New CEO for NZ Post

NZ Post has confirmed the appointment of PriceWaterhouseCoopers senior partner Brian Roche as its new chief executive.

He will take up the new job at the start of 2010, succeeding John Allen, who left NZ Post at the end of June to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

NZ Post chairman Jim Bolger said Roche had undertaken a wide variety of leadership roles with a particular focus on transport, treaty settlements, education and housing.

He was project manager for the successful bid to secure the hosting rights to Rugby World Cup 2011.

More than 50 applications were received for the NZ Post job in a four-month international search, Bolger said.

Roche joins an organisation facing structural declines in its traditional mail business, while the growth of Kiwibank saw NZ Post's banking division account for more than half its annual net profit for the first time in the latest financial year.

Kiwibank chief Sam Knowles has been standing in as CEO of NZ Post in the interim.

- NZPA