Craig Heatley
Co-Founder, Sky Television
Craig Heatley is a New Zealand entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of Sky Television and as the builder of Rainbow Corporation, one of the boldest deal-making vehicles of New Zealand's 1980s boom. He is one of the country's wealthiest self-made businessmen and, in his second life, a competitive amateur golfer with a place inside the game's most exclusive circles.
What is Craig Heatley's real name?
His full name is Craig Leonard Heatley, and he was born on 29 May 1956 in Lower Hutt. He was left fatherless young, went to Heretaunga College and Victoria University of Wellington, and started early: he used money from his paper round to invest in a subdivision while still at school, and at twenty-two he and a friend opened a mini-golf course in Taupo, a first hint at the two threads, business and golf, that would run through his life.
How did Craig Heatley make his money?
His first fortune came from Rainbow Corporation, the investment company he built in the 1980s with interests spanning Woolworths supermarkets in New Zealand, the Rainbow's End theme park and property. In the late 1980s Rainbow was absorbed by Brierley Investments in a stock swap valued at around $500 million, a deal in which Heatley controlled roughly twenty per cent. He then helped found Sky, forming a consortium with Terry Jarvis, Trevor Farmer and Alan Gibbs; Sky Media Limited was incorporated in 1987 and launched its analogue UHF service in May 1990. Heatley's personal investment was famously reported as a single dollar, and he grew Sky into New Zealand's dominant pay-TV platform while retaining about a fifteen per cent stake.
What is Craig Heatley's net worth?
Heatley's wealth has been estimated at around $600 million on the NBR Rich List, built from the Rainbow and Sky proceeds and reinvested across property, infrastructure, equities and aviation in New Zealand, Asia and the United States. As with most privately held fortunes the figure is an estimate rather than a disclosed number, and his holdings sit in private companies rather than listed shares.
Craig Heatley, golf and life beyond business
Golf is Heatley's other career. A serious amateur, he is a member of Augusta National Golf Club and has chaired the Masters Tournament media committee, and he has won pro-am titles alongside touring professionals, including the 2003 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am and the 2004 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. His interests off the course match the scale of his wealth: he owns several New Zealand properties, among them a private island, along with a Bombardier Global business jet, and is a keen aviator. He was named New Zealand Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012, inducted into the World Entrepreneur Hall of Fame in 2013 and appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit the same year. He and his family include four children, three sons and a daughter.
Heatley's profile is noteworthy because he built two significant New Zealand companies from almost nothing, turning a one-dollar stake into a national pay-television industry and a small investment house into a $500 million takeover, then used the proceeds to compete at the top of world amateur golf. His story is one of timing, conviction and an eye for what deregulation made possible.
Sources: Wikipedia · NBR Rich List · RNZ
Craig Heatley features in our guide to the most famous New Zealand entrepreneurs, and ranks among the richest people in New Zealand.
About this profile
This profile was researched and written by Noteworthy using publicly available sources. If something here is out of date or incorrect, let us know and we’ll review it.
