A Waitaki district councillor, a former Southern DHB commissioner and a former long-serving chairman of Te Runanga o Moeraki have been appointed as directors to the board.
The Waitaki District Council this year advertised three vacancies on the board of the council-controlled organisation, created by the resignations of Mark Rogers, Andrew Blair and Andrew Wilson. Mr Rogers, who chaired the board, stepped down at the end of his three-year term for personal reasons, while Mr Blair and Dr Wilson cited workloads in their other roles as contributing to their decisions.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher said the council received "several strong" applications for the roles. After discussions in a publicly excluded council meeting, Melanie Tavendale, Trevor McGlinchey and Kathy Grant were appointed to the board.
"[Mrs Tavendale] was appointed with particular regard for her governance strengths, her strategic and analytical skills, and her strong connections to our community."
Ms Grant served as the Southern DHB commissioner from 2015 to 2019, and has governance experience on the boards of commercial companies and not-for-profit organisations.
"Her recent role as the lead commissioner running the Southern DHB gives Kathy a unique view of the health sector, and connections within that sector, which we expect to help our local health services transition through the current health reforms," Mr Kircher said.
She also had good connections to the Waitaki district, having grown up in Oamaru.
Mr McGlinchey was a long-serving chairman of Te Runanga o Moeraki, and is at present the chairman of Moeraki Ltd, the runanga’s commercial arm. In 2020, he was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal for services to Maori and the community.
Helen Algar remains on the board as chairwoman, and Mrs Tavendale was last week appointed deputy chairwoman. Scott Wilson also remains on the board as a director.
"Overall, we have been able to give the hospital company a board with excellent skills covering the health sector at both a regional and clinical level, strong strategic skills, very strong ties to our community and importantly to mana whenua, a very good understanding of health sector finances; and management experience," Mr Kircher said.
"In making these recent appointments, councillors and I are confident that we have a very good governance team to work alongside the hospital’s CEO, to take the hospital forward for the benefit of our Waitaki community."
Three new directors — Craig Wyatt, Sina Cotter-Tait and Jonathan Kay — have also been appointed to the Whitestone Contracting Ltd board.
