FORMER Northern Territory chief minister Adam Giles will stay on as acting chief executive officer for Hancock Agriculture and S.Kidman & Co, until at least the end of the year.

An international recruitment process that started in December has evidently failed to find a suitable candidate to fill the role permanently.

Adam Giles

Mr Giles has agreed to stay on until at least the end of the year in his current custodial role, which he has filled since the sudden departure of John McKillop back in October.

Mr Giles is well-liked within the operations and management ranks at Kidman/Hancock, for ‘making decisions and keeping things moving,’ as one employee told Beef Central.

Mr McKillop’s departure represented Hancock’s second chief executive loss in in 12 months. Mr McKillop started in the job almost exactly a year earlier, following the equally sudden and dramatic departure of his predecessor, David Larkin in July 2021. Mr McKillop elected not to extend his contract beyond his initial 12-month probation period.

Contrary to reports on the ABC today, Mr Giles has not been appointed to the position on a permanent basis. He acted as chief minister of the NT for a period between 2013 and 2016, and later  served as Hancock’s general manager of external relations for a period in 2017, before Mr Larkin’s appointment as CEO.

Russell Cavill

Also this week, Hancock/Kidman has appointed a new chief operating officer. Russell Cavill joins the business from his previous roles working for the past ten years – including the past six as chief executive – with corporate grain grower, Lawson Grains in Albury. He previously worked for ICM Agribusiness and Macquarie Group’s dairy operations

Earlier this week Hancock Ag confirmed Beef Central’s January story that it had sold four large Channel Country and Barkly district grazing properties to large scale family cattle operators.