Showcase Jewellers CEO asked to stand aside
7.2 k views | Posted June 03, 2014 |
By Coleby Nicholson
Michael Mishevski, CEO Showcase Jewellers, has been asked to stand aside while an investigation is conducted into matters relating to the buying group’s operations.
In an email obtained by Jeweller, George Proszkowiec, chairman JIMACO, the operating company for Showcase Jewellers, has advised its key suppliers that the board has asked chief executive officer Michael Mishevski to stand aside on full pay while an investigation is conducted into “certain matters relating to JIMACO’s operations”.
The matter seems to have been precipitated by issues raised by the group’s external auditors, though Proszkowiec’s email emphasised, “that pending the results of the investigation, no adverse inferences should be drawn as to Michael's role, or indeed any other person’s role, in the matters under review”.
Proszkowiec says that his request to Mishevski to stand aside is, “in line with the Board’s commitment to good corporate governance and [is] following due process”.
The email goes on to state that Carson Webb will assume the role as acting CEO and Jorge Joaquim as company secretary, given that the investigation will take a number of weeks.
Jeweller contacted JIMACO directors Sam Coote and Terry Keoghan for further comment and clarification, but at the time of publication they had not responded to telephone calls.
Mishevski is also the finance director for the Jewellers Association of Australia (JAA) and sits on its 13-member board.
JAA president Selwyn Brandt said that he had only become aware of the issue this morning and “he would be raising the matter in due course with other senior [JAA] board members”.
Showcase Jewellers is Australia and New Zealand’s second largest buying group with 213 members – 185 Australia and 28 in New Zealand.