JO MITHEN has left the post of executive director of the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) to take up the role of general manager of business services in the Melbourne office of law firm Dibbs Abbott Stillman
JO MITHEN has left the post of executive director of the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI) to take up the role of general manager of business services in the Melbourne office of law firm Dibbs Abbott Stillman.
Mithen, a lawyer by training, took up the new job on 2 October and was a natural choice for the role, according to Peter Joyce, chairman of Dibbs Abbott Stillman in Melbourne.
“We think she’s got excellent experience in her background. She’s well qualified: she’s got a law degree, a commerce degree and an MBA. So she ‘knows her onions’, as they say in the classics,” he said.
“She came from the Australian Human Resources Institute as chief executive officer, which was a group that went through difficult times. She rescued it, pulled it together and then ran it very, very effectively for some time, and so she had great experience at working with people in a services-related industry.”
In another big change, AHRI will soon announce the new owner of its membership products and services arm, after an advertisement in the Financial Review called for registrations of interest in the sale during August.
After AHRI and Deakin University went their separate ways, the advertisement announced that the Institute’s operations were split into two organisations: AHRI Ltd, which represents the members, and The Australian Professional Association Services Company Pty Ltd (TAPAS Co), whose “role will be to provide all membership products and services to AHRI Ltd under an exclusive long-term contract”.
The advertisement said TAPAS Co will “support AHRI Ltd in developing education and conference programs, seminars, workshops, published content, research initiatives, communications and government relations. The current owner of TAPAs Co is interested in selling the rights to provide these products and services.” Registrations of interest closed in late August.
AHRI declined to comment further on both the departure of Mithen and the sale of TAPAS Co at the time of going to press.
It is not known if and when AHRI will appoint a replacement for Mithen, and the Institute has appointed an acting general manager in the interim.
A number of AHRI members have expressed concern about the lack of communication from the Institute. One longstanding member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, contacted Human Resources magazine to express their frustrations.
“We have no idea who will buy them. The membership have been told absolutely nothing – we’ve been left in the dark,” the source said.
“There’s no beating of drums. Most probably wouldn’t care, but it certainly is a strange way to communicate in yet another big transition.””
