Fletcher Building Ltd (“the Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Andrew Reding as Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director (Group CEO & MD). Mr Reding will commence as a Director on 22 August, and will assume the role of Group CEO & MD from 30 September.
Commenting on the appointment, Fletcher Building acting Chair Barbara Chapman said: “Following an extensive global search I am pleased to confirm Andrew Reding as Group CEO & MD of Fletcher Building, and a Director of Fletcher Building Industries Limited.
"The Board is pleased to have secured a Group CEO & MD of Andrew’s calibre, experience and respect in the market. His deep understanding of the sectors we operate in coupled with his knowledge of Fletcher Building make him the ideal executive to lead the Group at this time.
"Andrew is a highly experienced business leader who has held numerous key operational leadership roles in the construction materials and building products sectors over the past 35 years, including 11 years at Fletcher Building. He is an industry veteran who brings a unique combination of skills and experience, and a performance and values mindset.”
During his time at Fletcher Building, he held the roles of Chief Executive of Building Products and Steel from 2001 to 2006 and Managing Director of Fletcher Wood Panels from 1997 to 2001. Subsequent to this, his management career includes senior executive roles with Rank Group Ltd, where he was President and CEO of Evergreen Packaging Inc, a global business with US$1.7 billion revenue and CEO of Carter Holt Harvey Pulp, Paper & Packaging with more than NZ$2.3 billion revenue.
Mr Reding has also held several government industry advisory roles over the past decade as part of MBIE’s Productivity Partnership initiative. These roles included Chair of the Construction Systems Workgroup which was formed to address poor productivity in the construction industry, Chair of the Building Information Modelling Acceleration Committee and as a member of the Building Advisory Panel, responsible for advising MBIE on setting building standards and other initiatives.
Mr Reding has more recently been involved in seismic engineering, steel waste repurposing and clean tech start-ups, and is a long serving director and current Chair of the New Zealand Shareholders’ Association (NZSA). He will resign from his role as Chair of the NZSA and consider the time commitments required by his other ventures as he takes up this role.
Andrew Reding said, “I’m excited to return to Fletcher Building. My immediate priorities will be to understand and then optimise the operational performance across the businesses for the prevailing challenging market conditions, see that we are well positioned when those market conditions improve, and work towards closing out the well-known issues the company faces. I will also be undertaking a strategic review which I will announce to the market in the first half of next year.
“In discussions with the Board I have observed a group of dedicated, competent and hard-working people, passionate about the business and seeking to affect a positive turnaround to drive shareholder value. My job will be to translate our shared vision into strong results. Fletcher Building is a company with enormous potential and opportunities, staffed by excellent people and I’m energised by the opportunity to lead them.”
Barbara Chapman also paid tribute to Acting CEO Nick Traber, who has led the business over the past six months: “Nick has been instrumental in providing stability at a critical time, and the Board would like to thank him for his energy and leadership during this period and wish him and his family all the very best for their return to Switzerland.”
Authorised by: Haydn Wong, Company Secretary