Corporate Ladder: your weekly guide to executive appointments
This week, in South Australia’s first executive appointments column, InDaily tracks the movements of those driving the state’s public and private sectors. Plus the latest executive recruitment opportunities.
Karen Jarrett has been named as the first CFO for Adelaide-based fitness startup Sweat. Image: Meaghan Coles.
Global fitness start-up names inaugural CFO
Adelaide-headquartered startup Sweat has appointed Karen Jarrett as its Company Secretary and inaugural CFO.
It follows a restructure of the global fitness and technology business in 2019.
Jarrett joined Sweat two years ago as Financial Controller after more than a decade in senior executive roles in the energy and tourism sector and a stint with financial firm Ernst and Young.
Throughout her career, she has served as a board member for St Matthews Homes, a South Australian aged care not-for-profit.
Sweat CEO Tobi Pearce welcomed Jarrett to the company in a post on Linkedin saying he was “very proud” to appoint Sweat’s first CFO.
“Karen has incredibly strong leadership skills and brings a tremendous amount of expertise and experience in finance, risk and compliance,” he said.
“She has made significant contributions to the business since she started and I’m excited for much more to come as we continue to grow.”
Guardians of the Galaxy producer to head production at Rising Sun
Visual effects studio Rising Sun Pictures has named Meredith Meyer-Nichols as an Executive Producer and Head of Production.
She replaces Alana Newell who has returned to Los Angeles.
Adelaide-based Rising Sun Pictures said Meyer-Nichols would “continue to help drive RSP’s (Rising Sun Pictures) strategic growth initiatives, leading a team of senior creative and production talent … fostering a culture that reflects RSP’s values”.
She comes to the role after more than seven years as a producer with Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor and Jamie Selkirk’s New Zealand digital visual effects studio Weta Digital.
More recently, Meyer-Nichols was Joint Production Head and Senior Visual Effects Producer with British-based animation, visual effects and creative studio Framestore London.
Across her career she has worked on multi-million-dollar blockbusters including Guardians of the Galaxy and Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin.
Service personnel appointed to mental health institute
Australian service personnel Georgeina Whelan and Cheryl Pearce have this week been appointed to the SA-based military and emergency services mental health and wellbeing institute Military and Emergency Services Health Australia.
The research institute is a rebrand of the Hospital Research Foundation Group’s former charity The Road Home. The charity aims to inform policy and services for Australian military and emergency personnel and their families.
Whelan is the current ACT Emergency Services Agency Commissioner and spent 30 years with the Australian Army.
Pearce was born and raised in country SA before joining the army and moving through the ranks to Major General.
The Hospital Research Foundation said Pearce had been among the first women appointed by the United Nations to lead a peacekeeping mission.
Corporate Position: the latest executive employment opportunities
UnitingSA is seeking a Chief Executive Officer to lead the community-based organisation with over 1,000 staff and a turnover circa $100m. The Board seeks a proven executive who will ensure sustainable and innovative growth and sector leadership in key services and has the demonstrated capability to lead an organisation through ongoing reform, growth and increasing competition. Aged care sector experience will be a distinct advantage but candidates with leadership experience from comparably regulated and complex people-focussed sectors are also welcomed.
Non-executive Director positions have arisen at Wine Australia for a term of up to three years. Besides expertise in governance, with board experience and AICD qualifications highly regarded, directors must be able to demonstrate expertise in one or more areas that include research, innovation, and portfolio management, grape growing, winemaking, market access and diversification, and market development, sustainability, and strategy.
St Ann’s College, the North Adelaide university residential college, is looking for a residential Dean. Working closely with the Principal/CEO and as a key member of the senior management team, the Dean is responsible for the pastoral care and academic development of all students. The Dean will also oversee the operational day-to-day requirements of the college, and promote the college to assist in student recruitment. A remuneration package including salary, superannuation, accommodation, all meals and other benefits is offered to secure a genuinely dynamic and capable individual.
PR heavyweights step out of the ring
Field Public Relations Founder and Managing Director John Field and his long-term work partner Kevin Skinner have announced their retirements, signalling the consultancy’s closure on March 31.
A former Adelaide Advertiser business editor, Field founded the public relations company in 1986 and went on to advise a plethora of businesses and individuals including Australia’s richest man Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest, SA Brewing, Coles, David Jones and Santos.
For 25 years the PR firm provided media relations for national energy and infrastructure lobby the Australian Pipelines and Gas Association and ran the media room at the annual national oil and gas industry lobby conference, the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association.
Environment Protection Authority addition
Margaret Cross will join the South Australian Environment Protection Authority Board from April 1 for a two-year term.
She has held a number of senior executive roles in the private and public sector, including the Essential Services Commission of South Australia, Office of Consumer and Business Affairs, and the Attorney-General’s Department.
Cross is a Director with the SA Energy and Water Industry Ombudsman and a member of the ombudsman’s Finance, Audit and Risk Committee.
The Authority has also reappointed Catherine Cooper as its Presiding Member and Stephen Christley Deputy Presiding Member for a further two years.
Cooper, a strategic planning and governance consultant, sits on a number of boards and committees, including the Australian Fisheries Management Authority Commission, Beston Global Food Company and Energy Consumers Australia.
While Christley is the former face of SA Health, which he led as Chief Public Health Officer for seven years. He was also SA Mental Health’s Interim Commissioner between 2015 and 2016.
His remains on boards with aged care provider ECH, Flinders Reproductive Medicine and the Women’s and Children’s Health Network.
New legal associate
Adelaide-based legal firm NDA Law has added Alan Braley as a new associate.
The small and medium business legal specialist previously worked for Michael Kirby Chambers.
NDA Law Managing Director Joshua Davies said Braley was “set to make a great contribution in helping to bring success to our clients big or small”.
“He brings a wealth of diverse experience that will be appreciated by the team and I join everyone in welcoming him,” Davies said.
Government appointments
Winemaker and Mount Horrocks Wines proprietor Stephanie Toole has been reappointed to the SA Country Arts Trust for a further three-year term effective April 1.
While Kuyani-Arrernte woman Erin Woolford has been named the inaugural Head of Aboriginal Housing.
On Thursday, InDaily reported the SA Housing Authority had appointed the prominent Aboriginal bureaucrat to lead a new homelessness strategy.
