Thanks for this analysis Tiga. These are some good points you raise about the BoD here.
As a summary, lets take a look at who is on the BoD here, and what their background/compensation looks like currently.
Aldo Miccio Aldo is the co-founder of NZS and has had prior ventures with his own apparel company, which he sold, and was mayor and councillor of a local NZ town, Nelson. Aldo owns the highest personal investment in the company, taking on 54M Shares and owns 13.5M options (excercisable at 6c, expiring in 2023). He also takes a very modest salary, but his compensation relies heavily upon the success of the business through SP performance. Aldo's best interest lies within developing NZS into a juggernaut of marine based health product suppliers as fast and effectively as possible.
Andrew Peti
Andrew was confirmed as CEO of NZS in July of 2020. He has a strong background in New Zealand seafood sales, where he worked as Operations Manager at Ngai Tahu Seafoods for 8 years and has been in the industry for 14 years. Mr Peti is currently on a $150,000 salary, and will be issued $50,000 worth of performance rights come July 2021, in the case that NZS are able to hit cash flow positivity in 3 consecutive months. It is important that Andrew has reason enough to want to develop the company to be as strong as possible, and whilst $50,000 is a strong incentive, I would absolutely endorse the issue of further performance rights and options for our CEO.
Winton Willesee
Winton is a non-Executive Director and Chairman of NZS, he is a corporate professional with prior experience in ASX listed companies and is also currently on the board of the following companies: Nanollose Limited (ASX: NC6), MMJ Group Holdings Limited (ASX: MMJ), Neurotech International Limited (ASX: NTI) and Esense-Lab Limited (ASX: ESE). He currently owns 1.2M shares and owns the rights to 100,000 options, expiring July 2022. Winton received a $59,000 salary for his time on the BoD.
Based on this, Winton has been welcomed as part of the board in order to provide a level of experience and expertise given the fact that NZS is publicly listed and management have minimal experience in running a public company. This is perfectly fine given NZS is a small and growing company, however, given the botched Capital Raise last month and further mentions of introducing directors with more experience in the industry and in ASX listed companies, this is telling me that Winton may not be be instilling as much wisdom as might've been expected. Winton currently doesn't have huge incentive for the companies SP to grow, and doesn't own too many more shares than most of us confident retail investors.
Unless someone is able to convince me otherwise, I will probably vote against the issuance of Performance Rights to Winton.
Erlyn Dale
Erlyn is an experienced professional and doubles as the company Secretary. She has been involved with several public company listings, M&A transactions and capital raisings for ASX-listed companies. Miss Dale began her career in corporate recovery and restructuring at Ferrier Hodgson and is now the Managing Director of corporate services firm, Azalea Consulting, which provides outsourced company secretarial, accounting and administration services. She owns the rights to 8M Options, exercisable at 6c in Feb 2023. Erlyn received a $50,000 salary for her time as a Director.
Jourdan Thompson
Mr Thompson is a non-executive Director of NZS and is currently the Chief Financial Executive of Keytone Dairy Corporation Limited (ASX: KTD). In addition, Jourdan has over 15 years’ industry experience in investment banking, finance and restructuring both in Australia and Europe. Jourdan has spent the last 10 years in investment banking, working most recently for Greenhill & Co. as a director. He owns the rights to 8M Options, exercisable at 6c in Feb 2023. Jourdan receives a $50,000 salary for his time as a Director.
Make of this what you will. It is very important for a growing company to have strong incentives for management to grow and develop the business. However, it is of even more importance to have the right people there in the first place.
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