott O\u2019Donnell would be required to declare if any item on the agenda could create a conflict for which he feels recusal is necessary. Such instances would need to be documented.Where appropriate recusal from any meeting or part meeting\/agenda item with the board or ministers on these issues where confidential information giving rise to the conflicts discussed, (noting that this may impact on quorum arrangements)At the board\u2019s discretion Scott O\u2019Donnell would be recused or refrain from participating in, any discussions and decisions, where a personal interest is determined.The board reserves the right to invite Scott O\u2019Donnell to recuse himself if the board feels it is inappropriate to include him in discussions and decisions.Advising KiwiRail, the Minister for SOEs of these actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peters told RNZ the donation from Dyne\u2019s Transport played no part in O\u2019Donnell\u2019s appointment to the board and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,2372,138,3936,2245,20156,103048,78,17747,7973,3234,111,139,69,55982,2847,205,8139,1530],"class_list":{"0":"post-320191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-board","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-director","12":"tag-early","13":"tag-farah","14":"tag-hancock","15":"tag-in","16":"tag-kiwirail","17":"tag-leaves","18":"tag-months","19":"tag-new-zealand","20":"tag-newzealand","21":"tag-nz","22":"tag-odonnell","23":"tag-only","24":"tag-role","25":"tag-scott","26":"tag-years"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}