Payne for Stockford board

Accounting and financial planning consolidatorStockfordhas filled one of the vacancies on its troubled board with the appointment of Dan Payne as non-executive director this week.

Payne will fill one of the holes left on the Stockford board after an upheaval that has resulted in all of the directors involved in the group in 2001-2002 either resigning or failing to stand for re-election.

Payne was previously managing director of financial services company Moneywise Personal Financial Management until its acquisition by Stockford in early 2001.

“The success or otherwise of Stockford revolves around the calibre of people delivering services and the organisation’s ability to communicate,” Payne says.

Former Stockford chief executive and managing director John Malouf, former chairman Brian Clayton, and former directors Richard Cawsey, Merran Kelsall and Lawrie Robertson have all left the group’s board over the last two months.

Adam Cowell has since been appointed as acting chief executive, and has also been joined on the board by Bill Bessemer, chair of Austchoice Financial Services.

Current Stockford chair Chris Riordan, who is Stockford’s third chairman in a year, says that board instability attributed to the group’s poor performance through 2001 and 2002.

Stockford reported an after tax loss of $123.8 million for the full year to June 30, 2002. The loss included a 104.5 million write down in the value of the group’s goodwill.