The usually low-profile Craig Heatley went out on the media circuit last year after he launched his book No Limits, which tells the story of the Upper Hutt boy who started some of the country’s most iconic companies.
His first business deal was a subdivision in Foxton when he was 15-years-old but it was mini-golf in Taupo that set him on a path to wealth with Rainbow Corporation and onward to co-found Sky TV in 1987.
Heatley says luck and ruthlessness played their part in his success, particularly after the purchase of Rainbow’s End theme park became the vehicle for much grander corporate takeovers.
Rainbow Corporation was itself taken over by Brierley Investments – just months before the sharemarket crash. Although Heatley lost some money he still amassed a fortune and went on to create Sky, and bought a large number of properties, including his $15m Hawaiian home.
At just 31, he was the youngest New Zealander to appear on the National Business Review's rich list, after becoming a millionaire at 27.
He says in the book, written by journalist Joanne Black, of his selling out of the companies that he has created: “Running a business is no walk in the park. If you can sell your business it makes you feel good because you’ve done something successful, and you bank a cheque. But a sale gives you the greatest thing of all, which is not money, but your time.”
His property holdings include an eco-friendly subdivision at Parekura Bay in the Bay of Islands, development land at Port Whangarei, and homes in Takapuna, Hahangarua Bay in the Bay of Islands and a $US14.9 million home near Makena Bay in South Maui.
2018: $390 million