Kirk takes the Australasian captaincy

By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK

David Kirk might be small, but that is no measure of his intellect.

The former All Black captain, doctor and philosopher is taking on the paper industry this week as Fletcher Challenge Paper's Australasian boss.

Managing more than 1500 staff and turnover of $A1 billion ($1.25 billion), Mr Kirk, aged 39, has been appointed chief operations officer of the division and will be based in Sydney from tomorrow with his wife Brigit and their three children.

"It's my first time living in Australia and it's my first line-management role, which is pretty exciting."

Mr Kirk said his focus would be on cutting running costs of the division, which has been put up for sale as part of Fletcher's global paper group.

"This is a commodity-based industry and the prices tend to go down about 1 per cent a year in real terms. You've still got to keep putting money into the business, so there will be a pretty big focus on keeping costs low."

The Australasian paper division - a steady performer in recent years - has one mill in New Zealand and two in Australia.

Mr Kirk said he would play a minor role in the sale of Fletcher Challenge Paper, which holds more than 48 per cent of the group's assets and accounts for 61 per cent of its long-term debt.

It also has operations in Canada, Brazil, Chile and Malaysia.

Fletcher Challenge spokesman Barry Akers said Mr Kirk, who has been with the company since 1995, was appointed to Sydney because of his management and paper industry experience.

He succeeds Russ Horner, who will become president and chief operating officer of Fletcher Challenge Paper.

Mr Kirk started his career as a medical intern at Auckland Hospital. He stood down as All Black captain in 1987 to take up a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford University in England, where he studied politics, philosophy and economics.

He worked for management consultancy firm McKinsey & Co in London before returning to New Zealand in 1992 as then Prime Minister Jim Bolger's chief policy adviser.