Meredith Staib replaces Nino Di Marco as boss of Royal Flying Doctors in Qld

AFTER 12 years in the cockpit, the boss of the Royal Flying Doctor Service is moving on. A replacement has been announced.

FLYING OUT

There’s change afoot at the top of the Royal Flying Doctor Service as it celebrates the 90th anniversary of its founding this year.

After 12 years of running the Queensland arm of the venerated operation, Nino Di Marco has called it a day.

The native Brisbane bizoid walked out the door for the final time as state CEO last week.

He is now looking forward to a bit of travel and continuing his work on the boards of a few small nonprofits focused on health and affordable housing.

Di Marco will also take up a director’s spot with the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Foundation later this month.

In case that wasn’t enough, there’s the small matter of welcoming to the world his fourth grandchild, who was due to be born yesterday.

Di Marco told City Beat that he left Royal Flying Doctors at a timely juncture following a restructure and development of a new medium-term road map for the organisation.

In a bid to ramp up efficiencies at the non-profit, Di Marco tapped the expertise of former Mater Hospital CEO Dr John O’Donnell and ex-Jetstar boss David Hall last year.

Once that consultation process wrapped up, worked turned to the drafting of a new five-year plan. That’s when he decided to cash in his chips.

“This is the right time. I’m ready to move on,’’ Di Marco said.

“I got to the stage where I didn’t want to commit to another five years.’’

Di Marco came to the job after working as professional jazz drummer in the US (yes, really) and a stint in banking back home.

Nino Di Marco has stepped down as CEO of Royal Flying Doctors in Queensland.

He said Royal Flying Doctors in Queensland was “very inward looking’’ when he took the helm in 2006.

“We now have turned that outward, building partnerships. The only way forward is to be part of a system. We also now have international best practice standards,’’ Di Marco said

He leaves the group in good shape, with $14.8 million raised in the 2017 financial year and a $7 million surplus.

GRABBING THE BATON

Grabbing the baton from Di Marco is Meredith Staib, who has spent more than 20 years in the health and insurance games.

Staib, a former nurse, bested more than 170 other applicants for the job and she starts next Monday.

Former nurse Meredith Staib will take over as CEO of the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

For the past two years she has toiled in Brisbane as CEO of Cover-More Group’s global medical and assistance business World Travel Protection.

Prior to that she spent five years as COO of Cover-More. Staib also runs her own consulting outfit and serves on the board of the Paris-based International Assistance Group.

In her new role at the Royal Flying Doctors, Staib will oversee nine bases, 400 employees and about $95 million in turnover.

She didn’t return a call seeking comment yesterday.

DIGGING AND DEALING

Dozens of Queensland mining figures have converged on Kalgoorlie for the start of this week’s Diggers and Dealers conference.

They are among 2300 industry players taking part in the annual WA gathering, which has achieved legendary status not least for all the wild partying which has played out over its 27-year history.

About a quarter of the near-record number of delegates are from east coast states, including the gangs from New Century Resources and Brisbane’s own Metro Mining.

New Century boss Patrick Walta addressed the crowd on Monday about the outlook for his projects, including this month’s restart of the Century zinc mine in far north Queensland.

Metro chief Simon Finnis takes the stage on the final day on Wednesday and is sure to weigh in on his flagship Bauxite Hills Mine outside Weipa which only kicked off production in April.