Board Members
Tony Fitzpatrick: Non-Executive Chairman
Steve Edgar: Chief Executive Officer
Rob Stockdale: Non-Executive Director
Mark Dutton: Non-Executive Director
Trudi Chesterton: Company Secretary
Tony Fitzpatrick, Non-Executive Chairman
Tony provides board level support to the CEO and Executive team maintaining, nurturing and growing strong working relationships with our key stakeholders. Tony has been a Director of Skill Hire and Regional Training Services since 1995. Tony has worked in the Employment and Training Industry since 1987 both in government instrumentalities and corporate entities. This has provided Tony with a broad knowledge of employment and training programs and how different funding arrangements can be used to better the lives of jobseekers and provide value for our industry clients. He was elected to take up the position of Managing Director with the creation of the Board in early 2009 and held this position until early 2011.
Steve Edgar, Chief Executive Officer
Steve was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Skill Hire in January 2011. Prior to his appointment he was an executive of WestNet Infrastructure Group. He previously held a commercial management role with WorleyParsons and spent 8 years in a variety of business development, commercial and management roles with Wesfarmers Ltd. Steve started his career in the oil and gas industry working in both the UK and Australia with J P Kenny. He holds an Honours degree in Mechanical Engineering (Heriot- Watt University) and a Masters of Business Administration (UWA).
Robert Stockdale, Non-Executive Director
Robert Stockdale was the founding Director of Regional Training Services in 1992 and joined Skill Hire as a founding Director, along with Tony Fitzpatrick, in 1995. Robert developed a business model with strong relationships with State and Federal Governments, providing training and education programs to disadvantaged groups in the employment and training sector. Robert’s knowledge in this area has been fundamental to the development of RTS and Skill Hire becoming a unique and diversified company. Robert has assumed a non-executive role on the Group’s Board of Directors.
Mark Dutton, Non-Executive Director
Mark is a Director of Banksia Capital and has over 20 years of business experience including 15 years in private equity. Prior to founding Banksia Capital Mark had been a partner at Navis Capital from 2005-2007 and prior to that a Director at Foundation Capital with responsibility for their later stage fund from 2003-2005. From 1994-2002 he worked at BancBoston Capital in Europe and Asia Pacific where he was Managing Director from 2001-2002. Mark also worked with Price Waterhouse in their Audit and Corporate Finance divisions in both the UK and Russia. Mark is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England & Wales and holds an MA in Management Studies and Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, England.
Trudi Chesterton, Company Secretary
Trudi joined Skill Hire as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary in January 2012. Trudi is a Chartered Accountant with extensive financial and commercial experience gained both in Australia and the UK. Throughout the last 10 years she has filled senior executive positions for businesses across several industries including recruitment and labour hire, mining services, and utilities. Trudi spent the first 7 years of her career at PricewaterhouseCoopers working in both the Audit and Forensic Accounting divisions in Australia and the UK. She is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia and holds a Masters of Business Administration (Deakin University) as well as a Bachelor of Commerce Degree (Australian National University).
