Mark Beyer

SUPERANNUATION administration and consulting firm NSP Buck officially launched its new office and new name in Perth last week.

LAW firm Jackson McDonald is facing a mini partner exodus, with one partner having left recently and four more about to depart.

A SPATE of new contracts has provided a welcome boost for Perth company Environmental Solutions International.

IMAGINE spending $35 million on a new factory then asking the State Government for a handout so you can create a market for your product. Sound crazy? That is exactly what the ratepayer-funded Southern Metropolitan Regional Council has done.

WHILE many companies have completely outsourced their superannuation to master trusts and industry funds, others have chosen to keep their funds in-house.

THE world of local government may be slow moving but the direction it is heading is unmistakable.

A SURVEY of small and mid-sized tax practices has found a sharp increase in average working hours over the past three years, from 47.4 hours a week to 54.6 hours.

PLANS by UK banking group HBOS to move to 100 per cent ownership of BankWest have overshadowed another ‘takeover’ battle involving the bank.

Carmichael Capital Markets Pty Ltd, the corporate finance arm of stockbrokers D.J. Carmichael Pty Ltd, has named Robert Klug director of corporate finance.

THE two top positions at Home Building Society are due to change this year, with long-serving chairman Bernard Wright announcing that he would retire.

PAUL Wright is one of several winners in the Legal Elite 2003 survey who left work at a big national firm to establish his own practice. He formed Wright Legal in July 2000 after 17 years as a partner at Freehills and one of its predecessor firms

SPECIALISING in tax law was a logical move for Robert Sceales. Mr Sceales has been practising as a lawyer since 1971, originally in his native South Africa but for many years in Australia.

pSivida’s UK subsidiary pSiMedica has added to its team, appointing Texan professor Jeffrey Coffer as a collaborator. Professor Coffer’s professional background includes research into semiconductor nanocrystal synthesis, properties and characterization

MERGERS and Acquisitions was the most keenly contested category in the Legal Elite 2003 survey. Six lawyers attracted substantial support from across the industry and, at the end of counting, they were separated by only a handful of nominations.

Dr Ron Brunton has been appointed director of the Australian Broadcasting Association. Dr Brunton is currently director of Encompass Research Pty Ltd, an organisation involved in anthropological and socio-economic research. He has been a columnist for

In the third of a six-part series on corporate superannuation, Mark Beyer looks at industry funds.

Perth-based accounting firm RSM Bird Cameron has expanded its interstate operations by merging with Stockford’s audit and tax divisions in Melbourne. The merger will add 50 staff, including seven partners and two principals, to Bird Cameron’s existing

The Legal Elite survey was introduced by WA Business News to highlight and champion the State’s top legal practitioners, as Mark Beyer reports.

LEE Christensen’s professional fate was decided when he was articled to Ron Harmer, the guru of insolvency law, in 1982. Mr Christensen has never looked back from that point, specialising in

THE past year has provided a fresh change for Perth’s top property lawyer, KPMG Legal partner Ted Sharp. After more than 20 years with Freehills and its predecessor Parker & Parker, Mr Sharp chose to pursue new opportunities at a much smaller firm.

The RSPCA has appointed Kelly Oversby public relations coordinator. Ms Oversby has several years experience working in media liaison and public relations for the State Government and is a former editor for the Community Newspaper group.

CRIMINAL law runs through the veins of Robert Mazza, who has followed in the footsteps of his late father. Mr Mazza was articled with his father in the early 1980s and the two worked together for two decades, until Jim Mazza passed away in 1999.

WHEN former Andersen tax partner Keith Johns received his formal job offer from Ernst & Young last year, he saw that he had two choices.

FORMER Andersen audit partner Derek Parkin has racked up a couple of firsts since his old firm collapsed. Of Andersen’s 10 former Perth partners, he is the only one to have added the title of professor to his resume.

THE Australian Securities and Investments Commission has launched a survey of defined benefit superannuation schemes offered by company super funds.

A NEW alliance between BankWest and pharmacy wholesaler Australian Pharmaceutical Industries is the latest of several initiatives by the bank to penetrate the healthcare industry.

FAST-GROWING equipment finance company RentSmart has expanded offshore in a joint venture with BankWest’s parent Halifax Bank of Scotland.

IAIN Gerrard and Mike McNulty may have a new name on their business cards but in many respects their working lives have been unaffected by the collapse of Andersen.

One year on from the demise of Andersen, Mark Beyer spoke to former partners and staff to find how they survived and where they are now.

In the second of a six-part series on corporate superannuation, Mark Beyer looks at some of the issues employers need to address when reviewing their fund.

SHIPBUILDING company Austal has launched an innovative solution to one of the main corporate governance issues facing small and mid-cap listed companies.

THE report of the HIH Royal Commission has added to the debate over audit independence and accounting standards by recommending changes that go well beyond current reform proposals.