Private Bin: Sharebroker aims her rock at the Stock Exchange's glass ceiling

Friday 25th August 2000

NOELINE MUNRO: Chasing NZSE seat

Another male bastion could be about to fall. Dunedin sharebroker Noeline Munro, who has made a career out of confronting the industry's easily-won reputation as a gentlemen's club, wants a seat at the inner table of the Stock Exchange.

Mrs Munro insists her stand does not represent direct criticism of outgoing chairman, fellow Dunedinite and former employer Eion Edgar. After the 1987 sharemarket crash she was made redundant from Forsyth Barr but worked her way back into the industry to become an NZSE member and chairman of Greenslades.

She says the NZSE deserves accolades for developing such a fair system of trading regardless of investment size, a far cry from the old call system where volume ruled at the expense of small investors.

"But I've always been pretty critical of the Stock Exchange and what it hasn't done to promote itself at grass roots level," she says.

The standard line that members promote direct equity investment themselves doesn't cut with Mrs Munro, who says participants in other industries not only promote themselves but receive huge help from their governing bodies.

Not promoting itself better had hurt the exchange post-1987, she believes, with financial planners who brought greater discipline, planning and diverse products to investors stealing stockbroker's thunder.

But other factors are motivating Mrs Munro, none of which will surprise Mr Edgar's colleagues. Both as a member of a small, private client-backed broking firm and as a woman, she has felt poorly served.

"All members need to be served equally and I have felt the weight of the larger, male-dominated enterprises throughout my career," she says.

But her bid is unlikely to be a shoe-in. Five others will be vying for two spots, as directors Simon Allen (likely to be the next chairman), Neil Craig and Campbell Stewart seek re-election. Also standing for the first time is Nigel Wynn, managing director of online broking firm Direct Broking.

The NZSE's 300 or so members will vote on the positions at the annual meeting on September 13.

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