Infratil boss filling big pair of shoes at new HQ

Should Marko Bogoievski ever start to forget whose shoes he is filling, arriving at the Morrison & Co offices will serve as a daily reminder of the bold personality of its founder.

Best known for its management of utility investment vehicle Infratil (holder of controlling interests including Trustpower, Wellington Airport and Z Energy), Morrison & Co recently moved into the refurbished John Chambers building on Market Lane near Wellington's waterfront.

While most of the office is off limits to the media, it has a dark foyer, the wall opposite the lifts embossed just visibly with Morrison & Co's crab-like logo.

Hidden doors lead into meeting rooms adorned with bold artwork, hung over designer wallpaper or domino-like leather cushioning.

An intercom system, reputed to cost $40,000, was part of a project said to have run twice over budget, every detail directed by Lloyd Morrison, industrialist and philanthropist, who died of leukaemia in March.

Morrison spent two decades building Morrison & Co, the final year of which he worked on guiding the new office design.

Bogoievski, a former chief financial officer of Telecom, who became chief executive of Infratil shortly after Morrison's diagnosis, dismissed the suggestion the office was a magnum opus, but acknowledged it was designed "to make the place more than an office building".

"One of the great pities was he [Lloyd] never got to see the place. He saw some photos, but never got to properly open it, talk to people about it."

Bogoievski was clearly not hired because his personality was similar to that of his boss. While Morrison was known for stylish dress, slightly-too-long hair and bold public statements, Bogoievski was forced to admit during the eulogy (Morrison having demanded staff dress with some colour at the funeral) that he struggled to find a colourful tie.

It was, though, Morrison's style of business which attracted him to the job, the unusual ability to comfortably "pursue commercial outcomes and be a good corporate citizen".

"That was quite special and unique. I've not seen that anywhere. That's why I joined this place. That's probably why half of the organisation joined, they saw that. Genuinely, that is an ethos in this business," Bogoievski says.

"We're really conscious of just not letting the culture change by accident ... How can you still do the right thing and make a buck at the same time?"

Infratil has been at pains to play down any change of direction, post-Lloyd Morrison. His brother Rob, a successful investment banker, has been installed as chairman of Morrison & Co, and Bogoievski insists that while the structure of decision-making may have changed over time "you've still got the same senior people making the same contribution" as in the past.