Perry new VDM Group chief executive

VDM Group has today appointed former Brandrill managing director Ken Perry as its chief executive, taking over from Jim Van Der Meer who will retain his executive director position.

In a statement today, VDM said Mr Perry's appointment was effective immediately.

VDM chairman John Saleeba welcomed Mr Perry to VDM Group on behalf of the board and thanked Jim Van Der Meer for guiding the group while he was acting CEO.

"We are delighted that Ken has agreed to join VDM Group at a very exciting time - in the last month alone, we have announced contract wins approaching $100 million in value and our order book at 31 December 2009 stood at $415 million across a range of blue chip clients such as Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton," Mr Saleeba said.

"Mr Perry will also take charge of a strengthened balance sheet following the successful capital raising in October 2009. With Mr Perry's leadership, VDM is extremely well positioned to capitalise on the upswing in the resources sector and continue to build shareholder value."

Mr Saleeba also said "As part of the continuous process of assessing the Board's composition, Mr Michael Perrot, who was appointed a Non-Executive Director in July last year, has been appointed Deputy Chairman. In addition, the membership of all Board Committees has been re-confirmed with the same composition to apply for calendar 2010".

Prior to joining Brandrill, Mr Perry gained over 15 years experience in senior management roles with the Rio Tinto group before serving as Director General of the Department of Minerals & Energy (WA) between 1994 and 1997. Subsequently he worked with Resource Finance Corporation.

Mr Perry holds Master of Business Administration from Harvard University and a first class honours degree in chemistry from the University of Western Australia. He is also a Fellow of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.