Geoff Adams

Geoff attended Matamata College and describes himself as John’s (profiled) younger but more gracious and modest brother!! (I’m not so sure!)  Brother John describes Geoff as “export quality” – probably because he hasn’t spent much of his working life in New Zealand.

Geoff obtained his UE by sitting (those were the days of accrediting) two years after leaving College and then did Commercial Law and Accounting papers at Auckland University.  He then joined the Bank of New Zealand in Matamata where he spent three years.  Thereafter he was transferred to Auckland (three times), Wellington (three times), Sydney, London, Hong Kong and New York.

In London Geoff was responsible for Bank of New Zealand’s Corporate and International Banking in the United Kingdom and Europe.  In Hong Kong Geoff established the Bank of New Zealand presence covering China and Taiwan as well as Hong Kong.  Matamata College ex-students Maurice and Ann Smith and Julie Hawkes (Lamb) were contemporaries of Geoff’s in Hong Kong.

In New York he managed the BNZ’s North American region with 300 staff and branches in New York, Los Angeles, and Cayman Islands.  (Here he met up with another ex-student Ian Latham!)

Currently Geoff is an International Consultant with international clients which keeps him travelling regularly to the world’s financial capitals.

Geoff has been married 40 years to Judith and they have a daughter Joanne, who lives in Singapore where she works for Thomson Reuters in Financial Markets Information.

At school Geoff suffered a climbing accident which kept him out of most physical activity.  However from age 25 he started running and now runs 10 km daily by the coast where he lives in Sydney.  In New York he ran daily in Central Park, in Hong Kong on Bowen Road (with the other 1000s doing their fitness) in London he checked out suburban Kent as his running trail.  Approaching retirement, Geoff hasn’t slowed down at all.