FRASER COAST APPOINTMENT OF NEW CEO @280K PER YEAR LISA DESMOND
Lisa our first female CEO
28th April 2011
New Fraser Coast Council CEO Lisa Desmond.
THE Fraser Coast Council’s first female CEO kicked up her four-inch heels yesterday as one of her most eagerly awaited days came to an end.
Former Director of Corporate Services Lisa Desmond, who has been acting chief since Andrew Brien packed up for Western Australia last year, was officially handed the top job in yesterday’s council meeting.
There were 56 applicants for the position, six of whom were short listed, but ever since the position was declared vacant Ms Desmond has been the hot favourite.
Still, the relief and joy was obvious on Ms Desmond’s face when mayor Mick Kruger re-opened the confidential section of the meeting and announced she had been the successful applicant.
When the meeting was over Ms Desmond was embraced by fellow directors Wayne Sweeney and Peter Smith and the 10 councillors present.
For almost 20 years Ms Desmond has been crunching numbers in council departments and has put together countless budgets.
While council officials have never been drawn on the exact salary the former CEO received, the position reportedly fetches about $280,000.
Ms Desmond said she was proud to be the first female to take on the role and hoped she would be a positive role model for young women in the region.
“It’s a privilege to be one of the few senior females in local government in Queensland,” Ms Desmond said.
“I hope I can live up to the expectations that go with that.”
Sourced from Fraser Coast Chronicle by Henry Sapiecha
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Comments to the editor of the FC chronicle
We hope that the number crunching by our newly appointed Fraser Coast Council CEO Lisa Desmond differs from days past as it did not work for this area as of late.
Are we in for more of the same or what is going to be so different.
What is she going to do that is going to change things?
Will she change things for the better prior to the next local election?
Councillors have been privy to Lisa’s arguement why she should be appointed but not us the public. So since they made the decision for us, they will have to answer to the public at the next local elections if Lisa Desmond does not deliver the goods before the election
If not , then the current councillors who supported this appointment will be facing the polls and the people.
Women are great people and they play a very important part in business & governments throughout all regions. One must however note that they now over dominate the FC councillor numbers in addition to this very important appointment.
Council records past decisions by women councillors have indictaed a support to increase development charges with male councillors voting against increase of developers charges.[One is told]
There are currently 7 female and 3 male FC councillors.
Is this appointment going to continue such an approach to increasing charges & squeezing dollars from developers already on the edge or moved out of the area.?
The shovel ready approach by council appears merely to be a band aid approach and has serious flaws, but sound in concept nevertheless.
The new CEO needs urgently to mean business when it comes to attracting developers back to the region as well as fast tracking applications, where jobs are at stake
What part was played in the past and or input had by the new CEO Lisa Desmond in the developers crisis that mushroomed here & is still here @ the Fraser Coast???
We elect our representatives carefully as the councillors should elect the CEO carefully.We all hope that this decision is the right one and wish her success working for the people who pay her and the Councillors. This appointment would not have been an easy task for the council, but it had to be done.
CONGRATULATIONS LISA & ALL THE BEST WITH YOUR NEW APPOINMENT
The persons from council on the appointment committe.Mick Kruger, Julie Arthur & Dave Dalgleish are competant persons and we all hope have made the right choice for the future prosperity of the region.
Our newly appointed CEO Lisa Desmond will certainly be under intense scrutiny during the following several months leading up to the next local elections.Was she just a safe bet for the councillors, better the devil you know etc., or did she present an outstanding arguement to the appointment committee
The voting public should be aware of the imbalance of sexes in council at the next local election perhaps or if happy maintain the staus quo.
The above comments are open for discussion generally and correction if information herein is deemed to be inaccurate or misleading
Fraser Coast Commerce & Industry Web site
CENTRO SHOPPING CENTRES DIRECTORS QUIZZED BY ASIC ON THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES
Centro case tests duty of directors
Hervey Bay has a Centro shopping centre
Leonie Wood
IT IS, perhaps, the most elementary aspect of financial analysis. Faced with a company balance sheet, the line item examined before all others is current liabilities: short-term debt, or what must be paid in the next year.
So it is a little difficult to understand how Centro directors in September 2007, applying their full faculties, overlooked this line when examining the property group’s final accounts.
The blunder became apparent later in 2007 when Centro faced a catastrophic loss of investor confidence after being forced to reveal it was struggling to refinance its loans. Eight Centro directors and officers are now defending allegations by the corporate regulator that they were negligent.
That the directors did overlook the item is not in dispute in the Federal Court. What is disputed is the extent to which directors are required to probe the company’s accounts or go behind what management and auditors tell them.
Justice John Middleton is being asked to consider if Centro directors were plainly negligent in their duties, as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission contends, or whether this case represents a reaching up by the corporate regulator for some ever-higher and impossibly perfect standard of care by directors, as the Centro directors claim.
Lawyers for Centro directors suggested that to raise issues already checked by management and auditors meant board members risked being ”laughed at effectively for making the blunder that a first-year accounting student wouldn’t”.
But ASIC argues the issue is not a difficult one. It’s fair to note that the spectre of Blind Freddy – he who would see the glaring error or obvious mistake, even if blind – has been raised many times.
What Centro directors missed was billions of dollars of debt. About $1.1 billion of loans, wrongly classified as long-term debt in the August preliminary accounts, surfaced as current liabilities in the September final accounts but directors apparently didn’t notice it.
It was several months before the errors of incorrect classifications were fully analysed at Centro, leading the group to discover another $2 billion of short-term debt and $US1.7 billion of guarantees, which had been approved after balance date and should have featured in a note to the accounts. What the non-executive directors and former chief executive Andrew Scott want the court to accept is that the board took reasonable steps to carry out its duties as best it could by putting in place processes designed to ensure that errors were not made.
They point out that Centro employed teams of accountants and finance staff, and it commissioned external auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers to examine the accounts.
It had a fully functioning audit committee, headed by non-executive Sam Kavourakis, and it did page-turn examinationsof financial statements and accounts.
The internal accountants and the auditors wrongly classified the debt and
failed to alert the board.
So to ASIC’s claim that the directors were negligent, the directors say: ”What more could be done?”
Indeed, counsel for the non-executive directors, Alan Archibald, QC, launched into full hyperbolic flight on this, claiming ASIC was seeking to impose an ”intolerable burden” on directors because, as he fashioned it, ”every single line, almost every single word and every single number has to be scrutinised by each director separately”.
”Boardrooms of Australia will empty overnight if this is the tenor and the rigour of the obligation to be imposed on them,” Mr Archibald argued. ”Nobody would expose themselves to those responsibilities.”
As Justice Middleton replied: ”That is the balance the court has to reach, isn’t it?”
What more could be done? ASIC contends there is a simple answer to that. The directors should have brought their own experience, their own curiosity, the cumulative wealth of their individual experiences to bear on the accounts, and – importantly – they should be looking for obvious mistakes. The kind that ”Blind Freddy” would see.
In other words, putting in place ”processes” is not enough. The directors should not leave themselves to be bare automatons, duly nodding when management presents them with accounts and then blithely signing the accounts because management and auditors say the statements are in order. They must engage their minds to carry out their individual fiduciary responsibilities.
ASIC’s argument, however, is not that directors must have a detailed understanding of every accounting standard.
The regulator instead is saying that directors should have a general knowledge of certain fundamental aspects of accounting and they should be asking questions that focus on those issues.
And in this particular case, the Centro directors had been informed via board packs about the short-term debt and the necessity to refinance. Leslie Glick, SC, for Mr Scott suggested that when the judge was weighing up whether Blind Freddy would have tripped across the debt, the fact that Centro’s auditors, its internal accountants and the chief financial officer also overlooked it ”has to go into the mix”.
ASIC would say that doesn’t matter. The regulator contends the Centro directors ”had to bring the knowledge that they had acquired over the period of their directorships and the material that they had been given in the process of reviewing”.
When the case resumes on May 2, all the directors will be called to give evidence and each one can be sure there will be much scrutiny of what he did in September 2007.
Sourced & published by Henry Sapiecha
ANZAC DAY SPIRIT INFUSES THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE
Anzac spirit is everywhere
Lest we forget
Henry Sapiecha
HERVEY BAY RUNNING A ‘SHOP HERVEY BAY’ CAMPAIGNE
Dear Members and Supporters, Become a ‘Shop Hervey Bay’ AmbassadorWhen residents support a local business, they are not just supporting the business owner, they support their suppliers, staff and help them to spend more money locally. Our family, our friends, our neighbours, every dollar spent helps our local economy. It also helps to create jobs and make Hervey Bay an attractive place to do business, and that helps everyone in our community. The Hervey Bay Independent, with the support of the Hervey Bay Chamber of Commerce, is launching the biggest citywide marketing campaign ever launched to rebuild consumer confidence and our vibrant business community and more importantly to spread a strong positive message. We invite you to become a part of this great initiative and take the pledge to support local business. Please download a registration form (click here) and a flyer (click here). Registrations close on Friday 29 April, 2011. Regards Bernard Whebell, Hervey Bay Chamber of Commerce Received & published by Henry Sapiecha
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LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION TO SPEAK AT HERVEY BAY QLD CHAMBER BREAKFAST
Hervey Bay & Maryborough
Chamber Breakfast
4 May, 2011
Speaker: Jeff Seeney, Leader of the Opposition
Shadow Minister for State Development
Shadow Minister for Infrastructure & Planning
Shadow Minister for Reconstruction
CLICK HERE to download biography
Topic: Small & Medium business in Regional Towns -
What actions and support will be forthcoming
from the LNP to enable them to survive and
prosper
The Hervey Bay Chamber of Commerce and the Maryborough Chamber of Commerce invites you to join them at their first joint breakfast for the 2011 year:
When: Wednesday, 4 May
Where: The Boat Club, Buccaneer Drive, Urangan
Time: 6.45am for a 7.00am start
Cost: $30 Members
$40 Non Members
RSVP: 3 May (10am)
Seats will be limited, so REGISTER NOW!
Pre registration and payment (by EFT or Credit Card) must be made prior to 10am, 3 May.
CLICK HERE to download registration form. Registration form must be faxed to 1300 886 993 or sent via email to admin@herveybaychamber.asn.au
Sharon Philp
Chamber Secretariat
E: admin@herveybaychamber.asn.au
Received & published by Henry Sapiecha
WHITE PAPERS FOR BUSINESS ADVICE & GUIDELEINES IN IMPROVING SERVICE AND MORE MONEY IN THE TILL
Customer Support
in a Mobile and Social Media World
February 24, 2011 by Richard Kaplan
A new survey from SupportIndustry.com reveals that mobile devices and social media are forcing a major paradigm shift in the customer support industry.* Why most support operations will adopt a mobile support strategy in 2011
* Directions for social media support
* The future of web chat as a support channel
To learn more about the speaker, Rich Gallagher, click here.
To be amused by more mash-up illustrations by Mike Licht, visit here.
Right-click the link and choose “Save As” to download.
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How Support Behaviors Are Changing for Mobile and Social Media Environments (PDF) |
You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed in order to view this PDF document. To download it, click here.
You might also be interested in the following research:
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Customer Service: A Keystone of Your Corporate Revenue Strategy (PDF)
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BUSINESS AWARDS FOR THE FRASER COAST EVENT
2011 Sprake Fraser Coast
Business Awards
presented in conjunction with your local
Chambers and Fraser Coast Chronicle
Download Business Awards flyer
For your chance to nominate a business in one of 12 categories, just click here and follow the prompts to enter the business details.
You can nominate as many businesses as many times as you like and go into the draw for a weekend away at Kingfisher Bay Resort.
Your gala event will take place on June 16 at Brolga Theatre, contact Amanda Houston on (07) 4120 1002 for further information.
Received & published by Henry Sapiecha
EXIT STRATEGY WHEN YOU WANT YOUR INVESTMENT BACK SAFELY.FREE BOOK HERE FROM EXPERT IN THE FIELD…
THIS MAY BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MONEY INVESTMENT BOOKS YOU WILL EVER NEED OR WANT
I WANT MY FREE STRATEGY EXIT EBOOK
Received & published by Henry Sapiecha
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING WORKSHOP @ THE FRASER COAST QLD
Dear Members and Supporters,
An invitation from Regional Development AustraliaHervey Bay / Maryborough Locations5 April, 2011CLICK HERE for more information and to RSVP TODAY “Regional Development Australia Fund – Funding Workshops” RDA Wide Bay Burnett will be conducting information workshops on the recently announced Regional Development Australia Fund (RDAF) and the Project Information Data Collection Form on the 5th, 6th and 7th April. Click on the link above for more information. The workshop is tomorrow afternoon in Hervey Bay and Maryborough. Received & published by Henry SAPIECHA
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