The country's biggest construction company has confirmed that its chief people and communications officer is stepping down in order to take up a similar role at the Bank of New Zealand.
Kate Daly – who has been with Fletcher Building since 2011 – is set to join the major bank as the director of people and communications.
Francisco Irazusta, interim chief executive for Fletcher, praised Daly’s contributions and said she has built a strong HR function focused on leadership, talent, diversity and capability.
"The leadership and diversity programmes developed under her leadership have been recognised both internationally and domestically,” added Irazusta.
Anthony Healy, CEO of BNZ, also praised Daly’s work and said she would be bringing a wealth of experience and a superb skillset to the bank.
“She is well placed to drive the team to attract and retain the very best people, enabling us to deliver on our ambitious business and reputational goals,” he said. “To have someone of her calibre join our team is very exciting.”
Prior to this role, Daly spent seven years at Coca-Cola Amatil and has also held senior roles at Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch while based in London.
“It’s been invigorating hearing about what BNZ is doing as it moves into a new age of banking and I am looking forward to being involved, and contributing what I can to the bank’s culture and success,” said Daly.
HRD also contacted Fletcher in an effort to find out who would be replacing Daly but a spokesperson for the firm declined to comment.
“We don’t have anything more to share on next steps for recruitment just yet,” she said.
In a 2016 interview with HRD, Daly discussed a number of major industry challenges and said many professionals were still battling against an outdated stereotype of HR.
Her advice to combat the misconception was to get involved with the every aspect of the business and become fully immersed in organisational operations.
“Spend a lot of time within your organisation, out in your organisation, understanding how your business works, understanding what it’s like on the shop floor right up to the highest level you can,” she urged.
“Also, make sure you’ve got good financial grounding so you understand what a profit and loss looks like, understand how a balance sheet works, what’s important and how you can put initiatives in place that help the business and improve the balance sheet or drive top line growth.”
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