SkyCity appoints Julian Cook as chair as Auckland property reopens

Cook was elected as chair in a unanimous vote by the board on 22 November.

He previously held the position of CEO of Summerset Group Holdings Limited from 2014 to 2021. Prior to this he was Summerset’s CFO, where he oversaw SkyCity becoming a publicly listed company on the Australian and New Zealand stock exchanges.

Cook is set to replace Rob Campbell as chair on 1 January 2022, when Campbell steps down as director of the board to focus on other professional commitments.

“We have made significant progress over the past year to refresh the SkyCity board and I am delighted that Julian has been selected by the SkyCity board to lead SkyCity as the new chair from 1 January 2022,” said Campbell.

Currently, Cook is also chair of the board’s People and Culture Committee, and is also a member of the Audit and Risk Committee and Governance and Nominations Committee.

SkyCity also announced that its Auckland property will reopen from 2 December, the date from which the New Zealand government will implement the Covid-19 Protection Framework, a traffic light system that replaces the current alert level system.

That comes into force on 11:59pm on 2 December, with Auckland to be placed in “red”. This means masks will be mandatory, people are to work from home where possible and gatherings will be limited to 100 vaccinated people.

Covid-19 also affected SkyCity’s half-year 2021 results, with the company noting it was “materially impacted” by the closures of its land-based properties.

At the beginning of the month SkyCity mandated Covid-19 vaccine certificates for entry into all its properties across New Zealand, which applies to both customers and staff.