Hon Tony Friedlander

• QSO

His career commenced in 1967 as a farm appraiser for Rural Banking and Finance Corporation. Then followed his foray into politics, becoming a member of parliament for New Plymouth in 1975.

He remained in politics until loosing his seat in 1987 when he joined Fletcher Challenge Limited taking on varying senior management positions in the primary sector. In 1993 Tony’s transport industry career commenced as CEO of NZ Road Transport Association, where he remained for the next 4 years, before moving on to the newly established Road Transport Forum NZ as CEO. A position he held for thirteen years until his retirement in 2010.

Tony lead the restructuring of NZ Road Transport Association to put in place efficient regional associations. A strong and credible public policy voice for the industry resulted and this lead to him successfully negotiating the formation of Road Transport Forum NZ, the industry wide umbrella organisation which encompassed the diverse interests of owner drivers through to large scale fleet operators. Over the years that followed Tony built and managed this umbrella organisation to advance and promote interests of the wider trucking sector and provide a range of services to members. During this time the Forum became recognised as one of the strongest and most effective industry associations in the country. In conjunction with this he played a major role in establishing the industry training organisation, Tranzqual, which grew to one of the five largest organisations of its type in the country.

Tony is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport and a Fellow of the Motor Trade Association Guild and up until his retirement was a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Management and an Accredited Director of the Institute of Directors. He has previously served as a Director on the boards of Tranzqual ITO, NZ Road Transport Association Limited, NZ Logging Industry Research Organisation, NZ Railways Corporation and Government Property Services.