Appointments January 5, 2024

Former Department of Premier and Cabinet director general and government special advisor Darren Foster has been appointed chair of the state’s Heritage Council. Mr Foster, who also joined the board of the troubled Western Australian Institute of Sports in September, will step into the chair role having served as a councillor since June. He previously held special advisor roles at the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the Department of Treasury and was DPC director general from 2017 to 2020.

BHP has unveiled its new chief development officer as Catherine Raw, effective April 29. Ms Raw has a background in geoscience and fund management through her work as a senior executive. Until she joins BHP, Ms Raw would continue serving in her current position as managing director of SSE Thermal where she has worked since April 2022. Prior to this, Ms Raw spent more than six years at Barrick Gold Corporation, progressing from executive vice president based in London to chief financial officer and then moving to Canada to be chief operating officer for North America. Ms Raw would be taking over as BHP CDO from Johan van Jaarsveld who would remain with the company by stepping into the role of chief technical officer.

Andrea Sutton, the former head of Rio Tinto’s majority-owned uranium unit, has been revealed as the new chair of the state-owned Water Corporation. Ms Sutton was previously chief executive and managing director at Energy Resources of Australia, which owns the now-shuttered Ranger uranium mine in the Northern Territory and is 86 per cent owned by Rio, following a 19-year career at Rio Tinto which included a stint as general manager of infrastructure in the iron ore division. Ms Sutton will replace outgoing chair Ross Love, who stepped down in October to take up an overseas role.

Junior miner Metals Australia has appointed mining executive Paul Ferguson as chief executive to lead the development of its exploration projects in WA and Canada. The former WesTrac Cat executive general manager will take on the new role in January to steer the development of the company’s exploration projects towards development. Metals Australia has stakes in two exploration battery minerals projects in WA and owns its flagship Lac Rainy graphite project and the Corvette River lithium project, both in Quebec. Mr Ferguson has previously worked for ExxonMobil and Imperial Oil based overseas and upon his return to Perth he became executive general manager of global mining for GMA Garnet Group, and later joined WesTrac.

Former news presenter and experienced communications chief Dixie Marshall has been appointed chair of strategic advisory firm GRA Partners. Government relations and communications firm GRA Partners today announced that Ms Marshall had been appointed chair to spearhead the growth of the firm’s strategic communications practice. Ms Marshall is best known as a former television news reader and head of strategic communications for former premier Colin Barnett. She will continue her current role at advertising agency Marketforce as chief growth officer and look to create more opportunities between the two companies, according to GRA Partners.

The Chamber of Arts and Culture WA has announced Tania Hudson as its inaugural chief executive, a new role created after a seven month-long review of the chamber's business model. A chief executive has been appointed as part of its new business strategy, with Ms Hudson set to lead the arts body from January 29. Ms Hudson has more than 30 years’ experience in communications, stakeholder engagement and governance across a breadth of industries.