Jemena has announced the appointment of its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) following an extensive six month global search.
David Gillespie – who is currently General Manager of Jemena’s Corporate Finance group – will commence as CFO from Monday, 7 August 2017.
His appointment comes after Jemena’s current CFO, Joanne Pearson, announced her retirement earlier this year.
Mr Gillespie is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Bachelor of Commerce and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Queensland. His experience includes six years at Deloitte in a variety of management roles and nine years as an Independent Member of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute’s Audit Finance and Risk Committee.
Mr Gillespie is also an Independent Director of the Victorian Clinical Genetics Service.
Throughout his twelve year career at Jemena Mr Gillespie has held a range of roles including General Manager of Corporate Finance Australia, Manager of Finance Strategy, and Risk and Internal Audit Manager.
In these roles Mr Gillespie has been responsible for:
- Leading and managing Jemena’s treasury function with a focus on front office management of key bank and capital market relationships and active treasury risk management
- Strategic investments on behalf of Jemena’s parent companies in Australian energy and utility companies including United Energy, ActewAGL distribution in the ACT, and Zinfra
- Directing the long-term financial strategy and planning process of Jemena’s $10.5 billion portfolio of regulated and non-regulated infrastructure assets.
Jemena Managing Director, Paul Adams, said Mr Gillespie brings strong industry and finance experience to the position having first joined Jemena in 2005 in the role of Risk and Internal Audit Manager.
“David has played a crucial role in supporting and leading Jemena through a number of high-profile business transactions, including Jemena’s successful bid for AGL’s infrastructure business in 2006. More recently, David was also the finance lead and a key team member in Jemena’s successful bid to build, own and operate the $800 million Northern Gas Pipeline,” Mr Adams said.
“I’m delighted that following a robust search process that an internal candidate has been appointed for this key role. David’s appointment is testament to the talent and skill of Jemena’s people and demonstrates our commitment to talent development and succession planning.”
Mr Adams also thanked Ms Pearson for her contribution to Jemena over the past seven years.
“Joanne has had a long and vibrant career in the energy industry and her insights and leadership will be sorely missed. We wish her the very best as she moves into retirement.”
Prior to joining Jemena, Mr Gillespie held consulting roles with Deloitte in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Ms Pearson will continue until Friday, 11 August 2017 to support the transition and handover process.
