Vale Dean Geoffrey CamplinFriday 8 Aug 2025
After completing a Bachelor of Arts degree with a focus on economics in the late 1980s Dean initially took up a position with an investment banking group in Australia. When he returned to New Zealand he remained in the finance sector until 2004, finishing up as the Chief Operating Officer of BNZ Finance Ltd. In 2004, he became the Chief Executive Officer of the Claymark Group, a leading sawmilling company in the Central North Island. In 2009, he was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer of C3 Ltd. C3 is New Zealand’s largest provider on on-wharf logistics services, including log handling and ship loading at most ports around New Zealand. C3 grew significantly within New Zealand under Dean’s leadership and expanded its port logistics operations into Australia. C3 also diversified to include in-forest chipping and harvesting and haulage operations in Australia. While Dean was CEO, C3 won two awards for innovation; one from the Port of Tauranga and one from the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transportation. Dean resigned from C3 in 2016. He maintained strong links with the forest industries of New Zealand and Australia, however. He became a shareholder and director of Bigfoot Equipment Ltd, the provider of central tyre inflation systems used on many logging trucks around New Zealand and overseas. Furthermore, he became a director of Stuart Drummond Transport Ltd, the leading provider of log transport in the Nelson/Marlborough region. Dean also provided advisory services to AKD, Australia’s largest softwood sawmilling business. Dean was also a long-time volunteer for the Acorn Foundation, a charitable trust. Dean put his investment banker experience to use and served for eight years on their Investment Advisory Committee. During this time, the foundation’s invested funds grew from $6.7M to $36.4M. For those of us who had the pleasure of working alongside Dean, he will be remembered as a driven, focused and passionate man, a man with a great sense of humour, an enricher of people’s lives. Dean is survived by his wife, Lisa, and two children. | ||
Copyright 2004-2026 © Innovatek Ltd. All rights reserved. |
