UPDATED: Commander appoints new CFOFormer Orion financial chief...

UPDATED: Commander appoints new CFO
Former Orion financial chief to replace interim CFO, Peter Housden
Nadia Cameron 16 April, 2008 14:12:27

ASX-listed Commander has appointed Dwayne Jahnke as its new chief financial officer, effective today. He replaces interim CEO, Peter Housden, who will stay with the company until May 31.

Jahnke was formerly the chief financial officer of Orion Telecommunications, the same company Commander's CEO and managing director, Amanda Lacaze, was previously executive chairman of.

In a statement, Commander said Jahnke has 14 years experience in the accounting, financial and commercial markets in Australia and the US with a focus on the telecommunications and assurance services sectors. Lacaze said Jahnke was a strong CFO with high-quality credentials who understood business at a detailed level. He takes the reins from Housden, who was Housden was brought on in January to assist Commander manage its debts and recapitalisation plans. Lacaze said Housden had always planned to depart on May 31.

"Peter has been a terrific, steady hand. We've had a huge volume of work to complete in the financial area," she said. "We've had the asset sales, getting the half-yearly results across the line and working with financiers. There's also been a lot of work on our internal processes and capabilities.

"Some of these things are coming to closure and we'll hopefully finish the asset sales sell-off in the next few months, which means we won't need as much senior capability as we have done."

Assets sold to date include integration subsidiary, Nexon, and wholesale network business, Unitel.

Lacaze agreed that while Commander has made significant steps in terms of managing debt and instigating a business turnaround, its capitalisation still wasn't up to scratch. However, she argued the share price didn't reflect its ability to run the business successfully.

"We have developed a plan for what we plan to do as a business. Each time we've shown evidence of what we said we would do and each time improved confidence a little bit more," she said. "Commander's share price over the previously 18 months has not necessarily been a great one in terms of doing what we said."

Commander's shares were trading at $0.185 at time of press