Appointment of Chief Executive Officer, SDHB

Friday 3 October 2008

Appointment of Chief Executive Officer, Southland District Health Board

Otago District Health Board Chairman, Richard Thomson, announced today that the Board had considered and approved, at its monthly meeting, a request from the Southland District Health Board to appoint Chief Executive Officer, Brian Rousseau, to the role of permanent Chief Executive Officer, Southland District Health Board, formalising the current interim position.

Mr Thomson said it was obvious the two Boards had been in discussion for some time around the appointment process. Mr Rousseau had been Acting Chief Executive Officer in Southland since last October and it had become apparent that one Chief Executive Officer acting across both Boards further enhanced the strong commitment of the two organisations to regional collaboration.

Southland District Health Board Chairman, Mr Dennis Cairns, said he was pleased an agreement had been reached and the appointment announced. We have been aware for some time of the concerns staff have had in Southland as to the future leadership of the District Health Board. Whilst this has been a protracted process, we were in uncharted waters appointing one Chief Executive Officer to two Boards and this required diligent consideration of the many issues and the structure required to support such an appointment. Mr Cairns said Brian had shown the leadership skills to further progress the closer relationship between the Southland and Otago Boards to ensure we continue to deliver services over these two widely and sparsely populated regions.

Mr Cairns stated, “the Southland Board was grateful to Brian for taking up the interim position last October and is very pleased he has agreed to accept what will clearly be a challenging role."

ENDS

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