FHL chair, board members resign
FIJIAN Holdings Ltd board chairman Adrian Sofield remains tight-lipped about why he resigned from his position.
FHL announced Mr Sofield’s resignation in a press release posted on the South Pacific Stock Exchange on Saturday evening.
He resigned alongside two other directors of FHL — Nadi businessman Sanjit Patel and Ratu Aisea Waka Vosailagi.
In an interview with this newspaper yesterday, Mr Sofield said his resignation was effective fromDecember 31, and in the best interest of everyone, he said he would not comment on the reason of his
resignation.
“I don’t know because I was given no reason to resign,” he said after being questioned if his resignation was linked to the recent resignation of a former executive of the FHL Group following
allegations of sexual harassment.
Mr Sofield was first appointed to the FHL board in October 2016 as a director.
Mr Patel said he resigned because of personal reasons.
“It’s just personal reason,” said Mr Patel.
“Nah nah nothing, just personal reasons. I have just decided to resign,” he said when asked if his resignation was associated with the resignation of the former executive of the FHL Group.
Mr Patel was appointed to the FHL board in October 2016 as director representing B class shareholders.
Together with being a FHL board member, Mr Patel was chairman of Merchant Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of FHL.
Meanwhile, Ratu Aisea told The Fiji Times he had submitted his resignation to FHL in October.
“I would like to state for the record that my resignation is in no way associated with the stepping down of Mr Fareed as CEO of FHL,” he said.
“I tendered my resignation in October for personal reasons, following a health check.
This was made official when it was tabled at the December FHL board meeting.”