Carter Holt silent on loss of top executive

By CHRIS DANIELS forestry writer

Carter Holt Harvey's chief operating officer, Jay Goodenbour, has resigned, but his former employer has declined to comment on the surprise move.

New Zealand's second-largest listed company is refusing even to confirm the sudden departure of a top executive.

The Weekend Herald has learned that Carter Holt chief executive Chris Liddell announced Mr Goodenbour's resignation to staff on Thursday morning.

His last day of employment will be December 31, though because of the Christmas holidays yesterday was, in effect, his last day on the job.

The company is refusing to comment on any aspect of Mr Goodenbour's departure, even to the extent of not saying whether he has left. Company spokeswoman Bridget Abernethy refused to say whether any replacement for Mr Goodenbour had been found.

The Business Herald understands it will be Devon McLean, chief executive of wood products at Carter Holt Harvey.

Mr Goodenbour has been with Carter Holt since October 1996, but has come under fire for a failed attempt to corner the New Zealand log market in an attempt to drive up prices.

He told the Business Herald yesterday that he had left of his own accord and had no problem with Carter Holt.

"It's a great company, I've loved working here, it's got great people, great leadership and I think it's going to do extremely well," he said.

Mr Goodenbour said he was now looking for an opportunity to "get back into a role where I can lead more people directly".

"The role that I'm in currently is one you're meeting chief executives and that's a role that some people find they could do quite well at," he said. "It's one that I didn't feel was necessarily playing to my strengths.

"For me, it's still a great company and I feel very privileged to have been part of Carter Holt Harvey. I think it's a company that's going to go places in the future."

Mr Goodenbour said he had no job to go to and his decision to resign had been "a matter of personal choice to move on and give someone else an opportunity to do well that would probably fit them better than it fit me".

Asked if his departure had anything to do with last year's log-buying strategy, Mr Goodenbour said: "I just think there's no sense responding to those things. People can make whatever assumptions they like.

"When you have a high-profile role like this role is, you're going to have people who are going to say those things."

He said there had been no pressure placed on him to leave.

Mr Goodenbour, aged 44, was an executive with International Paper, which owns 50.1 per cent of Carter Holt, for 15 years before coming to New Zealand.

Born in the United States, he is now a New Zealand citizen, with a New Zealand-born wife and child.

Carter Holt's Fibre Solutions division went on a log-buying spree last year designed to corner the market, build up inventory and lift prices.

But the scheme backfired when the log market collapsed, leaving it with an overstocked log inventory.

Speaking after a management cleanout that followed this plan, Mr Goodenbour said he was convinced the strategy had been sound and the company needed to learn from what had happened in the down cycle.

"The underlying strategy itself is certainly sound and they're good people, people who can execute the strategy," he said of the team.

"We can't continue to just wait for the cycles to drive us up and down."

In September last year, Mr Goodenbour also defended the "price leadership" strategy in the pages of the National Business Review, saying wood was too cheap and he was determined that shareholders would get a return on their assets.

"We'll get out there and buy anything that's publicly available. We don't see a problem with going after it as long as we believe we have a market to onsell it to," he said.

The resignation of directors must be disclosed to the Stock Exchange, but company directors are given discretion when it comes to informing the market about top executives leaving.