In a very old house in Oriental Bay, in a house that was built in 1866, live Gareth and Jo Morgan. The house is amongst the oldest in Wellington. It is large and has a chequered history including being a well-known boarding house, Glenalvon, from 1920 to 1953. These days the house is back pretty much to its original condition.
Gareth and Jo are both remarkable people – but this is an article about Gareth.
Gareth was born in 1953 in Putāruru. He went to Oraka Heights Primary School, and then to Putāruru High School, and was bottom of his class until his School Certificate year, when the light came on and he discovered how to pass exams. His father must have been a very good influence as he went to Oxford University at the age of 17.
Once Gareth realised that he enjoyed studying he made huge strides.
He went to Massey University for four years, gaining a B.A.(Hons) in Economics. On graduation he got a job at the Reserve Bank. He then went to Victoria University of Wellington, studied under Professor Brian Philpott, and got his doctorate there.
Not quite everything that Gareth touched turned to gold. In 1985, with Andrew Gawith, he purchased a racing guide, which was published twice weekly. They were very lucky with the first issue they published but fell flat on their faces when the punters didn’t understand their advice and left in droves. After several years of desperately hard work, with Jo driving buses to keep bread on the table for their three children, they sold the publication. At the time Jo said to him, ‘That was a lot of effort for nothing!’
In 1987 his career took a new turn. He started Infometrics, which succeeded immediately. It quickly became one of New Zealand’s largest independent economic consultancy businesses. In 2000 he set up Gareth Morgan Investments, a personal investment management service, followed in 2007 by the Gareth Morgan KiwiSaver Scheme. This was sold to Kiwibank in 2012.
Gareth and Jo were early investors in their son Sam’s TradeMe venture. They were able to benefit from the tremendous uplift in value when TradeMe was sold to Fairfax Media in 2006.
Gareth and Jo motorcycling in Turkey.
There is nothing pretentious about the Morgans. Their great loves have always been their children and motor cycling. And they decided to use their money to help the work of UNICEF. They have been major donors since 2007 and have travelled the world on their motorbikes, spending a considerable amount of time at projects in Africa, South America, Bangladesh and East Asia. But their generosity didn’t stop there. They have helped numerous health and environmental projects in New Zealand and the Pacific as well. It is not surprising that in 2007 Gareth was North & South’s New Zealander of the Year.
Gareth is also well known for setting up The Opportunities Party for the 2017 general election. His aim was to try to lift the level of political discourse – to involve politicians who would encourage best practice policy right across the board irrespective of their political partisanship. His party got 2.5% of the vote, which was pretty good for nine months’ effort, but not enough to get a member of the party into Parliament.
Declaring at the time that his was a once-only, take-it-or-leave-it proposition to the electorate, Gareth immediately withdrew from politics and ended the 35 years he had been in the public eye. Yet today he is busy working on another exciting project that won’t be able to avoid the public’s attention. Bay View will be watching with interest.
— Ann Mallinson, Bay View newsletter, May 2024