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Austal Ltd is an Australian success story of international proportion that began right here in the Cockburn district.
Austal Ltd started its humble beginnings at Henderson, Western Australian in 1988. Armed with the vision of building commercial vessels for the international market, Austal went on to become a global leader in the design and construction of high speed aluminium vessels for commercial and defence application, with Bob Browning taking over the helm in August 2008.
Originating from the USA, Browning graduated from the San Diego State University with a Bachelor of Science in 1976, and went on to obtain a Master of Business Administration from the University of Phoenix and a Master of Science in International Business Management from the Sloan School of Management in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has held various leadership roles in USA-based organisations such as Coca-Cola and UtiliCorp United. In 2001 he was appointed CEO of Alinta Gas where he oversaw the implementations of strategies that in just six years led to Alinta going from a $320million company to a utility worth over $7.2billion.
In 2007, after serving 4 years as a Director of Austal, Browning was appointed CEO of the company’s USA operations in Cockburn’s sister city of Mobile, Alabama. In August 2008 he was appointed CEO and General Manager of Austral Ltd after the company’s founder, John Rothwell stood down from his executive duties. At the time of the handover Mr Rothwell stated, “Bob is the generation of guys who can take this company further than what I can; he has greater skills than me, which is fairly hard for me to say.”
And Browning has not waisted any time.
In 2009 Austal Ltd maintains its position at the forefront of the international market. Amid the challenges presented by the recent economic downturn, Austal has continued to move forward as a market leader and is currently undergoing a major expansion of its USA facilities to support two Navy ship-building programs.
Austal Ltd is the story of what
a local business can achieve with
direction, drive and determination.
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