Elizabeth Hopkins has been appointed chief executive of listed research company Wool Equities, helping to stem the recent flow of women from the helm of New Zealand companies.
The past few months have seen the departure of Westpac boss Anne Sherry, Slingshot's Annette Presley and the announcement thatTelecom's Theresa Gattung will step down.
Hopkins' appointment comes six months after the somewhat hurried departure of former chief executive Mark O'Grady - since O'Grady left, chief financial officer James West has been acting chief executive.
Wool Equities is a technology investment company, with shareholdings in a range of companies, focused on the biotech sector and commercialisation of technologies derived from the pastoral sector.
Hopkins is currently chief executive of EnCoate, a joint venture between state-owned AgResearch and Ballance AgriNutrients.
Prior to coming to New Zealand in 2001, she was UK-based global project manager of early development at Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company.
Wool Equities chairman Andy Pearce said it was good to have a new CEO with experience in a large company, start-up ventures and capital raising.
O'Grady is now with Karios Holdings - majority owned by BioPacific Ventures, which has a significant stake in Wool Equities.
He left Wool Equities on the same day it was announced he had jointly purchased an option over 1.95 per cent of Wool Equities' shares with Bill Kermode of BioPacific Ventures.
Insider trading allegations - against O'Grady and former chairman Richard Bentley - were subsequently referred to the Securities Commission by the NZX in November.
Earlier this month, the commission announced it would take no action over the allegations.
But a group of disgruntled shareholders, unhappy with the company's direction, have been agitating for board representation.
Pearce said discussions were continuing.
The board was offering one seat, while the group wanted two.
Pearce was hopeful the issues of concern to the disaffected shareholders could be settled soon because "there's been a lot of distraction ... over the last four or five months". Hopkins' appointment would help the company make better progress with core business, he said.
