Yesterday Fletcher Building announced the immediate appointment of a new chief executive for its troubled construction unit.
Effective immediately, Michelle Kernahan will take over the helm of the construction business unit from Graham Darlow who will retire at the end of the financial year.
According to BusinessDesk, Fletcher began a review of the construction division last November and this week it cut group full-year profit guidance by $110 million because of losses at a major construction project and an impairment against expected losses at a second contract.
The company has overhauled its processes for bidding for work and seconded new managers into the construction business, says BusinessDesk.
It reports the contracts were being run by the building and interiors business, within the construction division.
Fletcher Building chief executive Mark Adamson says Kernahan is an outstanding leader who has held many GM positions across the Fletcher Building group, including Laminex Australia, Golden Bay Cement and Fletcher EQR where she led the team managing the rebuild efforts in Christchurch.
Kernahan has an MBA from Canterbury University and has graduated from leadership and management programmes at the Wharton Business School, Stanford University Graduate School of Business and most recently the Harvard Business School.
With more than 29-years of service at Fletcher, Darlow held the role of construction chief executive since November 2011.
He joined Fletcher Building in 1988 and during that time has worked on many landmark construction projects in New Zealand including New Zealand’s museum Te Papa, the Waterview Connection in Auckland.
In 2016 he was named Safeguard executive of the year for his leadership role in improving subcontractor safety.
