Appointments October 17, 2019

Our weekly appointments wrap includes Michael Hughes, Craig Lennard, Tim Searle, Jade Macukatt, Alex Gregg, Gemma Cooper, Alex Ward-Noonan, Steve Blyth, Dean Lavers, Robert Wilton, Colin La Galia and Stephanie Ward.

AVZ Minerals has appointed Michael Hughes as project director for its Manono lithium and tin project in central Africa. Mr Hughes joins the Manono team from Evolution Mining, where he worked as a project director for its Cowal gold mine in New South Wales since 2017. He also served as senior study manager at Sedgman and as managing director at SLTA Services.

IT services provider Empired has announced the appointment of Craig Lennard to the role of executive general manager of its East Coast sales team. Mr Lennard was the managing director of SMS Management & Technology advisory and solutions team and at Logica (now CGI), and more recently served as chief executive of Oakton in Sydney. 

Insurance law firm Wotton + Kearney has added five lawyers to its Perth team, all formerly of Clyde & Co. They are partner Tim Searle, senior associates Jade Macukat, Alex Gregg and Gemma Cooper, and associate Alex Ward-Noonan. Mr Searle has been appointed as partner in his new role to lead the Perth team alongside William Robinson. He spent more than seven years at Clyde & Co. Ms Macukat served more than four years at Clyde & Co and is a former solicitor at Jarman McKenna. Both Mr Gregg and Ms Cooper served as associates at Clyde & Co and as solicitors at DLA Piper Australia. Mr Ward-Noonan was at Clyde & Co for a year and a half and is a former lawyer at Macdonald Rudder Lawyers.

Steve Blyth was elected unopposed state president of The Nationals WA last month. He is a long-term member and supporter of the party, serving as president since 2015 and deputy vice president for one year prior. Mr Blyth was the chief executive and chair of his plant nursery Blyth Tree Farm from 1998 to 2018, during which he was also a lecturer at Great Southern Institute of Technology for two years and deputy chair of South West Catchments for six years.

Aged care services provider SwanCare has appointed Dean Lavers and Robert Wilton to its executive board, replacing Julian Keys and Doug Yorke. Mr Lavers has more than 30 years of experience in senior roles, including at St John of God Health Care where he currently serves as manager of facility and asset management. Mr Wilton is currently the director of Parkerville Children and Youth Care and is the former chief operations officer at St Barts.

Clinical-stage oncology company PharmAust has announced the appointment of Colin La Galia as chief executive for the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Epichem, replacing Martine Keenan. Mr La Galia was the regional business director and commercial head of Asia Pacific, China and Japan for Abbott Rapid Diagnostics and has held senior roles over 20 years at Alere Inc, Origin Healthcare, Hollywood Fertility Centre, GlaxoSmithKline and Merck Sharpe & Dohme. Ms Keenan will resume her former role as Epichem’s head of drug discovery and joins the Epichem board.

Perth-based independent management consulting firm Churchill Consulting has appointed Stephanie Ward as principal consultant in the strategy and planning service line. Ms Ward has worked Western Australian infrastructure projects including Metronet, the Perth Children’s Hospital and the Dampier to Bunbury natural gas pipeline.