Rod Oram remembered as 'brave', 'sharp' and a 'true gentleman'

Rod Oram in the RNZ studio. Photo: RNZ

Business and climate commentator Rod Oram is being remembered as a "true gentleman", a top business journalist and a tireless advocate for climate action.

A multi-award-winning business journalist and editor who worked for the New Zealand Herald and Financial Times, he began his working life as a financial reporter in the UK before moving to New Zealand with his family in 1997.

He spent his late career championing sustainable business, highlighting farms and companies who embraced cleaner practices and regularly and publicly skewering those he thought were falling behind.

At times the only New Zealand journalist reporting from annual global climate summits, Oram attended summits in Glasgow, Sharm el Sheikh and Dubai, Newsroom co-editor Tim Murphy said.

Oram described the summits as "utterly crucial".

Murphy said Oram had already booked his ticket to attend the next summit in Azerbaijan when he died on Tuesday, after coming off his bicycle following a cardiac arrest on Sunday.

After leaving the Herald, Oram contributed a long-running Sunday Star-Times column and was a regular business commentator on RNZ's Nine to Noon for 19 years, clocking up more than 800 episodes.

Host Kathryn Ryan read a statement on air saying, "Rod was kind, thorough, intelligent, and utterly professional, and genuinely passionate about the issues he reported - and will be sorely missed by many."

She noted his journalism focused increasingly in recent years on climate and environmental issues and policy, and where they intersected with business and industry, and government.

From 2017 Oram wrote a regular column for the Newsroom website, focussing on business and the climate crisis, and was a regular and erudite MC for business and climate conferences.

James Shaw, who was Climate Change Minister during Oram's climate column years, wrote on X: "Rod Oram was one of the most decent, committed people I've ever met. He's a huge loss to journalism and to the natural world he believed so strongly we are a part of and depend on".

In an interview with a writer for Colorado Academy in Denver, which he attended as a young man, he described himself as an "annoying, inquisitive kid" who was always asking questions. He studied politics and economics before earning a master's degree in journalism.

He described his recent work as explaining complex issues "the best I can in order to encourage people not to give up," especially on the task of "boldly and deeply" cutting emissions.

"Doing what we're doing just a bit better or a tad faster dooms us to failure," he wrote in his final column, published on 1 March.

Colleagues posting on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn remembered him as kind, courteous and a "true gentleman" - someone who made time to mentor and uplift other journalists. People who worked with him described him as immensely proud of his family, who he would often drop into conversation.

Barry Coates of ethical investment charity Mindful Money posted in LinkedIn: "We will miss his sharp intelligence, insight and integrity. He didn't shy away from speaking truth to power."

Other journalists remembered Oram would spend hours explaining complex issues, and enthusiastically put forward younger journalists for speaking and panel engagements he couldn't attend.

A keen cyclist, he would take his bike on weeks-long cycling journeys through Asia and Europe. He had a life goal of completing a combined route from Beijing to his birth city of Birmingham in the UK, writing a book on the changes he had observed since the 1970s, Newsroom's Murphy said.

Nine to Noon colleagues said he would usually bike to his radio appearances, turning up in cycle gear. At conferences and other engagements, he was meticulously turned out and known for his excellent manners.

Oram and his wife Lynn Oram attended St Andrews Church in Auckland. The church shared a message from Oram's family today confirming his death and thanking people for their messages, thoughts and prayers, while describing the news as "overwhelming".

The family said he passed peacefully, and his daughter Celeste and son-in-law Keir were able to reach Auckland from New York City in time to say goodbye.

A spokesperson from St Andrews Church said Oram would be "dreadfully missed", and he was deeply beloved by the entire congregation.

He was 73.