Qantas Group Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce announced today that, effective 31 October, Brett Johnson would retire after more than 17 years as the Group’s General Counsel.
“Brett has had a major impact on the success of Qantas and his sound advice to the Board and me has been invaluable over many years,” Mr Joyce said.
“We wish Brett well in the next stage of his career.”
Mr Johnson said he was sad to leave Qantas but was excited about the next phase of his career.
“Being General Counsel of this great Australian icon has been an honour and I have enjoyed working with all Qantas employees, particularly the great professionals within Qantas Legal,” Mr Johnson said.
Mr Joyce said he was delighted to announce the appointment of Andrew Finch to the position of General Counsel, effective 1 November 2012.
“Andrew joins Qantas from Allens where he has been a Partner since 2002, specialising in corporate law,” Mr Joyce said.
Mr Finch’s CV contains some of the most significant transactions for Allens’ major clients and he has worked on a number of major Qantas corporate transactions.
He has acted for Westpac when it bought Bank of Melbourne, OneSteel when it bought Smorgon Steel, Hutchison when it merged with Vodafone, for GPT in its response to proposals from Stockland and Lend Lease and the internalisation of its management to create its current structure, and Leighton Holdings on a variety of matters including the sale of the Henry Walker Elkin business and subsequent regulatory investigations.
Mr Johnson will assist with Mr Finch’s transition and will remain as a consultant with Qantas.