PNG National Lands Top Safety Job at Anitua

PNG’s most successful landowner company, the Anitua Group, has appointed Eke Kendi as its Group General Manager, Safety Health Environment & Community (SHEC).
Anitua CEO John Gethin-Jones describes Kendi as “the perfect fit for the position given the similar role he held with subsidiary company NCS, PNG’s largest catering and camp management operation.”  Moreover Kendi is a long term Anitua employee, commencing with NCS in 2004 and holding various and significant safety roles including stints with other Group businesses such as Anitua Constructions.  “Eke’s safety expertise and qualifications combined with his thorough knowledge of the broader Anitua Group and its business partners, especially those in the extractives industry, sees him ideally positioned to hit the ground running and excel in his new role” expands Gethin-Jones.
Kendi says he is grateful for, and looking forward to, the challenges and job satisfaction his promotion will bring.  “Like NCS, Anitua has a very good safety record with excellent safety systems and dedicated and professional safety staff.  However, no business ever does safety perfectly so I’m looking forward to working with Anitua’s entire safety team on making what we do even better. At the end of the day, the buck stops with me when it comes to making sure that all of our nearly 3,000 employees, as well as those of our business partners go home safely.”
Ninety-seven percent of Anitua employees are PNG Nationals and Kendi is one of many who hold senior management roles.  His CEO Gethin-Jones stresses that employing, developing and promoting his National staff is not only the right thing for Anitua to do but it is the smart thing to do.  “It’s just not good business sense - in terms of finances, staff morale and community relations -  to be paying an expat to fill a role when we have equally, and sometimes even more capable, Nationals available.”
“Anitua’s ‘Nationals First’ employment practices help it stand out as an ‘employer of choice’ for Papua New Guineans” says Violet Aopi, the company’s most senior female employee and Group General Manager, HR for NCS.  Our catering and camp management company in particular has heavily invested in developing and promoting National staff into senior roles and we have a special emphasis on promoting women.“