NEWLY formed investment-banking player Miro Advisors has named former deputy prime minister John Anderson as a member of a new advisory panel to help it win international business.
Miro is led by Tim Woodall, who left his role as CEO of oil and gas technical consulting firm RISC last year to establish the firm.
Mr Woodall has started with five advisers, including former Gresham Partners executive John Raston and his former RISC colleague, Stuart Weston.
Despite its Kings Park Road headquarters in the junior resources patch of West Perth, Miro has been established to focus on international opportunities in the oil and gas sector. For this reason it named Mr Anderson and UK-based Stuart Jackson as its first advisory panel members to help it win business offshore.
Mr Woodall said Mr Anderson’s understanding of politics and previous high profile in the Howard government would be invaluable in northern Asian countries such as China, South Korea and Japan.
“I was looking for someone who would help me open doors in North Asia,” Mr Woodall said.
“They like people who have insights into politics as well as the fundamentals of business.”
Mr Anderson was federal primary industry and energy minister between 1996 and 1998, before taking over the transport and regional development portfolios.
He is currently chairman of Sydney-based Eastern Star Gas.
Mr Jackson will fill a similar role for Miro in Europe, although his credentials are significantly different.
From 2003 to 2009, he was chief financial officer at Acergy, previously Stolt Offshore. Most of his career has been in the European oil and gas sector, though his more recent role was at an IT business.
The advisory panel is different from the Miro board of directors, which has been chaired by former Woodside executive Agu Kantsler, a seed investor in the business.
Mr Kantsler is stepping down from the Miro board to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest with his other roles, including his directorship of PNG oil and gas producer Oil Search. Adelaide lawyer Brett Cowell is the other Miro board member.
