Lend Lease chairman steps down

Lend Lease Corporation has announced today (Friday) that Jill Ker Conway has stepped down as chairman and director of Lend Lease, and non-executive director David Crawford has been appointed chairman.

Ker Conway had indicated earlier this year that she would discuss her retirement from the Lend Lease Board with fellow directors once the strategic review of the company's Real Estate Investments (REI) business had been completed. The review is now complete.

"Lend Lease has always been a great real estate company, and the difficulties we have experienced in execution of the global real estate investment management strategy over these past years are a great personal disappointment to me," said Ker Conway.

"We firmly believed in the opportunity to globalise Lend Lease's two businesses - real estate solutions and real estate investment management. While the real estate solutions business is in an extremely strong position because of that strategy, we have fallen well short of our objectives for real estate investments.

"Having completed the review and with the company in the capable hands of our new chief executive Greg Clarke it is the appropriate time to stand down," she said.

Incoming chairman Crawford said: "Jill invested a tremendous personal effort in chairing the Board during a very testing time, and we sincerely appreciate her contributions for that as well as over the past 11 years as a director."