Rob Morrison to join Kiwibank board
29/10/2010
Experienced investment banker Rob Morrison has been invited to join the Kiwibank Limited Board as an independent director. The appointment is subject to Reserve Bank regulatory review.
Announcing the appointment today, New Zealand Post Limited Chairman, Rt Hon Jim Bolger, ONZ, said Mr Morrison, who will join as Deputy Chairman, brings a wealth of banking and financial services experience to the Kiwibank Board, having recently retired as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong-based brokerage, investment banking and private equity group CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
Mr Bolger, who will retire as Kiwibank’s Chairman on 31 October after nine years, will be succeeded immediately as Chairman by current independent director and Deputy Chairman Ian Fitzgerald until 1 July 2011, when it is intended that Mr Morrison will assume the role.
“Rob has the ideal skills and knowledge to lead Kiwibank through the exciting challenges of its next stage of development and to play a more expansive role in the highly competitive New Zealand banking market. We are very pleased to have engaged a person of Rob’s calibre to help realise our growth aspirations for Kiwibank,” said Mr Bolger.
“Rob’s international banking experience will bring a different perspective to Kiwibank’s business, but he is a New Zealander who is committed to preserving the distinctive New Zealand characteristics that give Kiwibank competitive edge in this market.”
Noting that the Reserve Bank is considering new governance rules for banking company boards, Mr Bolger said it was now appropriate for the chairman of Kiwibank to be an independent director.
Mr Morrison, now based in Wellington, holds a commerce degree from Canterbury University. He joined CLSA in 1999, was appointed its CEO in 2002 and held the dual chairman/CEO role from 2006 to 2008. At that time he relinquished the CEO position and remained chairman until his retirement from CLSA in June 2009.
Before joining CLSA, Mr Morrison was an executive vice president and head of equities at Bankers Trust Australia and CEO of Bankers Trust New Zealand. He is currently a council member of the Asian Corporate Governance Association, a director on the Asian advisory board of The Nature Conservancy – a private organisation working to protect ecologically important lands and water – and an advisory professor at Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He was a founding member of the Copenhagen Climate Council.
In New Zealand Rob chairs the 100% Plan, a group committed to improving New Zealand’s economy and the environment.
Contact:
Keith FitzPatrick
Media Manager
New Zealand Post Group
O4 4964566, 027 4539882