19 March 2008
MAJOR changes in the structure of the National Association of Forest Industries (NAFI) have followed a NAFI board meeting on March 18.
Both the chairman Douglas Head and chief executive Catherine Murphy have stepped down from their positions.
Doug Pearce, currently executive director of the Forest Industries Federation of Western Australia, has been appointed chairman along with a new board of directors.
Pearce was a member of the WA Legislative Assembly from 1977 until 1993, and between 1983 and 1992 served as a minister with portfolios in education, planning, transport and the environment. He is a graduate of the University of Western Australia with a Bachelor of Arts in Education.
Catherine Murphy announced her decision “for family reasons”. Before joining NAFI as CEO in early 2005, Mrs Murphy, who has a Bachelor of Economics and a Bachelor of Law from the Australian National University, was a senior federal government adviser for several years.
From 1996 until 2002 she was senior adviser (legal) to the then Prime Minister John Howard, covering a wide range of portfolio responsibilities including legal and constitutional issues, native title, telecommunications and media broadcasting, the arts, indigenous affairs, and science and innovation.
Mrs Murphy assisted in the negotiation of the post-Wik native title framework, the Constitutional Convention, and the republic referendum, and in the development and implementation of the government’s key science and research agenda, Backing Australia’s Ability.
From 2002, Mrs Murphy was chief of staff to the then Minister for Education, Science and Training Brendan Nelson (now Opposition Leader), where she covered major reforms to the higher education sector, the national schooling system, and the vocational education and training system.
Mrs Murphy expressed her appreciation to the NAFI Board and particularly past presidents Greg McCormack and Douglas Head.
“I also want to express my sincere thanks to the people in the industry with whom I have had the pleasure of interacting with over the past three years,” she said. “I believe that the Australian forest industry has an exciting and positive future and I am grateful for the opportunity which has been provided to me in playing a leadership role in the industry over the past few years.
“I look forward to maintaining contact with those in the industry into the future.”
Mrs Murphy’s communications officer Greg Heraldson left NAFI in February to join the Master Builders Association in Victoria as media adviser.
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