Change of chairman

Press, 13 July 1985, Page 3

Change of chairman

Mr Brooke McKenzie has stood down as chairman of the Pacifica Shipping Company, which he started and developed into one of the success stories of New Zealand coastal shipping. The new chairman of Pacifica is the Mayor of Dunedin, Mr Cliff Skeggs, who has wide business interests, particularly in the fishing industry. “Mr Skeggs kindly agreed to join us, which is delightful,” said Mr McKenzie. Pacifica, which successfully established a Lyttel-ton-Wellington freight ferry link with the Spirit of Free’ Enterprise more than two years ago, is embroiled in an industrial dispute with the waterfront unions which has resulted in its new vessel Spirit of Competition being laid up indefinitely at Lyttelton. Mr Skeggs, who has already assumed the role of chairman, said that one of his main aims would be to get the second ferry running. Mr McKenzie said yesterday that he had other business interests, and that he intended eventually to phase himself out of Pacifica. “My forte is setting things up, then, when they are up and running, to go on and set something else up,” he said.