The board of Michael Hill International has made leadership arrangements following the passing of CEO and managing director Daniel Bracken last week.
The group’s current chief financial and supply chain officer Andrew Lowe has been appointed as interim chief executive officer effective immediately. The board is undertaking a global search for a replacement CEO.
According to Michael Hill, this search will consider both internal and external candidates.
As well as the Michael Hill business, the group also manages jewellery businesses Bevilles, Medley and TenSevenSeven.
The board has also promoted its current director Claudia Batten to the role of deputy chair. She, along with chair Rob Fyfe as well as the chair of the audit and risk management committee, Gary Smith will provide upweighted support for Lowe throughout this interim period.
“Following Daniel’s passing, the board is confident in Andrew’s ability to steer the Michael Hill Group through this period of transition drawing on his extensive strategic, financial and operational experience as well as his enthusiasm and passion for the Michael Hill business and our people,” Fyfe said.
“Andrew is well supported by a very experienced and highly effective executive leadership team, who are well equipped to deliver on our strategic priorities and execute the Group’s business plan.”
Lowe joined the executive team in 2017 as chief financial officer, shortly after assuming the role of company secretary. More recently, he was promoted to chief financial and supply chain officer.
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce, a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Applied Finance and is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Taxation Adviser of the Taxation Institute of Australia.
Lowe has held prior roles across Aurizon, Cleanaway Waste Management and Anglo American.
Batten was appointed a director of the company in late August last year. She started her professional career at law firm Russell McVeagh specialising in contract, IP, and technology law before moving to New York and joining the founding team of Massive Incorporated, a network for advertising in video games which helped pioneer “digital” as a media buy. Massive Incorporated was sold to Microsoft in 2006, where Batten spent three years scaling the in-game network.
According to Michael Hill, Batten has been widely recognised for her work supporting the technology and start-up scene in New Zealand and spent three years running North American operations for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE).
Batten is also a director of Air New Zealand Limited (NZX: AIR), Vista Group International Limited (ASX: VGL) and is chair of Serko Limited (ASX: SKO).