National freight and logistics company Northline has recruited Sue Edwards, a partner from global consulting firm Deloitte, as its new Chief Financial Officer to chart its next phase of growth.

Ms. Edwards, who worked with Northline as an external business advisor for most of her 11 years with Deloitte, has seen the company nearly double in revenue and dramatically expand its national reach. Before joining Deloitte, the chartered accountant had spent a decade at the Hindmarsh Adelaide Building Society, which evolved into Adelaide Bank in 1994.

As CFO at Northline, Ms. Edwards works alongside CEO Craige Whitton, who held the CFO reins until late 2008. She has direct responsibility for financial management as well as the Human Resources and Information & Communication Technology areas.

Ms. Edwards said she had accepted the CFO role as a new professional challenge. “You reach a point in your life when you need a change,” she said.

“Northline was a client of mine for most of my 11 years at Deloitte. This is a new challenge and it brings together my banking and financial skills from the building society with my business advisory skills.

“I’ve worked with Craige in an external advisory role at Northline, which was a great experience, but when you’re an advisor, it’s not your business, it’s their business. The chance to be much more hands-on involved in the opportunity of running the business really did excite me.

“Also Northline is a great team to work with. For me to go to an organisation, it has to have a culture of caring about its people. The fact I’ve observed that behaviour in the team here made me very comfortable with the decision to join Northline.”

Northline is an Australian logistics company that specialises in servicing remote locations throughout the country. The privately-owned business, which employs about 400 people, provides freight, warehousing, international freight services and undertakes special projects throughout Australia.

Ms. Edwards said Northline was well-positioned for growth during the coming year, especially through its ability to support resources and infrastructure development in northern and North West Australia. “The business is very clear about what it is good at,” she said.

“It has opportunities to grow bigger than what it is but remain true to its integrity. It is very good in the Top End and North West, so it is well positioned to support the developing resources and infrastructure boom in those regions. There are international opportunities as well.

“Northline’s national network of long-haul freight services and fully integrated distribution centres provides a terrific value-adding infrastructure for our customers.”

To learn more about Northline, visit www.northline.com.au.

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