Carl O’Shea first got involved in insurance company Crombie Lockwood in 1987, when he opened the firm’s Wellington office.
He then became a major shareholder when co-founder Colin Crombie stepped back from the business. That move paid off when US-based Gallagher bought Crombie Lockwood in June 2014. Gallagher is the fourth-largest insurance broker globally with an established heritage as a family-run agency dating back to 1927.
However, O’Shea still helps run the business and his plate has just got fuller with the news that Gallagher has also snapped up Boston Marks Insurance NZ in New Zealand, BMG Aviation in Australia and the book of Boston Marks Insurance Brokers.
Combined, Crombie Lockwood has a staff of around 900 and has 25 local offices spanning Invercargill to Kaitaia. It places insurance premiums in excess of $800 million on behalf of over 100,000 businesses of all sizes throughout New Zealand.
More recently O’Shea and his business partner Stephen Lockwood have made a significant investment in what was the second stage of Queenstown’s Five Mile development that emerged from the wreckage of Christchurch developer Dave Henderson and Hanover Finance in 2008.
O’Shea has also committed Crombie Lockwood to kiwi survival, with the company helping fund a dedicated kiwi incubation, hatching and brooding facility, named the Crombie Lockwood Kiwi Burrow, within the grounds of Wairakei Golf and Sanctuary, North of Taupo.
O’Shea and wife Belinda live in Auckland’s Herne Bay in a home valued at $12.5m. Other family property assets include two Waiheke Island houses worth $4.4m and $7.4m respectively, two other Auckland houses in Ponsonby and Westmere, one in Hawke’s Bay and an apartment in downtown Auckland.
2018: $65 million