For Hugh Green, cattle dealing in Donegal in the 1940s was a training ground for what would be a successful business career on the other side of the globe.

The skills honed as a youngster at cattle marts were ones that he applied in the range of areas of business he later turned to. "You had no money and you needed money to survive. You needed to be a good judge of people and be able to handle yourself in wheeling and dealing," he recalls. "You learned to deal and that can be applied to any business. It applies to the business we're in now. It's about judgment and when you'll buy and at what price."

These days his Hugh Green Group in New Zealand is an investment group with a turnover of approximately 200 million New Zealand dollars (€97 million). Along the way it has been involved in civil engineering and property development and, at one stage, employed up to 700 people. Now it employs a more modest 50.

Born in Raphoe, Co Donegal in October 1931, Green was one of eight children born to Hugh and Anne Green. His father was a well-known cattle dealer and, at the age of 12, Hugh left school and began full-time trading.

Even before that he'd had experience of cattle droving with his father around the roads of Donegal. With the advent of the lorry, however, the days of droving were numbered, so at the age of 17 Hugh set off for Scotland, where he worked on hydro tunnels. From there it was to England, then on to Tasmania and eventually Australia. After two years of hard slog cutting sugar cane and digging tunnels and drains, he had built up a nest egg with which he planned to return to Ireland.

However his journey home only went as far as New Zealand where, spotting the opportunities for work in the construction sector, he decided to pause. "There were lots of Irish working in construction. On our first job, there were seven, six from Donegal and one from Kerry."

Because of their lack of education, Irish emigrants found they were suited best for construction work, he says. "I often feel that the ones that did worst were the ones that had two or three years of secondary school. They were too educated for construction but not qualified for anything else. You find the world over that the Irish did well in construction."

In New Zealand he set up a contracting company, Green and McCahill, with another Donegal man, in 1953. He also met his wife Moira. With those developments, the planned return to Donegal receded on the horizon.

From its origins as a small pipe-laying business, the company grew to become a multinational operator, often employing men like Hugh who'd emigrated from Ireland. It became a major New Zealand civil engineering firm, building roads, tunnels, sewer works, dams and other infrastructure.

"There is a lot of risk involved in civil engineering," he explains. A company can tender for a job and then a range of factors can go against it, from the weather to what is discovered once the ground is dug up.

"A lot of construction companies go broke in New Zealand and Australia. They bid too low because they want the work, and then it doesn't work out and they can't make it."

On the other hand, he says that, in general, civil engineering in New Zealand is not plagued by the cost overruns he's read about in Ireland. "I don't know why. New Zealand and Australia are free of corruption. There seems to be a lot of corruption here [ in Ireland]. All you have to do is look at the tribunals. That's not the case in New Zealand . . . The politicians seem very close to the people doing the work here. In New Zealand you never see a politician, never talk to them. You deal with the local authority." He says he has never made a political donation.

Because of the risks involved in civil engineering, in the 1980s Green's group began to get involved in property development. By this time he had bought out his partner and the business was called the Hugh Green Group.

In New Zealand developers tend to develop housing land by laying down all the necessary infrastructure and then selling sites to builders or prospective house owners, according to Green. In this way, houses are built to the buyer's specifications and there do not tend to be estates full of identical houses.

More recently, the group has concentrated on investment and has a range of shareholdings in major and minor New Zealand concerns. "Lazy investments", he calls them, referring to the fact that he does not become involved in their day-to-day running. He also bought farming land and has resumed his beloved trading in livestock.

Although he never did manage to move back to Ireland, he does tend to visit once a year and is amazed at how the country has changed. "Some people say the changes are not for the better but they are. They say that, years ago, they wouldn't break into your house, but why would they have? There was nothing in them to rob. Now there is.

"When I left Ireland, what you needed was a good pair of boots and a meal. Now the education is great and the Irish can go anywhere and get any job."

His wealth means he can care about more than where to get a pair of boots and a good meal. He is known in Auckland as a supporter of a range of charities. "Well, we're never going to spend the money," he says. "You take something out of the community, you have to put something back in."

He also supports several charities in his native Donegal.

He and Moira have five children. One, Maryanne, has worked with her father for the past 19 years.

Today, at NUI Galway, the former boy drover is being conferred with an honorary doctorate in law.