The Anitua Group says it is ‘back on track’ with two appointments to its executive management team.
The Group now has the right leadership in place to overcome recent challenges and pursue its goals of greater financial stability and business growth.
Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Kaima, together with long-term Anitua Director and current Chair, John Kapsa, agree that Anitua will benefit from the considerable expertise of its new Chief Financial Officer and Chief Commercial Officer.
Newly appointed CFO Patrick Doekes has been a qualified accountant for over 20 years and is a current member of CPA (PNG), CA (ANZ) and ACMA.
He has extensive experience in senior leadership roles covering financial, commercial and supply chain in a number of industries including manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and pharmaceutical.
In recent years, Doekes has worked for Integria Healthcare and Hyne & Son where he held the CFO role. He has previous experience working as the Group Commercial Manager for multinational Dunlop in South Africa, which also required him to work in Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Kaima acknowledges that although new to PNG, Doekes has considerable experience working in developing countries and across multiple sectors and that this is useful given the different sectors served by Anitua’s many businesses.
“Most importantly though, Patrick brings a diverse and extremely valuable set of commercial, operational as well as financial acumen which Anitua will obviously put to good use,” stated Kaima.
Terry Bourke is Anitua’s first Chief Commercial Officer and no stranger to PNG, having approximately six years in-country experience via a number of different roles primarily in mining but also in oil and gas.
Bourke is a versatile senior executive who has also worked in Australia, Canada and New Zealand across several industries, after starting his professional life as a lawyer.
He was a foundation Executive Director of MACH Energy, part of a small team which negotiated the acquisition from Rio Tinto of the NSW Mount Pleasant greenfield coal project and then built the company’s workforce from zero. His team constructed a coal mine, processing plant, railway, pipeline, roads, dams and other infrastructure.
Bourke’s role as Executive Director and Chief Commercial officer included responsibility for marketing and sales to Japanese, Chinese and Australian customers. Other roles held by Bourke over the years include Director, CEO, General Counsel and Company Secretary of ASX listed mining and manufacturing companies.
“Like Patrick, Terry brings a wealth of expertise and experience to Anitua,” says Kaima. “Together, and in combination with the support and considerable wisdom of our directors, we now have the capacity to get Anitua ‘back on track’.”
Similar to numerous businesses over the last few years, Anitua has struggled in terms of profitability. The new leadership team’s first priority has been to stabilise this and develop a clear improvement path in to the future.
According to Kaima, Anitua’s businesses have been operating as separate entities rather than as a group. “We are bringing them together to function as a cooperative entity and to lever the benefits of our size and breadth of talent and experience. Not only will this work better for us as a business, it will also enable us to better service our clients.”
Anitua is also reviewing and refining its organisational structure, overhauling its HR performance management framework as well as reviewing and refining its SHEC organisational function and quality assurance based management system.
A recent cash injection from the sale of subsidiary NCS’ 50 percent share of its Hidden Valley catering and camp management operation to JV partner NKW will also facilitate Anitua’s quest to get ‘back on track’ and once again realise its full potential.
(Anitua CEO Daniel Kaima, right, welcomes Chief Financial Officer Patrick Doekes, left, and Chief Commercial Officer Terry Bourke to Anitua’s Executive Management Team. Kaima says Anitua is looking forward to a new era of financial stability and business prosperity)