South Port New Zealand names Nigel Gear new chief executive

South Port New Zealand names Nigel Gear new chief executive

By Rebecca Howard

Aug. 11 (BusinessDesk) - South Port New Zealand, the country's southernmost deep water port, has appointed long-serving manager Nigel Gear as the new chief executive from October.

Departing CEO Mark O'Connor, who has been at the port for 24 years, will officially hand over to Gear on Oct. 1 but will remain at the port until early November.

Gear is currently the port's commercial manager and has previously held management positions in operations, warehousing and finance in addition to earlier roles within the fuel and meat processing sectors. He has been at the company for 23 years.

Gear was selected after a recruitment process that attracted "strong interest from a number of very capable candidates," chairman Rex Chapman said in a statement. He noted that Gear "is already well known by our customers and has been part of a very successful management team operating during the company’s recent period of growth."

South Port first listed in July 1994 and since O'Connor became CEO in 2000 the shares have climbed more than 500 percent to trade recently at $5.71. They reached a record $6.19 in October last year. Profit was a record $8.7 million in the June 2016 year and in the first half of the current year, earnings climbed 54 percent to about $5.1 million.

(BusinessDesk)

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