Tower board consolidates

Tower Limitedhas experienced further changes to the composition of its board following the appointment of two executives and the departure of long-standing director Lance Cottam.

The new board members are chief executive officer, Keith Taylor, and chief financial officer William Giesbers, who had both been acting in the roles but have now formally taken on their respective roles.

Taylor had been acting chief executive officer since August last year.

Newly appointed chairman Olaf O'Duill believes that Taylor is “well qualified to lead the group into the future and back to more normal levels of profitability”.

Meanwhile, after 17 years on the board, longstanding director Lance Cottam has announced his retirement, and plans to step down at the end of June this year. During his time at the company, Cottam held the role of chairman of the audit committee.

“Lance Cottam has been part of the Tower board for the past 17 years and during that time has seen Tower transformed from a government entity to a mutual and now a publicly listed company,” O’Duill says of Cottam’s history with the group.

The permanent appointments and resignation follow the departures of former chairman Colin Beyer and directors Lindsay Cuming and Colin Maiden, who retired at the company's annual general meeting last month.

Nominees Tony Gibbs and Gary Weiss from Ron Brierley's specialist firm Guinness Peat Group, which has a 9.9 per cent stake in Tower, were also appointed to the board at the AGM.

Beyer was replaced as chairman a month earlier by O'Duill, already a Tower director.

Last month, O'Duill promised Tower shareholders they would see a different board by the next AGM.

"There is no question that we have a lot of hard work to do," O'Duill says, with the board planning to continue with its process of renewal.

“It is our intention to appoint new directors to replace those who depart and thus further enhance our abilities into the future,” O'Duill says.