Eric Hertz

Eric Bennett Hertz (31 December 1954 – 30 March 2013) was an American executive and the CEO of 2degrees, New Zealand's third largest mobile telecommunications company at the time of his leadership.

Hertz was responsible for the installation of the first cellular phone system in Portland, Maine in the 1980s. His future wife, Kathy, worked in a management role for AT&T in New York and New Jersey; they married in 1983. He worked for BellSouth in Ecuador, where he learnt to speak Spanish fluently.

Hertz moved to New Zealand with his wife and daughter in 2009 and had acquired permanent residency, calling New Zealand home. In his opinion, quality of life in New Zealand was unequalled and he "didn't know why people leave".

Hertz and his wife, Katherine (Kathy) Marie Picone Hertz, died after their twin-engine Beechcraft Baron crashed into the sea near Kawhia Harbour on Saturday, 30 March 2013 NZDT.

The plane was found on the seafloor, underwater, on 2 April. Hertz was succeeded as CEO of 2degrees by chairman Stewart Sherriff.

Royal New Zealand Navy diving ship HMNZS Manawanui was sent to the site of the submerged plane on 5 April, and local iwi put a rāhui on the area. The aircraft wreckage was recovered and moved to the Devonport Naval Base for examination by Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAA) accident investigators.