Leadership role for Singleton

Former Austal boss David Singleton has been appointed managing director at Austin Engineering after acting in the position since June.

Mr Singleton joined the board of Austin in 2019, and in May it was announced that he would assume the role of leading the company on an interim basis from after former managing director Peter Forsyth resigned.

Most recently, Mr Singleton led Austal for four years, during which he oversaw operations in Australia, the United States, the Philippines and Vietnam.

Before joining the shipbuilder, he was the chief executive of Poseidon Nickel and construction consultancy Clough.

He spent most of his early career in the defence industry in design, heavy manufacturing, customer support and international sales.

Mr Singleton held roles abroad before moving to Perth in the early 2000s, including as global head of strategy and M&A for Bae Systems in London, chief executive of Alenia Marconi Systems in Rome and roles

Austin chair Jim Walker said Mr Singleton brought a relevant skillset to Austin as it embarked on a strategic review to assist the company’s growth.

“He has both corporate and operational skills and has already made a strong contribution to the company through his role as non-executive director,” Mr Walker said.

In a statement to the ASX, Austin said Mr Singleton would be remunerated with a package heavily weighted towards growing the company’s share price.

It said his base pay, at $250,000 per year, would be half of that of his predecessor.

He will be offered a total package of 42,900,00 options which will be excisable when the company’s share price reaches certain milestones.

None of these will be excisable until the share price reaches at least 20 cents.   

Shares in Austin were up 7 per cent to 15 cents each at 11am AWST.