Colonial picks new chair
John Journee has been elected as chairman of the Colonial Motor Company after nearly eight years on the board.
He replaces Ash Waugh, who retired as a director and chair at the end of the company’s annual meeting in Wellington on November 6.
Journee, pictured, has been an independent director of Colonial since December 2018 and chaired the audit and financial risk committee for the past five years.
His career includes executive experience across sectors such as general merchandise, fashion apparel, fast-moving consumer goods, consumer electronics, telecommunications, hospitality and electricity retailing.
He is also chair of The Warehouse Group, where he started as a joint venture partner in 1990 and progressed through senior roles in operations, marketing, merchandise, international sourcing and business development.
He joined the group’s board as a non-executive director in October 2013, was interim chief executive from May 2024 to August 2025, and became chair in December 2025.
Journee has also had chief executive roles with Noel Leeming and foodservice distributor Southern Hospitality and is a director of Vanishing Point Limited and Farmlands Co-Operative Society.
Colonial announced Journee’s new role and Waugh’s departure with a statement to the NZX on November 6.
It adds: “The board wishes to recognise Ash’s significant contribution to the governance of the company and the qualities of professionalism, industry knowledge and personal competence he has brought to the board since he joined it in 2015 and as chair from November 2021.”
Waugh told the annual meeting it had been an honour and a privilege to have served Colonial over the years.
“This board has been by far the most rewarding I have ever served on, and that is due to the people I’ve had the privilege to serve with at board and management level,” he says.
“I wish the company all the very best for the future. I know Alex [Gibbons, chief executive] and the team will go on to bigger and better things for CMC as they weather the storms and ride the waves of success as the company has done for the 108 years to date.”
