Olivia Wirth, Gary Weiss to join Myer board in shake-up

afr.com:

Ari Mervis will succeed Myer chairwoman JoAnne Stephenson, who will retire from the department store board at the annual general meeting after seven years as a director and many prickly battles with major shareholder Solomon Lew.

Mr Mervis, a non-executive director, will take over after the November 9 AGM, when he stands for re-election, Myer said on Monday.

Ex-Murray Goulburn CEO Ari Mervis has been named the new Myer chairman. Luis Enrique Ascui

The board also nominated Olivia Wirth, the head of Qantas Loyalty, and well-known businessman and long time Premier Investments director, Gary Weiss, as independent non-executive directors.

Both have the support of Myer’s largest shareholder, Mr Lew’s Premier Investments, which controls almost 28.8 per cent of the company. The notice of meeting also outlined that the billionaire had not sought another board seat, despite his significant shareholding.

A Premier Investments spokeswoman said the group supported Myer’s efforts to refresh the board.

“Last year, Premier nominated Terry McCartney to the board, and we believe his retail credentials have been invaluable,” the spokeswoman said.

“With regard to the new proposed directors, we were pleased to note their strong property, commercial, consumer and loyalty credentials. We intend to vote in support of all proposed and existing directors standing for election to the board at Myer’s upcoming AGM.”

Olivia Wirth will bring a strong background in customer analytics to the board. Bloomberg

Dr Weiss has served on the boards of numerous companies, including The Straits Trading Co in Singapore and 24 years at Premier Investments; he is best known for his more than two decades at corporate raider Guinness Peat Group.

Dr Weiss is executive