Austal’s Rothwell steps down PERTH-BASED shipbuilder Austal Ltd’s executive chairman John Rothwell will step down from his executive role but will continue as chairman, while its US-based chief executive, former Alinta chief Bob Browning (pictured), will become managing director of the group. Mr Browning will remain in Alabama, but is expected to spend a considerable period of time each year working in Australia. These changes follow the departure of chief operating officer Steve Murdoch, who joined Cape PLC earlier this month. Clough chairman joins Downer EDI Clough Ltd chairman Michael Harding has been appointed as a non-executive director of fellow engineering company Downer EDI Ltd. Mr Harding is a non-executive director of Santos Ltd and ARC Energy Ltd. He will be joined by Annabelle Chaplain, who is the chairman of the Queensland Bulk Water Supply Authority and Honeycombes Property Group, and is a non-executive director of Cannex (Aust), George Street Finance and the Australian Youth Orchestra. New managing director at 303 ADVERTISING firm 303 Group has appointed director Alan Taylor as managing director of 303 Perth. Mr Taylor joined 303 in 2002 as a director and holds over 20 years’ industry experience. Smith new UWA faculty head DAVID Smith has been appointed to lead the University of Western Australia’s faculty of engineering, computing and mathematics. Professor Smith is currently associate dean of the school of engineering at Melbourne University. Prior to this, he served as associate dean at the University of Newcastle and as head of department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Melbourne.
