Executive appointments

Westpac New Zealand has appointed Karen Silk general manager of its institutional bank. Ms Silk has been director debt capital markets with Westpac Institutional Bank in Sydney for the past three years. Before this she was executive director corporate banking and property. Ms Silk has previously held positions at Westpac New Zealand including head of agribusiness and various roles within the institutional bank. She starts her new role in November, subject to approval by the Reserve Bank. She replaces David McLean, who has been appointed managing director, head of Americas Division, Westpac Institutional Bank, in New York City.

Kristy McDonald QC has been reappointed as chairwoman of the Real Estate Agents Authority for another year. The authority is the regulatory body for the real estate industry. Ms McDonald was appointed as the inaugural chairwoman in July 2009. Ms McDonald has practised as a barrister since 1989.She was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1999 and has served as the chairwoman of the Mental Health Review Tribunal and as a member of the Removal Review Authority

Chris Bush has been appointed New Zealand country manager at the oil and natural gas exploration company New Zealand Energy Corp. Mr Bush is an oil and gas professional with more than 30 years of experience in both upstream and downstream sectors, including roles in New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US. He is a member of the Institute of Directors and is chairman of the Petroleum Exploration and Producers Association.

AT&T has appointed Peter Thomson general manager for New Zealand. He has also been appointed sales manager for Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Mr Thomson was sales and commercial director at systems-integration company IPConnect in Sydney. Previously, Mr Thomson worked for nine years at Macquarie Telecom, including seven years as founding managing director for Macquarie Telecom Asia in Singapore. In 2006, he was admitted to Advance 100 – an organisation recognising the top 100 Australians working overseas.

TVNZ has appointed three general managers, media sales (agency) Auckland. They are: Jodi O’Donnell, Melissa Taylor and Tony Waite. Ms O’Donnell has had 13 years’ media experience across sales and marketing disciplines. Her most recent role was TV2 marketing manager and business marketing manager. Ms Taylor has had 19 years’ media experience at TV Works across a variety of sales roles. Mr Waite, who was most recently general manager media sales, Auckland Direct, has spent seven years working for TVNZ in sales and marketing roles. Glenn McGahan has been appointed general manager, direct and regional sales. Mr McCahan has held senior and media agency roles with 25 years’ experience. Richard Sandford has been appointed general manager, channel sales. Mr Sandford has held senior positions leading/managing digital and services across UK/Ireland and Asia/Pacific.

Kerridge & Partners has appointed Lynne Miller senior consultant. Ms Miller has over eight years’ experience in direct coaching and coaching other coaches. She has a commercial background with degrees in both change management and education.

Glenn Cunningham has been appointed global sales and marketing director at Sacred Hill Vineyards. Mr Cunningham was previously export market development director at Constellation. He founded Fresh Fruit Company of New Zealand Ltd (FreshCo) and has had an extensive career in sales and marketing for New Zealand food and wine exports. Murray Burgess has been appointed national sales manager. Mr Burgess has worked with leading companies in the FMCG area. His most recent role was as national key account manager for Coca Cola. He also spent eight years in the UK and Australia, working with large brands. Emiliano Parini has been appointed national key accounts manager and was previously with Villa Maria Estate, where he was the national key account manager. He has also worked with Mars New Zealand, Penguin Wholesalers and Europacific Foods. Dale Wright has been appointed fine wine and on premise director. He was previously national on premise manager for Negociants NZ. He has also held sales roles at James Gilmour & Co Ltd and Glengarry Hancocks.

Brendan Meech has been appointed to lead DLA Phillips Fox’s expanded banking and finance team.
Mr Meech has been in practice since 1984 and has acted on banking and finance transactions for many financial institutions including Westpac NZ and ANZ National Bank.

Jeremy Steel is retiring from the partnership.

Chairman Steven Fyfe has been re-elected to the Co-operative Bank board. Mr Fyfe is the chairman of the Red Cross Foundation, a trustee of the Victoria University of Wellington Foundation and a drector of Crown Asset Management Ltd. He recently retired from a 29-year career with the ANZ National Bank Group. His early career was with a chartered accounting firm working in Wellington, London and New York. Brendan O’Donovan is a new addition to the board. Mr O’Donovan serves as an adviser to Parliament’s finance and expenditure committee and external adviser of The Treasury forecasting team. He holds pro-bono directorships for Epsom Brown Holdings, Beechworth Home and Hospital 2006 and Springlands Lifestyle Village. He has had many years’ experience in the banking sector and has been chief economist for Westpac NZ and The National Bank of New Zealand. Sam Robinson, who was re-elected, holds directorships on other boards, including AsureQuality, Centralines and Hawkes Bay Regional Investment Company. He is the chairman of AgResearch. Dianne Kidd, who was re-elected, has over 20 years’ commercial experience in the New Zealand funds management and superannuation industries. She holds a directorship with AsureQuality and has also owned and operated a farm for over 30 years.

Media agency Spark has appointed Jane Stanley group strategy director and has promoted Nicky Greville to strategy director. Ms Stanley was previously head of planning at Melbourne-based creative agency Clemenger Harvie Edge. Earlier, she planned on a number of award-winning European campaigns. Ms Greville has been with the agency for over four years – the last two as media director.

Mieke Upton has been appointed to Buddle Findlay’s Wellington office as a senior solicitor in the banking and finance team, specialising in tax and anti-money laundering. Previously, Ms Upton worked in the tax team at another top tier firm. She has also worked in the anti-money laundering teams at an international law firm and financial institution in London. 

Deaf Aotearoa has appointed Lachlan Keating chief executive. Mr Keating has spent the past decade in management and human resources roles with not-for-profit organisations in Australasia. He has been employed by Deaf Aotearoa, the national association of the Deaf in New Zealand, since 2006. For the past two years, Mr Keating has been general manager – community development.

Mana-based geospatial and IT infrastructure business Splice Group has appointed executive and ICT professional Steve Lowe chief executive. Mr Lowe has worked in senior management and in directorship positions for Telecom New Zealand, IBM, AT&T and Alcatel-Lucent.

Boutique rum house Stolen Rum has appointed Chris Harrop national sales director. Mr Harrop was national brand ambassador for global liquor corporate Pernod Ricard. He won New Zealand’s 2008 Bartender of the Year award. Katie Du Fall has been appointed marketing manager. Ms Du Fall joined the Stolen Rum team last November after two and a half years of global marketing with New Zealand founded BurgerFuel. Previously she worked for Red Bull while completing a communications degree at AUT University. 

Brookfields has appointed Andrew Shortall as a solicitor to its business, property and finance group. His primary focus will be on property law.

Mi9, the re-branded trade division of MSN New Zealand, has appointed Ursula Mattar sales manager of newly launched advertising network Microsoft Media Network.

Wairarapa District Health Board chairman Bob Francis has been appointed to the Capital & Coast District Health Board. Mr Francis fills the vacancy left after member Donald Urquhart-Hay died last year.