Greg Foran | |
|---|---|
 Foran in 2022 | |
| Born | Gregory Stephen Foran 22 July 1961 New Zealand |
| Title | CEO of Air New Zealand |
| Children | 4, incl. Kieran Foran |
Gregory Stephen Foran (born 22 July 1961) [1] is a New Zealand businessman. He was previously CEO of the American division of Walmart, and is currently chief executive of Air New Zealand.
Foran was born on 22 July 1961 in New Zealand to two school teachers. He grew up in Hastings and Hamilton. There he attended Twyford School, St John's College in Hastings, St John's College in Hamilton, and Hillcrest High School, Hamilton. [1]
Foran started working as a shelf stacker at a supermarket in Hamilton. At age 20 he became a Woolworths manager, and by age 48 he was on track to become the next CEO of Woolworths Australia but missed out on the opportunity. [1]
Foran began working for Walmart in 2011. He was president and chief executive of Walmart China, and then, starting in 2014, became president and CEO of Walmart U.S. During this period he lived in Fayetteville, Arkansas. [1] Foran would occasionally shop in Walmart undercover in order to better understand the experiences of customers and employees. [2] According to Reuters, Foran is "credited with turning around Walmart's U.S. business by focusing on improving existing stores". [3] Foran raised Walmart's minimum gun-purchasing age to 21. [1]
Foran became the CEO of Air New Zealand in February 2020, near the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. [4] [5] [6] As the new CEO, he proposed to hold a 100-day review of the business, which included asking employees and customers how the business could improve, and personally serving beverages to customers and cleaning planes. [6] [2] The COVID-19 pandemic prevented the completion of the review; he had instead begun leading in "crisis management mode", announcing at one point that the company was expecting a 90% reduction in revenue. [2]
Foran has three sons and one daughter. His son, Kieran Foran, is a professional rugby league player. [1]
Countdown is an Australian-owned New Zealand full-service supermarket chain and subsidiary of Woolworths New Zealand, itself a subsidiary of Australia's Woolworths Group. It is one of two supermarket chains in New Zealand, the other being Foodstuffs.
Woolworths Group Limited is an Australian multinational retail and finance company, primarily known for the operation of its retail chain Woolworths Supermarkets across Australia and Woolworths in New Zealand, as well as Department stores Big W and Home Improvement stores Masters. Headquartered in Bella Vista, Sydney, it is the largest company in Australia by revenue and number of employees, and the second-largest in New Zealand.
Sky Network Television Limited, more commonly known as Sky, is a New Zealand broadcasting company that provides pay television services via satellite, media streaming services and broadband internet services. As of 31 December 2022, Sky had 1,023,378 residential television subscribers consisting of 517,003 satellite subscribers and 506,375 streaming subscribers. Additionally, Sky had 23,156 broadband customers. Despite the similarity of name, branding and services, such as Sky Go and MySky shared with its European equivalent, Sky, there is no connection between the companies.
Woolworths is a New Zealand supermarket and general merchandise retail chain. Countdown is currently in the process of rebranding all stores back to Woolworths.
Hillcrest High School is a state coeducational secondary school located in south-eastern Hamilton, New Zealand. The school is named after the suburb of Hillcrest for which it serves, although the school itself is actually located in Silverdale. Opened in 1972, the school has a roll of 1758 students as of April 2023. making it the second-largest school in Hamilton.
St John's College is a state-integrated Catholic boys' secondary school in Hamilton, New Zealand, with a school roll of 816 as of March 2019. The school was established by the Marist Brothers in 1961 from Marist School. The school crest features the eagle of St. John the Apostle, with the motto "Caritas Christi Urget Nos" strewn across the bottom, a Latin motto translating loosely into "Christ's love urges us on". The mission statement for the school is "Preparing Young Men For Life".
The history of Air New Zealand, the national carrier of New Zealand, began when the amalgamated East Coast Airways and Cook Strait Airways began operations in January 1936 as Union Airways of New Zealand, the country's first major airline. Union Airways was the sole New Zealand aviation partner in Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), which made its inaugural flight in 1940. The New Zealand Government bought full ownership of TEAL in 1961 and the airline was renamed Air New Zealand in 1965. New Zealand's domestic airline, National Airways Corporation (NAC), was merged with Air New Zealand in 1978. Air New Zealand was privatised in 1989 but in 2001 the New Zealand Government took up 80% ownership in return for injecting $885 million after the airline ran into financial difficulty. In November 2013, the National government sold down its share in Air New Zealand from 73% to 53% as part of its controversial asset sales programme.
St. John's College is a State Integrated, Catholic, Day School for boys, located in Hastings, a provincial city in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand.
2degrees is a New Zealand telecommunications provider. Its mobile network launched on 4 August 2009 after nine years of planning. 2degrees offers prepaid and pay-monthly mobile services, as well as fixed-line phone and broadband services. 2degrees is the third-largest wireless carrier in New Zealand, with 1.3 million subscribers as of July 2015.
Kieran Foran is a New Zealand professional rugby league footballer who plays as a five-eighth or halfback for the Gold Coast Titans in the National Rugby League (NRL) and New Zealand at international level.
Datacom Group Limited is an Information Technology services company, offering management and consulting, cloud services, ITO, data centre services, custom software development, and payroll services. Datacom is the largest technology company in New Zealand. The company was started in New Zealand in 1965, but has expanded to operate in Australia, Malaysia, the Philippines, the United States and the United Kingdom, employing over 6,500 people across 26 offices globally.
EziBuy is a New Zealand and Australian multi-channel retailer. It sells clothing, homeware and gifts through a multi-channel model in both countries.
Kiwi Regional Airlines was an airline based in Hamilton, New Zealand which operated domestic flights within New Zealand between October 2015 and July 2016. It was founded in 2014 by local businessman Ewan Wilson, who previously served as the CEO of Kiwi Travel International Airlines, and commenced operations on 27 October 2015. The airline owned and operated a single Saab 340A aircraft. The initial destinations served were Hamilton, Nelson, Dunedin and Queenstown, with flights to Queenstown being dropped in November 2015 and Tauranga being added to the network in February 2016.
The Air New Zealand fleet consists of Boeing jet aircraft for long-haul flights, and Airbus jet aircraft for domestic and short-haul international flights. The airline also operates ATR 72 and Bombardier Q300 turboprop aircraft on domestic services.
Christopher Mark Luxon is a New Zealand politician and former business executive who has served as the 42nd prime minister of New Zealand since November 2023. He served as leader of the Opposition from 2021 to 2023. Luxon became member of Parliament (MP) for Botany in 2020. He had previously been the chief executive officer (CEO) of Air New Zealand from 2012 to 2019.
John Furner is an American business executive. He is president and CEO of Walmart U.S. Previously, he led Walmart's Sam's Club subsidiary.
The global COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the New Zealand economy. New Zealand has a mixed economy – a free market with some state ownership and control. In mid-March 2020, the New Zealand Government imposed a four-tier alert level system, which placed much of the country's economy into lockdown with the exception of "essential services" such as supermarkets. Due to the success of the Government's elimination strategy, lockdown restrictions on various economic activities were progressively lifted between April and June 2020.
This article documents the chronology of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic in October 2021, which originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019. Some developments may become known or fully understood only in retrospect. Reporting on this pandemic began in December 2019.
LiquorLand is a franchise of independently owned bottle shops around New Zealand, operated by Foodstuffs. LiquorLand is part of the Fly Buys and Airpoints loyalty schemes.