Tower's new chairman sets his sights on limited term

By KEVIN TAYLOR

New Tower chairman Olaf O'Duill does not see himself keeping the job for long.

Regarded in Australia as a company "recovery specialist", the Melbourne-based O'Duill said he ultimately wanted a New Zealand chairman to take over.

Wellington lawyer Colin Beyer stepped down from his 13-year reign as chairman on Wednesday after a dismal annual result.

Tower's shares plunged after a shock profit warning and a September-year loss of $74.9 million.

Other board changes were also announced on Wednesday. Four candidates, including Guinness Peat Group nominees Tony Gibbs and Gary Weiss, will vie for three vacant positions at the annual meeting on March 27.

The other candidates are Hutton Peacock and Donald Baskerville. Derek Kirke and Beyer announced their withdrawals from the race for a seat yesterday.

O'Duill, 55, told the Herald the board asked him to take over as chairman.

There had already been significant management changes across the company.

"At the end of the day the board has also taken the view that it is accountable and responsible for last year's dreadful result and therefore itself is going through a process of change and regenerating.

"But we have to do it in an orderly way. We can't all just say, 'Well, we screwed up and everybody just steps out of the game.' It just isn't smart to do that."

O'Duill promised change would not stop just with the annual meeting, although he had no specific plans yet.

However, O'Duill, whose executive career has been in banking and finance in Australia, Ireland and the United States, said he did not see himself in the chairman's role long term.

"I would rather set the template for this organisation in terms of an appropriately experienced and qualified board.

"We will have a vigorous and rigorous look at ourselves following the AGM to see if we can do better than we are doing."

He welcomed the prospect of GPG's involvement on the board. GPG secured a 9.93 per cent stake in Tower this month.

Tower's board supported the nominations of Gibbs and Weiss.

"We think they have qualities and qualifications and experience related to changearound and in recovery situations that will be greatly helpful to us," O'Duill said.

Current directors Sir Colin Maiden and Lindsay Cuming volunteered to step down, he said.

O'Duill confirmed that Tower was still looking for a permanent group chief executive after the departureof James Boonzaier last July.

Tower had been interviewing for some months and was still "in the thick" of the process.

O'Duill said he would talk to incoming directors about candidates for the chief executive's role, including present acting chief executive Keith Taylor, who is also joining the board as an executive director.

The company still faces a tough annual meeting, but not as tough as if Beyer had still been chairman.

However, one small shareholder, retired businessman Donald Kincaid, has still put forward a resolution that the board resign en masse to take responsibility for the poor performance last year.

Arthur Lim of Macquarie Equities said there were still a lot of uncertainties in the insurance sector and there was no real rush for investors to embrace insurance stocks.

He said that although Tower's changes were positive because they removed six to eight months of "strategic paralysis", it would still take time to set and implement a new strategic direction.