Wesfarmers has appointed commercial lawyer Paul Meadows as group general counsel. As part of an organisational restructure, he will oversee all of Wesfarmers’ legal matters and will serve as a member of the group’s executive committee and leadership group.
Goyder also announced the establishment of a management committee to ensure co-ordination between Kmart and Target on strategic issues, property matters, human resources and other areas of common interest.
The committee will be chaired by Target managing director Launa Inman and include Kmart managing director Guy Russo, Wesfarmers finance director Terry Bowen and chief human resources officer Ben Lawrence.
Meadows is a senior partner of Allens Arthur Robinson and has practised in areas of companies and securities, takeovers, banking, trade practices, contracts and insolvency law.
Following the appointment of her husband [Paul Meadows], Patricia Cross has announced her resignation from the board of Wesfarmers.
Cross has been a non-executive director of Wesfarmers since 2003 and a member of the Wesfarmers board remuneration and nomination committees.
Wesfarmers chairman Bob Every said Cross had been an outstanding contributor to Wesfarmers board for seven years and her experience and expertise would be greatly missed.
“Tricia has always combined outstanding financial skills, deep understanding and experience in global financial markets with a keen perception and grasp of operational and people-related matters so crucial to the successful implementation of strategies,” he said.
Her resignation from the Wesfarmers board will be effective from the end of March, 2010.