Executive Appointments

Rabobank has appointed John Palmer chairman of Rabobank New Zealand and Sir Henry van der Heyden has joined the board. Mr Palmer, who has been a director of the Rabobank New Zealand board since 2004, takes over from Bill Gurry, who remains chairman of Rabobank’s Australian board of directors and will retain his seat on the New Zealand board.

Special Group has appointed Hilary Cootes general manager. Ms Cootes returned to New Zealand from London where she was with Karmarama. Previously she was with New York independent agency Anomaly for three years where she led innovation projects for Proctor & Gamble and worked on the US Coca Cola business. She had earlier worked for WCRS in London and Saatchi & Saatchi. Nigel Sutton has been appointed head of production/creative services. Mr Sutton has spent more than 10 years in production at Colenso BBDO and .99. Rahat Chaudry has been appointed strategic planner. Ms Chaudry started her career at Toyota North America where she specialised in developing brand names for car models. More recently she spent five years at New York branding agency Landor.

Lake Wanaka i-SITE has appointed a new manager. Sarah Hobbs has joined the Lake Wanaka team from a sport and recreation management background in Tauranga.

PKF Ross Melville has promoted Rachel Shoebridge to partner. Ms Shoebridge started with the firm in 2002. Since that time she spent three years in the UK and re-joined the firm in December 2008. She was promoted to associate in 2010. Blair Stanley has been promoted to audit partner. Mr Stanley joined the firm in 2005 and worked in the audit team for four years, during which he achieved his CA qualification. He then gained three years experience, including working in the PKF London office. He re-joined PKF Ross Melville in September 2011.

Samsung New Zealand has appointed Jon Barrell sales director. Mr Barrell has been country manager for Lion Dairy & Drinks for two years. Mr Barrell’s career spans 20 years and he has previously held senior positions with Goodman Fielder, DB Breweries and Coca-Cola Amatil.

Tony Sewell, chief executive of Ngai Tahu Property, has been elected national president by the Property Council. Mr Sewell has had more than 40 years in the construction and property industries. He has been in charge of the iwi-owned business since its establishment in 1994 and a member of the property council since 1999. Ngai Tahu has built its asset base from $2 million to become the South Island’s strongest property company with an asset base in excess of $500 million. Mr Sewell takes over from Chris Gudgeon, who has been national president for two and a half years.

George Forbes has returned to New Zealand and joined Rhodes & Co as a consultant. He specialises in corporate and commercial law. He previously worked at law firms including Bell Gully and Clifford Chance in London. He also spent six years with the Bank of New York Mellon where he was the chief international corporate counsel. Ed Bayley has been promoted to associate. He rejoined Rhodes & Co in late 2010 after completing his MSt at the University of Oxford. Andrew Taithas been promoted to associate. Mr Tait joined the firm in June 2009 and specialises in commercial law.

Impact Project Management has appointed a new project director to its Christchurch office. Michael Johnson has over 27 years’ experience in project and construction management. He has worked in New Zealand, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea.
Most recently, he led the Capital Gate Tower Project in Abu Dhabi to completion. He also held senior leadership positions on other projects in the region such as the Burj Al Arab Hotel,  the world’s first seven-star hotel, and the sprawling Jumeriah Beach Residence in Dubai (36 towers and four hotels over five blocks).