Appointments October 6, 2023

St John of God Health Care has announced the appointment of Wes Smith as group chief financial officer, effective October 30. Mr Smith has more than three decades of experience in both listed and private companies in Australia and beyond. He will be transitioning to St John of God Healthcare from automotive company Capricorn Society where he has worked as group chief financial officer for seven years. Prior to this, Mr Smith served in this same role at Melbourne-based Wilmar International for two years, CBH Group for just over five years, and Alinta Energy for nearly three years. Mr Smith additionally serves as chair of Independent Living Assessments and is a non-executive director for disability service provider Indigo.

Basil Lenzo has been recruited as the new chief executive at technology company Zetta Pty Ltd, set to take over from Nathan Harman who has been the CEO since the business’s inception in 2004. Mr Lenzo founded Datacom WA in 2007 and served as the managing director until the company was acquired in 2015 by Datacom Group. For the following two years, Mr Lenzo worked as ASG Group general manager leading WA operations, before joining INX Software as chief marketing officer later as chief executive. Mr Lenzo most recently served as director of customer experience at K2fly where he has worked since late 2021. He was also a Business News 40under40 winner in 2010.

Real Estate Institute of Western Australia has appointed Chiara Pacifici as its newest council member, taking over from Damien Collins who had served on the council for 12 years. Ms Pacifici has more than 25 years of experience in real estate and has worked as Community West Real Estate director for the past five years. She has previously freelanced as a member on the REIWA Buyers Agent Network Committee in 2022. Ms Pacifici founded Green Gurus in 2009 to drive sustainable housing, assisting homeowners to retrofit their existing homes to higher energy efficiency and liveability standards.

National mining services company Tasmea, which has quietly completed multiple acquisitions in WA, has appointed Perth-based Joe Totaro as chair as it explores an ASX listing. Mr Totaro was a co-founder and chief financial officer at listed company GR Engineering Services and continues as a non-executive director at GR. Tasmea also recruited Perth-based professional director Kristie Young, who joined the board two weeks ago as a non-executive director.

The WA Institute of Sport will commence a national search for a new boss after its long-serving chief executive Steven Lawrence stepped down following discussions with the new board. It comes after Sports Minister David Templeman overhauled the board and appointed former WA Football Commission chairman and ex-hospital boss Neale Fong as chairman earlier this month. Mr Lawrence said his decision to step down was taken after discussions with the new board.

Dual-listed contractor DRA Global has announced the surprise departure of four directors, including chairman Peter Mansell. The company issued a statement to the ASX advising Mr Mansell and non-executive directors Lee Guthrie, Paul Lombard and Sandra Bell had resigned from the company effective immediately. Ms Bell had been on the board just over two months, having joined the board in late July. The swift changes to the composition of the board follow what DRA said had been ‘engagement’ with the company’s largest shareholder, Apex Partners Holdings, which acquired a 19.3 per cent stake in the business in February 2023.