By JAMES GARDINER
A woman credited with turning round ailing businesses has been put in charge of National Women's Hospital.
Cathy Handley, a 46-year-old former teacher who rose from sales work to senior management at London Bookshops, will take over as hospital general manager next month.
She is expected to oversee a move from Green Lane to premises being built alongside Auckland Hospital at Grafton.
Ms Handley is the acting chief executive of Stirling Sports and was previously executive director of Fletcher Challenge Steel.
She played a role in turning around Palmers Gardenworld's 23 stores, only to find herself sacked when the parent company, Maine Investments, collapsed spectacularly in 1997.
The receivers from KPMG dumped her as general manager when they took over, prompting an outpouring of anger from staff.
When Mitre 10 bought the Palmers business in March 1998, it put Ms Handley back in charge.
During her time as a bookselling executive, the then Whitcoulls owner, Graeme Hart, sent her to Melbourne to turn around Australia's largest bookseller, Angus and Robertson. In just two years, multimillion-dollar losses were replaced with profits.
National Women's, birthplace of 7500 babies a year, has been blighted by controversy and two inquiries into its treatment practices.
Although a public hospital, for a time it offered special maternity rooms with better service and facilities for women prepared to pay.
It is run by the country's largest district health board, Auckland.
Board chief executive Graeme Edmond said Ms Handley's record in organisational change and adapting to new environments made her ideally suited for the job.
Ms Handley said National Women's was a community icon deserving the very best future, and she would do anything she could to deliver that.
Business whiz chosen for hospital post
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.