Grain receival and storage business GrainCorp announced the appointment of three new members to its executive leadership team on Tuesday, August 25.
Mark Palmquist, chief executive of the publicly-listed business told the ASX the additional appointments were aimed at enhancing the leadership group’s capabilities.
“We have strengthened our leadership and experience in these critical corporate functions and I am pleased the company has attracted such a high calibre group of executives,” Palmquist said.
“They will complement and support the strong work of our executive team.”
Andrew Baker has been appointed as GrainCorp’s chief information officer. “[Baker] is responsible for driving greater integration across GrainCorp’s technology platforms,” the company explained, “which is critical as the company pursues its strategic growth objectives.”
Baker, who was appointed as CIO in July, was most recently responsible for developing the business case and leading the implementation of a new integrated business system for Wilmar’s sugar refining and oils business in Australia and New Zealand.
Prior to that, he was CIO of BlueScope Steel, where he managed the company’s global IT environment over a six-year stretch. Baker has also worked at the Mars Corporation and Accenture.
Marcus Kennedy was appointed as chief development officer in August, and “is responsible for leading GrainCorp’s corporate strategy development, implementation and governance.”
Kennedy joined GrainCorp in 2012 to lead the post-merger integration of the GrainCorp Oils companies. Prior to this, he was the chief executive of the Paradigm Financial Services Group, and had previously helped design integration strategy for Suncorp following its merger with Promina.
Kennedy has also worked in the past at Westpac and Landmark/AWB.
Phil Caris will commence as GrainCorp’s group general manager for human resources in September, “and will have carriage of implementing refreshed people and diversity strategies to ensure the company is attracting and retaining the best talent, building powerful teams and developing its leadership.”
Caris has 25 years’ experience in HR for medium and large size organisations across a range of industries and jurisdictions. He has been executive general manager of HR and safety at Coates Hire in Sydney since 2008. Prior to that he was the global director of HR at TNT Freight Management in Amsterdam.
Caris has also worked at Coca-Cola Amatil and BHP Transport.