Biz People

Akehurst gets bank position

Alinta Ltd chairman John Akehurst (below) has been appointed to the Reserve Bank of Australia's policy-setting board for five years.

Akehurst replaces Hugh Morgan, whose term ended on July 28, Treasurer Peter Costello said in a statement released in Canberra yesterday.

"I am confident Mr. Akehurst will contribute to the ongoing sound conduct of monetary policy," Costello said.

Akehurst, 58, is overseas and won't return to Australia until September 15, a spokeswoman for Alinta said.

Shareholders on August 15 approved the sale of the company, Australia's biggest power and gas transmission line owner, to Singapore Power Ltd and Babcock & Brown Ltd for A$7.7 billion ($6.3 billion).

Akehurst, born and educated in London, was Woodside Petroleum Ltd managing director from 1996 until 2003.

It was during Akehurst's stint at Woodside, which controls Australia's largest gas reserves, that Costello invoked national interest powers to block a bid by Royal Dutch/Shell Group, now known as Royal Dutch Shell Plc, for Woodside.

Andersen quits top Carlsberg job

Carlsberg A/S, the largest Nordic brewer, named Joergen Buhl Rasmussen as chief executive officer to succeed Nils Smedegaard Andersen (above right).

Buhl Rasmussen will start the job on October 1, the Valby, Denmark-based company said in a stock-exchange statement.

Andersen is leaving to become CEO of shipping company A.P. Moeller-Maersk after working at Carlsberg for more than two decades.

Andersen became head of Carlsberg's brewery business in 2001 and was named chief of the parent company in 2004.

Buhl Rasmussen joined the beermaker last year after having worked at Gillette, part of Procter & Gamble Co, since 1997.

Born in 1955, he has a BA in economics and business administration and an MBA from the Copenhagen School of Economics & Business Administration.

(China Daily 09/04/2007 page16)