{"id":561794,"date":"2026-08-07T12:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561794\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T12:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T12:54:17","slug":"jason-boyes-infratil-ceo-its-our-job-to-take-risks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561794\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Boyes, Infratil CEO: ‘It\u2019s our job to take risks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0BusinessDesk CEO Index<\/a>, driven by Range Rover, has returned for its second year. Our newsroom and a panel of independent judges have hand-picked 24 New Zealand chief executives and business leaders making a real impact in their sectors and beyond. This profile features one of 2026\u2019s finalists.<\/p>\n

The legacy of Lloyd Morrison, founder of infrastructure investment company Infratil and Morrison, is still strong, says Infratil chief executive Jason Boyes.<\/p>\n

Infratil, founded in 1994, is managed by global infrastructure manager Morrison and has no employees but benefits from Morrison\u2019s 220-strong global team.<\/p>\n

At the same time, its portfolio businesses employ 6,500.<\/p>\n

‘Brave and ambitious’<\/p>\n

Investing in ideas that matter was something Morrison instilled from the outset.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things that came from Lloyd that I think is still very true and a real big focus is being brave and ambitious.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s quite a legacy to live up to,\u201d says Boyes, who took on the CEO role from long-standing chief Marko Bogoievski in 2021 after nine years at Morrison & Co.<\/p>\n

At Morrison, he led the IPO of Z Energy and was involved in investments in Vodafone NZ and the establishment of Longroad Energy in 2016.<\/p>\n

Infratil has a current market valuation of $15.22 billion and is leading the way on AI and datacentres<\/a>, with its investment portfolio which includes One NZ, CDC Data Centres, Longroad Energy and Wellington Airport, CDC announcing Australasia\u2019s largest ever datacentre contract in early May.<\/p>\n

Though Infratil is a major global player these days, one of Boyes\u2019 favourite tasks as CEO is running the annual investor road shows in several regional New Zealand cities.<\/p>\n

NZ makes up roughly two-thirds of Infratil\u2019s ownership and Australia, around 10%.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou meet people who have been shareholders since day one or certainly over 20 years. It\u2019s really amazing, and I try and get as many of our team along as I can to meet these people and realise, these are the people you\u2019re really working for,\u201d Boyes says.<\/p>\n

What touches him is that for many of those local investors, Infratil shares are intergenerational.<\/p>\n

People tell him, \u201cI don\u2019t want to sell them, I\u2019m going to pass them on to the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more grounding, and you get the big questions,\u201d the Infratil CEO says, adding he might do something similar in Australia as the business grows its retail shareholder base there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the things on my mind is how we could become as Australian to Australia as we are to New Zealanders.”<\/p>\n

He is doing more podcasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of those things, both internally and externally, are important for not just the people at Morrison, but also within the portfolio companies, the people at One NZ or CDC who are curious about what their shareholder thinks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boyes is a finalist in this year\u2019s BusinessDesk CEO Index, driven by Range Rover, in the listed company category.<\/p>\n

An independent panel of judges, experienced across business and government, as well as senior BusinessDesk journalists, have ranked all the finalists against five values: vision, impact, innovation, resilience and influence.<\/p>\n

These criteria allowed the judges to evaluate the attributes that make a leader genuinely great and an example to others.<\/p>\n

Vision<\/p>\n

\u201cOur vision is one we\u2019ve had for a long time, and I think it\u2019s still relevant; it\u2019s about investing in ideas that matter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt encapsulates really well what Infratil has done and what we\u2019re trying to do, and Morrison, and more broadly something that modern societies will need in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne kind of nuance that I\u2019ve tried to add, and it\u2019s still true, is this long-term approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future for us is a long time away, and that actually has quite a big influence on how you work.<\/p>\n

\u201cInfratil is still trying to do things that have never been done before. I try to encourage people to think about ambition to that degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s another nuance I\u2019ve thought about a lot since becoming CEO, and it\u2019s important to be a good listener as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to create solutions that are looking for problems \u2013 we\u2019re trying to produce a set of outcomes for the market.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market can sometimes appear short-term and appear not to be thinking correctly, but at a basic level it\u2019s always right too because that is the number, the price on the day. So I believe in being humble to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, we are looking after other people\u2019s money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Impact<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s internal and external ways of making an impact. Internally, the idea is to get great people, give them clear mandates, and let them create.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then you set the context, set your mandate, and give them the resources they need to be successful for you.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen your key people keep coming back for more, pushing you harder than you\u2019re pushing them, then that\u2019s when you know you\u2019ve got it right.<\/p>\n

\u201cExternal outcomes can be very meaningful. This year has been a good year, and I think we\u2019ve added maybe $5 billion of market cap, which makes me think I\u2019m actually doing something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Innovation<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were quite early investors in renewable energy 30 years ago, and in datacentres a bit over a decade ago now before they were really a thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd there are numerous examples in our history where we\u2019ve done something for the first time that\u2019s created a lot of value.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe consciously tell stories from our history to encourage people to have those ideas, to be curious and also bring them forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a huge part of the culture, and how we can remain successful. And also a tolerance for taking risks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother way of attacking the problem is talking about ideas we\u2019ve missed and why.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot about how to continue to control the means of innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future AI infrastructure will be so important to New Zealand\u2019s ability to innovate in the years ahead, whether it\u2019s optimising physical assets or creating new intellectual property, or all the amazing things that NZ is doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should take a lot more care about ensuring that we secure the means for being able to do that ourselves without becoming a tenant in our own country, or being controlled by others who control that technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

Resilience<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s our job to take risks, so you should expect setbacks. The trick is really to learn from them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember hindsight is incredibly cruel and luck is a real thing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe faced a takeover bid for Infratil in December 2020 (AustralianSuper made an A$3.78b [NZ$4.5b] bid) just before I started as CEO in February 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was sort of an existential moment. \u00a0But what we found was how many friends we had out there. People said: \u2018You are an important feature in the landscape.\u2019 It was very humbling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis led to a change of stance at Infratil.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began to do more listening and became more engaged in the community because of the crisis. We got through it with help from our friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk a lot with the wider market now, through investor days and investor communications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Influence<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I know Marko wanted to continue and I think I have \u2013 is about being human first.<\/p>\n

\u201cThinking first, having empathy, showing up to things, all these things are really important to what has made Infratil successful in the past and in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd attracting great people to do innovative things that have never been done before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you turn up, being engaged and humble, are all important components of who we are and what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Book\/documentary\/film\/podcast<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success<\/a>, William N. Thorndike jnr, is a fantastic blueprint for how to think about compounding and creating value over a long period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A screen-free day<\/p>\n

\u201cI go and play golf with my 13-year-old son, which I love. It\u2019s a good place to zone out.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an election year<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think the country needs a medium-term energy policy. \u00a0How we don\u2019t have a national energy strategy is entirely beyond me. And it\u2019s so important for the next phase, which is AI into infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think we need to get on with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think resilience in energy within some of these key technologies and digital networks [are] all really important things to get on the agenda alongside education and health and other traditional things.\u201d<\/p>\n

More information and articles on BusinessDesk\u2019s CEO Index can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0BusinessDesk CEO Index, driven by Range Rover, has returned for its second year. Our newsroom and a panel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-561794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561794","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=561794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}