September 23 2004

Leading businessman to head Freemasons

The Auckland-based international businessman and accountant David Mace has been named as the new head of New Zealand Freemasons. Mr Mace who is 63, will be installed as Grand Master of the Order in a traditional ceremony at the annual conference of the Grand Lodge of New Zealand in Auckland in November.

He replaces Central Otago farmer Laurie Inder who has held the office for the last two years.

Mr Mace has extensive business experience in London, Canada, the United States and Asia and was for some years a senior partner in Ernst & Young in Hong Kong. In the 1980s, he served as Court liquidator of the Carrian Group in Hong Kong, which at the time was the world's largest corporate collapse.

Following his retirement from Ernst & Young in 1996, he served for six years as a Commissioner of the United Nations Compensation Commission, reporting to the Security Council of the UN in Geneva. The Commission was responsible for overseeing reparations for the 1991 Gulf War, involving claims of $US330 billion.

On the completion of that assignment last year, Mr Mace established his own international consultancy practice advising multinational corporations on their Asian strategies and capital raising.

Mr Mace is a Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants and the Hong Kong Society of Accountants, and a former member of the Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Accountants. He is past president of the New Zealand Hong Kong Business Association, and was appointed by the Chinese government as a Goodwill Ambassador to Hong Kong. Mr Mace was founding chairman of the New Children's Hospital Trust, which subsequently became Starship Foundation, and was finance director of the committee which won the bid for Auckland for the 1990 Commonwealth Games. He has also served as chairman and treasurer of a number of major Hong Kong charity organisations.

He is a committed Anglican, and has served the Church in New Zealand, England, Canada and Hong Kong in many capacities. He is currently involved with the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell, Auckland. Mr Mace joined Freemasonry at Lodge Morningside in Auckland in 1963, and has held senior ranks in the Order in New Zealand and Hong Kong. As Grand Master, Mr Mace intends to continue the work of his recent predecessors in increasing community awareness of the unique combination of principles that makeup Freemasonry - the practice of ethics and value standards, fellowship and charity.

"The Grand Master has an important leadership role and none more important than communication with our members and with the public. We are not going to be shy about putting up our hand and telling our good news story," Mr Mace said. As Grand master, Mr Mace will preside over 305 Lodges catering for 13,500 members, making it the largest service-orientated organisation of its type in New Zealand.

New Zealand Freemasonry has charitable assets, including homes for the aged and medical trusts, valued at more than $100 million. Mr Mace and his wife Anne live in Epsom, Auckland, and have three adult children.

ENDS

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