Austal appoints Richard Gibb as new non-executive director

A SECOND Forrest family board member has been appointed to shipbuilder Austal’s board as the battle for control of the company heats up again.

The appointment of former Credit Suisse CEO, Richard Gibb, as a non-executive director, along with existing board member Brent Cubis are both nominees of substantial shareholder, Tattarang Ventures Pty Ltd.

The appointment comes after South Korea’s Hanwha Group took a 9.9% stake in Austal and made a subsequent application to the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board to lift its shareholding in Austal to 19.9%.

Mr Gibb has spent more than 35 years in international finance and investment banking, and currently sits on the Board of ANZ Group Holdings where he Chairs the Risk Committee and he served as the CEO of Credit Suisse Australia for five years to 2024.

Prior to that he worked in a variety of positions at Deutsche Bank including co-head of corporate finance, Asia Pacific in Hong Kong; co-head of Global Financial Institutions in New York; and chief operating officer, Global Banking in London. He has also held positions at Merrill Lynch and Bankers Trust in the United States and Asia Pacific.

“Richard possesses important international finance, M&A and capital management skills. When combined with existing board defence and manufacturing operations skillsets, he will provide important expertise to Austal as we expand our operations in the USA and our role in Australia,” Austal chairman Richard Spencer said.

“Following the departure of Sarah Adam-Gedge the Board is also considering recruiting a further non-executive director with strong manufacturing, delivery and contracting experience – this would bring the Board to a size a skillset commensurate with Austal’s growth, complexity and strategies.”

Mr Gibb will commence his role on 2 June 2025.