Rod Harmon, Boom CEO to retire

Rod Harmon, CEO at Australian crane rental giant Boom Logistics, will retire on 30 June. Since he started at the company as CEO in 2002, annual revenue has risen to more than AUD $250 million (US$200 million) from about AUD$10 million (US$8 million). Also in that time Boom has acquired 21 crane rental companies across Australia.

Boom Logistics started in Perth with the joining together of three local companies with a total annual revenue of around AUD$10 million. For the 12 months to June 2006, annual operating revenue was AUD$258.3 million. In 2006 Boom was admitted to the ASX Top 200 companies. The Boom Logistics fleet now exceeds 500 cranes (the largest in the country) and more than 2,000 items of access equipment.

A major milestone was the company's flotation on the Australian Stock Exchange in October in 2003. With public company status, access to further fundraising opportunity was created allowing further acquisitions, which were financed internally with little use of borrowed funds. Major acquisitions were Sherrin Hire for AUD$130 million in 2005 and James Equipment for AUD$60 million in 2006.

Mark Lawrence, Boom's finance director, will take over as CEO on 30 June 2007. Lawrence has worked with Harmon since 2002. Other changes saw Brian Praetz, who until December 2006 was general manger of Boom's operations in WA, appointed chief operating officer in December 06 and Jim Carr was recently appointed general manager, business development.

The company indicated that it will continue with its growth strategy and with the “one stop shop” approach offering complete lifting and heavy logistics solutions.

John Robinson, Boom Logistics chairman, explained the situation. “Rod has done an outstanding job in his role as CEO. Boom has grown significantly under his direction and has become an industry leader in its field. Rod has created scale and value through the integration of 21 acquisitions since Boom's inception. The company today has a broad customer base across a range of industries and is the only national provider of lifting solutions. Under Rod's leadership our financial performance has been excellent and this has been reflected in both the absolute and relative performance of our share price.”