Hobson Leavy is delighted to announce the appointment of Dame Alison Paterson to Chair of The Forestry Industry Safety Council.
Dame Alison is Independent Director of Vector Ltd and is currently also chair of BPAC New Zealand Limited, Abano Healthcare Limited, Farm iQ Limited, Stevenson Agriculture Limited, the Governing Board of the Centre of Research Excellence for Growth and Development (University of Auckland) and the Stakeholder Committee at Ambulance NZ. Alison has made several firsts as a woman – her achievements include being the first woman to receive QBE’s Chairperson of Year award, the first female president of a New Zealand Chamber of Commerce branch, the first woman to be appointed to a producer board – the Apple and Pear Marketing Board in 1976. And she was also the first woman appointed to the board of a New Zealand public company. For the past 30 years Alison has sat on the boards of some of the country’s most august organisations.
The Forest Industry Safety Council (FISC) was launched on Tuesday May 26th at a function at parliament. Its board includes representatives of forest owners, contractors, workers, unions and Worksafe New Zealand. Funding will come from the Forest Grower Levy and from government – ACC and Worksafe.
The purpose of the Council is to make forests safer places to work. Establishing the council was a key recommendation of the Independent Forestry Safety Review Panel that reviewed forest safety in 2014.
“We are proud to have someone of the calibre of Dame Alison as chair, as well as a board made up of all those who can influence safety on the forest floor,” says Paul Nicholls, president of the Forest Owners Association.
