Transport Man Made Tough Decisions from the Top

Nelson-born Frank Baldwin, who died in March aged 81, was “known for a career marked by innovation and a certain amount of controversy,” Mark Juddery writes in an obituary for The Sydney Morning Herald. “While representing New Zealand in basketball during the 1950s, Baldwin adopted a maxim from visiting US coach John Wooden: ‘There was a man. The more he gave, the more he had.’ In the corporate world, Baldwin continued giving his energy for decades. It would eventually lead him across the Tasman, as chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority – turning the CAA from an unwieldy, bureaucratic body to a lean, efficient enterprise. Naturally, he was dramatically ousted. Baldwin was born in 1931. In 1966, Baldwin and Barry Brown started Baldwin and Brown, which became the most successful estate agency in the Nelson-Tasman region. Baldwin served on Nelson City Council briefly. In 1978, he became general manager of the Nelson Harbour Board, which wanted a fresh perspective. His ability to turn a government office into a corporation made him a logical choice in 1987 to become chief executive of the new Airways Corporation, previously part of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport. Probably his greatest achievement there was to modernise New Zealand’s air traffic control system. ‘He got an off-the-shelf system and put out a tender for a turnkey operation,’ said former civil aviation minister Richard Prebble in 1993. ‘It was unique in the world. No one had ever installed a whole new system in one move before.’ It certainly impressed Dick Smith, chairman of Australia’s Civil Aviation Authority. When Baldwin left the Airways Corporation in 1990, Smith approached him to take over as the CAA managing director. Once again, he was a logical choice.” As expected, the CAA was restructured under Baldwin. Staff was reduced to 5100, with further cuts planned, in what one staff member called ‘the mother of all purges’. Back in New Zealand after a controversial tenure with the CAA, Baldwin went on to be executive chairman of Government Property Services, and in the late 1990s was a director of Timberlands West Coast, Crown Forestry Management, Nelson Marlborough Health Services and the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board.