Left to right: Kim Nixon, CEO Keith Vincent, Carli Flemmer & Russel Friedman
Wilderness Holdings has named Keith Vincent as its Chief Executive Officer following an extensive search at the Botswana Stock Exchange and JSE listed tourism and conservation group. Vincent, who has been the acting CEO, replaces the departed Andy Payne.
“The Board of Directors of Wilderness Holdings Limited is pleased to announce that, following a search process which considered both internal and external candidates, it has appointed Keith Vincent in the position of Chief Executive Officer with immediate effect,” said Wilderness Holdings board headed by a Botswana national, Parks Tafa.
Keith has been acting CEO for the last five months, having previously served for six years as Chief Operating Officer.
“He has been with the Group for a total of 20 years and brings to the position a wealth of knowledge of both the Group’s operations and the safari industry in general. We know that he will pursue this position with his customary enthusiasm and vigour and look forward to the positive impact that this will have on the Group’s operations and results.”
The departure of Payne and board changes are still not clearly explained, but the company said it followed the agreement to realign the board. “This was done in order to improve our operations as well as to build further executive capacity and support our operations in Botswana. Under the new arrangement, Andy Payne will step down as director of the board and chief executive officer. He will complete certain projects, in a defined period of time, prior to his departure,” Wilderness Holdings said at the time.
Vincent said with good people, he can achieve anything and said he was extremely proud of the remarkable people who have grown the company to where it is today. “It is now time to have some fun and to continue making a difference. I have one major goal for our business and that is to make sure that our unique, financially viable model of non-consumptive ecotourism land use continues to generate benefits for the people and wildlife in the areas that we already look after and those in which we might be present in the future. I’ve been enormously proud of what we have achieved over the last 30 years and want to ensure that we continue to build on this”, said Keith.
Keith will be based at the Group’s Gaborone office in Botswana – the country in which it was founded in 1983 and where it listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange in 2010.
