Entrepreneur Appointed to Chair Wedgelock Board

MEDIA RELEASE

Entrepreneur Appointed to Chair Wedgelock Board

Wellington, New Zealand, Tuesday 24 February, 2015: Globally recognized designer and supplier of excavator Quick Couplers, Wedgelock Equipment Ltd, has appointed Auckland business leader, Tenby Powell as Company Chairman.

Based in Wellington, the privately owned company established in 1994 has quietly and effectively gained a global reach as a provider of high quality Quick Couplers for heavy duty and often complex projects to the civil earthworks, general contracting and forestry industries.

Its range of extremely innovative, safe and reliable Quick Couplers is highly-sought in Australia, USA and Asia, through its distribution and licensing arrangements.

The company has developed a reputation as a world leading specialist in the design, manufacture and distribution of Quick Couplers for machines up to 125 tonnes and is now seeking to expand offshore as a New Zealand exporter of Intellectual Property (IP) through an outsourced manufacturing and license model.

Wedgelock Chief Executive, Matthew Calvert, says “Tenby’s entrepreneurial skill, flair and vision, with an equal ability to execute a plan, is a rare combination nowadays. Over many years he has achieved extensive commercial and governance experience, together with his hands-on leadership of growing Hirepool into a national market leader and his leadership of IP commercialization as Chair of Walkato Link.”

“Our strength is the expertise we have established in both domestic and international marketplaces. We have globally recognized technology based on IP developed in New Zealand. We are now ready to step-up our plans internationally through our licensing model which is very exciting.”

“Tenby is strong strategically and, with his vast network of business contacts in New Zealand and internationally, is the ideal person to help us accelerate and achieve our export aspirations.”

Powell, whose experience spans the private business sector, government entities, not-for-profit and Military has spent more than twenty years building a range of businesses through Hunter Powell Investment Partners, including NZ Rental Group Ltd and its cornerstone business Hirepool in 2003. Under his leadership the business grew from 14 to over 70 business units nationwide in six years, with increased revenues of 300% and increased profit of 120%.

Powell stepped down as CEO of the Group in 2009 with his company remaining the largest non-institutional shareholder. In late 2013 Hunter Powell bought into clean-tech business, Greenlane Biogas Technologies, with Powell stepping into the role of Chief Executive. Greenlane Biogas is the leading global developer and supplier of technology for upgrading biogas to renewable biomethane for use in natural gas pipelines and/or vehicle fuel. A year later he had negotiated the sale of Greenlane to UK public company, Pressure Technologies Plc.

Powell, New Zealand’s champion of Small Business to Government, founded the NZ SME Business Network in 2009 with the prime purpose of giving small-medium business owners a voice through a Network-of-Influence. As of February 2015 the network had grown to 7,000 members. As a consequence of his work on behalf of small business owners, all of which is pro bono, he was appointed by government to Chair the Small Business Development Group in December 2012.

Powell says, “I have known the Wedgelock team for a number of years and they are a great example of the journey from small business to global exporter of both product and IP.

“There are some exciting times ahead for the business, here in New Zealand and abroad, and I look forward to helping Wedgelock achieve their goals as a New Zealand exporter.”

ENDS

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