This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
LEIGHTON Holdings has made changes to the board following the resignation of chairman Bob Humphris.
After being at the helm for just over 12 months, Humphris signalled his intention to retire at the company’s recent AGM last month. He took over the role from Stephens Johns in June last year following a board spill.
In March last year, Stephen Johns and two independent directors, Wayne Osborn and former Reserve Bank of Australia governor Ian Macfarlane resigned from the board, over claims that Leighton’s major shareholder Hochtief, had tried to undermine the independence of Leighton.
Hochtief, which is majority owned by Spanish firm Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA (ACS), denied the claims.
In March this year, Hochtief terminated the contracts of CEO Hamish Tyrwhitt and CFO Peter Gregg and Hochtief boss Marcelino Fernandez Verdes relocated from Germany to Australia to run Leighton.
“It has been a privilege to be involved with Leighton for the last nine and a half years and as Chairman for the last year. However it is now time for me to retire from corporate life and to hand over to a new team,” Humphris said.
Meanwhile CEO Marcelino Fernández Verdes has been appointed to the role of executive chairman, replacing Humphris.
“It is an honour to be appointed to the role of executive chairman at Leighton Holdings and I look forward to continuing to build on our rich history as one of the world’s leading international contractors,” Verdes said.
Leighton has also appointed two new independent non-executive directors, Russell Chenu and Trevor Gerber. Chenu will be the chair of both the Audit Committee and Ethics and Compliance Committee. Gerber will be the chairman of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee.
Chenu has a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne and an MBA from Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Australia. He joined James Hardie as interim CFO in October 2004 and was appointed CFO in February 2005 before retiring in November 2013.
Gerber was an executive at Westfield until 1999. During his 14 year career at Westfield, his roles included group treasurer and director of funds management.
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