Sorry to put down the story in Crikey yesterday but your very best
mates at Gunns Ltd are mostly still working through their
apprenticeship. You should have a look at GWA
International,
the Brisbane-based manufacturers who dominate the toilet market, which
has six non-executive directors (NEDs) with a combined 122 years
service on the board! How’s this for a roll call:


Barry Thornton: 31 years, chairman and former CEO, joined in 1974 as Finance Director

Jim Kennedy: 13
years NED

David
Barry : 26
years NED, joined GWA as a director in 1979 and
“has had 36 year involvement with company”

Robert Anderson: 26
years a director since 1979, having joined the
company in 1955

Martin Kriewaldt : 13
years NED

Geoff McGrath 13
years NED, former CEO from 1992-2003 and first joined group in
1982

That’s a total of 122
years with an average tenure of 20.33 years each!

Meanwhile, a veteran investor writes:

I like the idea of a master list of long serving NEDs, try these for starters:


Argo Investments: John
Paterson, 1969

Brickworks: Alan
Bentley, 1984

Soul Pattinson: Robert Millner, 1984


Milton Corporation: John
Church, 1986


Harvey Norman: Chris Brown, 1987

Stephen Mayne writes:

This will be a great list. Let’s have a $500 million cut-off in terms
of market capitalisation and track everyone who has been a NED of the
same company from before 1995. Here are a few more to kick things along
and please send your entries to smayne@crikey.com.au:


Meredith Hellicar: James Hardie chairman and director since 1992

Nick Greiner: QBE Insurance, September 1992

Brian Finn: Axa Asia Pacific, 1992

Mike Codd: Qantas, 1992

Elizabeth Alexander: Amcor, 1994

Adrienne Clarke: Woolworths, July 1994

David Crawford: BHP, 1994

Judith Sloan: Santos, September 1994

Dean Wills: Westfield, 1994

Trevor Eastwood: Wesfarmers chairman and director since 1994

Barbara Ward: CBA, 1994

Michael Robinson: Tabcorp chairman since 1994

Peter Wade: Tabcorp, 1994