Ex-BP talent and McDonald's man on Greenstone board

Mike Bennetts

The board of Greenstone Energy will include three former BP executives as well as the former chief executive of McDonald's New Zealand.

Infratil chief executive Marko Bogoievski is to chair the new company and Mike Bennetts will be managing director.

Bennetts has spent 25 years working for BP in a number of overseas locations including China, South Africa, the UK and Singapore.

Bennetts said yesterday he returned to New Zealand in 2008 for family reasons and was pleased to have found a role which took advantage of his experience.

"I took a year off to understand what I wanted to do and was hugely excited when this opportunity came up."

Peter Griffiths, who recently retired after 21 years working for BP and the last 10 years as New Zealand managing director, will also join the board, as well as Paul Fowler, who previously spent 15 years with BP.

Alan Dunn, who was CEO and chairman of McDonald's from 1993 to 2004 and spent 30 years working for the burger chain, is expected to add retail experience to the team.

The board will be rounded off with Lib Petagna, an executive director of Morrison & Co - Infratil's investment management arm that will also be in charge of managing the Shell assets.