Graeme Richard Hart (born 1955) is a New Zealand billionaire businessman and the country's wealthiest person. He prefers to stay out of the media and makes few public appearances. As of March 2022, his net worth was estimated at US$9.7 billion. Much like other leveraged buyout (LBO) private equity investors, Hart has a preference for buying underperforming and undervalued companies with steady cash flows which can be turned around through better cash management, cost-cutting and restructuring with other businesses. Since his 2006 purchase of Carter Holt Harvey he has focused his acquisitions on the paper packaging sector. His largest acquisition to-date was for Alcoa's Packaging & Consumer group in 2008 for US$2.7bn, later renamed Reynolds Packaging Group. He does not directly manage his businesses, and is focused mostly on the financing related to re-capitalization of the companies. Forbes stated that Hart was the 274th richest person in the world as of March 2022. In 2022, Hart was inducted into the New Zealand Business Hall of Fame. Early years Hart worked as a tow-truck driver and as a panel beater after leaving school at 16. He attended Mount Roskill Grammar School, located in the central suburbs of Auckland, New Zealand. In 1987, Hart completed an MBA from the University of Otago. His research thesis, as part of the MBA, outlined his strategy to grow Rank Group Limited, at the time a small "party hire" company servicing the greater Auckland area. The strategy Hart outlined in this thesis uses the positive cashflow of well-performing companies to fund debt, which as it gets paid down, increases the equity value of the initial investors. Hart gained a big break when he purchased the Government Printing Office for less than its capital value in 1990. The purchase was 1.4x earnings and Hart was provided generous payment terms. Then New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange initially refused to sign off on the transaction. The following year he bought Whitcoulls Group which at that time included a retail chain of bookstores as well as office and stationery concerns. He has since sold off these interests. Current interests Rank Group Rank Group Ltd is Hart's private investment company. It is the 100% owner of Reynolds Consumer Products, Burns Philp and Carter Holt Harvey. Rank had assets of approximately NZ$3 billion in cash after selling the assets of Burns Philp and floating Goodman Fielder in 2004. In December 2006