Steel Blue flags leadership change

Perth-based industrial footwear business Steel Blue has announced an impending change of leadership with chief executive Garry Johnson to step down in June.

Steel Blue, last year’s overall winner of The Rise awards, said current chief financial officer Peter Bell, who has been with the company for 10 years, would take on the executive leadership.

Mr Johnson has been with the company for 14 years, joining as chief executive in 2009 after a career in banking.

Established in 1995, privately-owned Steel Blue is a premium safety footwear manufacturer that uses innovation to stay ahead of the pack. It claims to be the number one safety footwear seller in Australia.

The firm has manufacturing bases in Western Australia and Indonesia, with more than half its staff based in Malaga. It has been exporting its goods since 1996 and now has subsidiaries in New Zealand, Europe and the US.

In a statement, Steel Blue chairman Peter Carter said Mr Bell had been instrumental in establishing the corporate business model for the company’s global growth.

For the past five years Mr Bell had also been chief strategist and, for three years led the company’s innovation function.