Former NZTA boss to join 2 Cheap board

NZ Automotive Investments (NZAI) has announced Michael Stiassny has accepted an invitation to join its board to help fill vacancies created after four members resigned en masse last month.

The parent company of 2 Cheap Cars has also told the NZX that Julian Davidson, who was put forward to join the board in the wake of the shock resignations on July 19, has now withdrawn his consent to be nominated as a director.

NZAI provided updates on the board situation on August 4 following notification from David Sena, the company’s co-founder and major shareholder.

Sena says Stiassny and Gordon Shaw, whose nomination was announced in July, will join the board from August 21. They will then retire and stand for election at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting on August 25. 

Stiassny, pictured, is a former chairman of Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency and he left that role in April 2019 after completing only one year of his three-year term.

NZAI non-executive directors Charles Bolt, Tim Cook, Tracy Roswell and co-founder and executive director Eugene Williams announced they were quitting the board last month. Their resignations will take effect from August 20.

The quartet said there had been “a fundamental breakdown of trust and confidence and irreconcilable differences” between them and Sena over how best to run a publicly listed company.

Sena initially put forward nominations for three new directors– Jason Lewthwaite, Davidson and Shaw – but Lewthwaite withdrew his consent just days later.