Australia: Nicole Birrell has been appointed to the chair of AusMalt, the wholly owned malting subsidiary of AusBulk, replacing Perry Gunner who is remaining on the board but stepping down as chair to concentrate on the proposed merger of AusBulk and ABB Grain, the company has recently reported.

AusMalt, which was created to oversee the Joe White Maltings and Adelaide Malting Company businesses acquired by AusBulk, is the leading Australian maltster and the eighth largest in the world.

Ms Birrell was appointed to AusMalt’s board in April 2004 and has served as an AusBulk director since 2000.

She has 26 year’s experience in local and overseas corporate and investment banking, most recently as Head of Operational Risk and Compliance, Institutional Financial Services at ANZ Bank. She left full-time employment in April 2004 to pursue board and consulting interests.

Ms Birrell said AusMalt was performing extremely well with production fully committed to 2005 and expansions to its Cavan (SA) and Devonport (Tas) plants proceeding to schedule.

In addition to Ms Birrell, the AusMalt board comprises Bill Gill (managing director), Perry Gunner (deputy chair, AusBulk) and John Murray (managing director, AusBulk).

21 May, 2004