BARRIE HITCHON

HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand is sad to advise that Barrie Hitchon, former CEO of HarperCollins ANZ, passed away peacefully after a long battle with cancer at the age of 70.

Barrie was Managing Director of Gordon & Gotch NZ when NewsCorp formed HarperCollins in 1989. At that time he acquired the responsibility of running HarperCollins NZ. In 1993 Barrie moved to Australia as CEO of HarperCollins ANZ, until ill health forced him to retire in 2001.
Barrie Hitchon was instrumental in shaping HarperCollins’ future from its formative years and he was actively involved in developing publishing industry policy.

Tony Fisk, MD of HarperCollins NZ said “Barrie was extremely smart with a huge dose of common sense. His management style was to help people to arrive at their own solutions and his role as mentor was appreciated by many within the company. Despite having a very busy life, Barrie was extremely generous with his time and his warm sense of humour will be greatly missed. Our condolences go to his wife Yvonne, his children and grandchildren”.

FOOTNOTE:
RIP Barrie. You and I often disagrred on matters but I always enjoyed your company, your realistic approach to trade matters and your warm sense of humour.