Henderson naval shipbuilder Austal has picked former Credit Suisse Australia boss Richard Gibb to join its board as a non-executive director.
Mr Gibb held the top job at Credit Suisse for five years until 2024 and is currently chair of the risk committee at big four bank ANZ. He joins Austal on June 2.
Announcing the appointment to the market on Friday, Paddy Gregg-led Austal said Mr Gibb had spent over 35 years in international finance and investment banking.
“Richard possesses important international finance, M&A and capital management skills,” Austal chair Richard Spencer said.
“When combined with existing board defence and manufacturing operations skillsets, he will provide important expertise to Austal as we expand our operations in the USA and our role in Australia.”
It comes just over two months after South Korean group Hanwha secured a 9.9 per cent major shareholding stake in Austal.
Hanwah is seeking approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board to build up its stake even further to 19.9 per cent, generally considered the Australian takeover threshold.
Speaking to The West Australian earlier this year, Hanwha Defence’s chief executive Michael Coulter did not rule out a future takeover of Austal.
