Appointment of Two New Directors
One of our independent Directors, Tony Egan, recently completed his three-year term with us, having signalled some time ago that he would not be seeking reappointment. Tony has made a considerable contribution on the Board over the last three years, particularly around how an intergenerational handover in our family businesses can be well-managed. Our business has benefited greatly from Tony’s governance, and the Hill family will be forever grateful for his advice. We wish Tony all the best, and hope he manages to honour his commitment to himself to slow down a little and spend more time enjoying life outside of work.
Knowing that Tony would be finishing up as a Director led us to search for two new independent Directors, and we are thrilled to be able to announce those appointments here. The first is David Hughes, who started with us as an independent Director in June, having recently completed a five-year term as CEO of Plant and Food Research. David has had a career at the interface between science and business, with a strong focus on commercialising new and innovative products and services. He is a strong strategic thinker, and understands our complex, science-based environment. We are confident that David will be a great fit in the role, and we are enjoying seeing him familiarise himself with our business and making some useful contributions in his first Board meeting.
The second appointment is Kahl Betham – current CEO and Executive Director at Gallagher, another proud family-owned Waikato business. Kahl has spent most of his 25-year career at Gallagher, and has been closely involved with much of their growth over the last decade or two, particularly on the security side of their business. Gallagher’s continuing success, and Kahl’s career progression within this impressive business, speak for themselves. Kahl will start as an independent Director at Hill Labs in August, and we’re looking forward to his energy, strategic insights, and aspirations for growth.
We feel fortunate to have attracted two such high-calibre individuals onto our Board, and look forward to their contributions during this next phase of our company’s continuing growth and evolution.
And while we are seeing exciting additions to the Board, there is also a good degree of continuity, with Jim McLean continuing as Chair, Roger Hill (co-founder and Executive Director) remaining a Director, and Jonno Hill (CEO for five years and now Managing Director) also formally joining the Board earlier this year.
We are also looking forward to welcoming Geoff Hill – Roger’s son and Jonno’s brother – to the Board later this year, which will further reinforce our ‘family business’ culture and set us up to carry forward the legacy of our founders, Roger and Anne Hill.
