Rubicon chairman: I know forestry

By PAM GRAHAM

So ... who is Steve Kasnet?

The American copped criticism when he chaired the annual meeting of investment company Rubicon in Auckland but referred all questions to chief executive Luke Moriarty.

Rubicon is an investment company with a mix of bio-technology and other assets from the break-up of Fletcher Challenge.

Its biggest holding is a controlling stake in Tenon, the former Fletcher Challenge Forests.

The new chairman told the Business Herald he knew the forestry business and ran a Boston company, Harbour Global, that was similar to Rubicon.

"We had an assortment of assets that were given to us after the sale of a mutual company."

His assignment was to develop and realise assets that included forests in Russia.

Harbour had used the same forestry consultants as Rubicon and the former Fletcher Forests.

"That was really how I got on the list of potential directors, through the connections in the timber industry."

Kasnet said Harbour had a small group of large shareholders, including Perry Corp, a near 20 per cent investor in Rubicon.

But Kasnet said he was an independent member of Rubicon's board, not a Perry representative.

He said legal action between Perry and Rubicon's other major shareholder, Guinness Peat Group, should never have happened, but the two had agreed on a strategy and were "in sync" now.