TOI EDA Trustees Appointed

Three leading Eastern Bay people have been appointed as trustees to the TOI EDA Board. The new trustees bring with them a wealth of experience and skills spanning commercial, finance, governance and business development. The Trustees are Alan Cairns, Anthony (Tony) de Farias and Des Fermah.

Alan Cairns is a governance and financial management specialist experienced in international consultancy. He provides professional financial management and consulting services to government and commercial clients in New Zealand and overseas.

Alan has been involved in managing and developing financial systems for various local and international organisations. His international consulting experience includes roles with the World Bank, Deloitte, AusAID and several other organisations. He is a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Anthony (Tony) de Farias is currently a director of several companies in the Kiwifruit industry including Zespri. Tony has extensive commercial business and governance skills and for 17 years was the Managing Director of Seeka Kiwifruit industries Limited. Under his leadership Seeka grew to a highly successful company listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. Tony has also been involved with Priority 1 in Tauranga. Priority 1 is a regional economic development agency in Western Bay of Plenty.

Des Fermah is a well known Whakatane businessman who has been involved with economic development in the District as chairman of the Economic Development Board for at least 5 years. Des who has had a passion for business since his teenage years, has been involved in the development of several business activities including retail, property, farming and financial services.

Whakatane Mayor Colin Holmes, speaking on behalf of the Eastern Bay District Council Mayor’s says they were impressed with the quality of the applicants and had a difficult task in choosing these three.

“We were pleased with the level of interest in the positions and the quality of the applicants, which did not make our job of selecting trustees easy.”

The new appointees will attend their first formal meeting on Monday 28 April 2008.

Whakatane Mayor Colin Holmes says trustees to Toi-EDA board are appointed for their knowledge and proven skills in general business, financial, economic, entrepreneurial skills and vision for regional economic development.

Toi-EDA is the Eastern Bay of Plenty Regional Economic Development Agency set up by the three territorial authorities (Kawerau, Opotiki and Whakatane) and the regional Council Environment Bay of Plenty.