A key board member of Skycity Entertainment Group has resigned, following the significant fire that occurred at the New Zealand International Convention Centre (NZICC) in Auckland last month.
Richard Didsbury was overseeing the construction project as chair of the board’s NZICC Committee.
The company confirmed in a statement Didsbury had tendered his resignation to avoid any conflict with his role as chair of the Northern Express Group, a private consortium.
Northern Express Group’s equity investors are the Accident Compensation Corporation and Public Infrastructure Partners II LP (managed by Morrison & Co PIP Limited), ACCIONA Concesiones and Fletcher Building Limited.
The SkyCity Board thanked Didsbury for his contribution toand said a search for a new non-executive director is underway.
Events forced to relocate
A number of large business events scheduled to take place at NZICC in 2021, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, have been forced to find alternate venues while SkyCity determines the length of delays to the project.
At a press conference during the NZICC fire, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed APEC 2021 will still go ahead in Auckland.
“New Zealand has hosted APEC before…without a convention centre,” she said. “We had contingency in place.”
