Whiley started with Lower Hutt construction company Wilkins and Davies. When the firm wanted to cut costs by selling off its plant division, in 1965, Whiley saw the business’s potential, and bought it for a token one pound deposit. The business started with five cranes, among other plant. Whiley built it through the 1960s and 70s, showing his eye for a deal by buying surplus cranes from the US army in Singapore, at that time fighting in Vietnam.
In 1974 he and a group of fellow industry members established the Power Crane Association, now the Crane Association, of New Zealand. In 1974, it published the country’s first Crane Safety Manual. Whiley served as the organisation’s first president, a position he returned to a number of times.
On July 1, Brian Hogan, formerly MD of Gough, Gough and Hamer, replaced him as CEO of Titan Holdings Ltd.
Max Whiley Max Whiley
