Murray & Roberts says Roy Andersen, who has served as independent non-executive chairman for almost nine years, will retire as a director and chairman of the company, effective 1 March 2013. The board says it has unanimously agreed to appoint Mahlape Sello as independent non-executive chairman following Andersen’s departure.
Sello, an advocate, has been a non-executive director of the company since 2009. The engineering and construction group says Andersen agreed last year to extend his term by two years in order to oversee the group’s executive leadership transition. It says it was always the plan for the chairman to step down as soon as the board was comfortable the new leadership team had settled within the group. “The chairman, Roy Andersen, saw through the leadership transition that took place towards the end of our previous financial year – Henry Laas as group chief executive and Cobus Bester as group financial director,” Ed Jardim, group communications executive, said on Friday. He said both appointments were internal, which contributed to the smooth transition. Sello chairs the group’s social and ethics committee, and is also a member of the audit and sustainability committee, the nomination committee, and remuneration and human resources committee. She also serves on some of the committees of the Johannesburg Bar Council and the General Council of the Bar, and is a member of the South African Law Reform Commission. She was previously the chairperson of the advisory committee on licensing of private hospitals at the Gauteng Department of Health. Murray & Roberts said it had initiated a three-year recovery and growth strategy in July last year, with the one year recovery phase having been completed at the end of June this year. “The Group entered its two-year growth plan in the current financial year, which commenced on 1 July,” Jardim said.He also said Murray & Roberts had instilled a new set of values, purpose and vision within the group.
This comprised delivering infrastructure in SA to enable economic and social development in a sustainable way; and becoming the leading diversified engineering and construction group by 2020 in the global underground mining market, and in selected emerging market natural resources and infrastructure sectors. In also meant encompassing the values of integrity, respect, care, accountability and commitment within the group. The group also said Dr Sibusiso Sibisi and Dr Namane Magau would both resign as non-executive directors at the conclusion of this year’s annual general meeting in October. It said Dr Sibisi indicated he wanted to limit his non-executive directorships to institutions whose core business was underpinned by science or technology. Dr Magau said she had served on the board for the past eight years and felt the need for a change.
Roy Anderson retires in March 2013
