Angus Tait

Who was Angus Tait?

Sir Angus Tait, KNZM, OBE was a New Zealand electronics innovator and businessman.

Angus Tait had a childhood fascination for electronics and during and after high school at Waitaki Boys' High School, he worked in a friend's radio store. He served with the Royal NZ and also Royal Air Force instructing as a Second Lieutenant on radar in Britain, during World War II.

After the war, he designed and built mobile radio equipment, although his first company went into receivership. In 1969, he founded Tait Electronics Ltd, now operating as Tait Radio Communications, Christchurch, with men who had decided to remain loyal and see him through; now his company is considered a world leader in mobile radio. He had persisted in keeping his manufacturing base in New Zealand, with 95 per cent of production exported to 160 countries.

He was awarded the IEEE Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership Recognition in 1998. He was knighted in 1999, one of the "Bright Future" initiatives of the National Government. Presently, Tait's company employs in excess of 850 people. In March 2009, Tait was commemorated as one of the Twelve Local Heroes, and a bronze bust of him was unveiled outside the Christchurch Arts Centre.