Ahmed Fahour gets stamp of approval

AHMED Fahour has landed "a dream job", but it's not running one of the country's big banks.
The former chief executive of National Australia Bank's local operations, who missed out on the top job to Cameron Clyne, has been appointed chief executive of Australia Post.
And his move back to Melbourne from Bahrain, after less than four months heading up Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House, is so sudden that yesterday afternoon he still hadn't told his parents.
"The ink is just getting dry on the letter," he told the Herald Sun.
"I'm a bit jetlagged because I only flew in last week. But it's a massive honour for me. This is a truly iconic company. This is a dream job."
Mr Fahour left NAB in February to run the Australian Business Investment Partnership, a government scheme dubbed "RuddBank", which planned to support commercial banks as they refinanced commercial property loans.However, he was soon left without a job because the scheme was voted down by the Senate.
By the end of August, Mr Fahour had relocated to Bahrain but head-hunters were soon circling with the opportunity to succeed Graeme John, who ran Australia Post for 16 years.
It's believed Mr Fahour was also approached by Members Equity Bank earlier this year to potentially fill its still vacant CEO role.
Mr Fahour said yesterday that after completing the "first phase" of his 18-month contract with Gulf Finance -- including an organisational restructure and a $450 million capital raising -- the Australia Post opportunity made sense.
"We got those things done quickly and fortuitously because things haven't turned out in that market very well with the Dubai (debt) problem."
Mr Fahour, who will begin his new job on February 1, said Australia Post was one of the most successful post offices in the world in terms of its efficiency and low delivery prices.
He said the biggest challenge for the public company was how to move its traditional mail business "into the digital world" to compete with mobile phones, the internet and email.
Mr Fahour said yesterday he would focus on sealing international partnerships along the same line as the company's logistics joint venture with China Post, adding that his track record at NAB made him confident of striking an enterprise bargaining agreement with the company's 35,000 workers.
Postal workers in NSW and Queensland said yesterday that they would return to work today to deliver Christmas mail although a mass meeting and rally might still go ahead in Melbourne today.
Mr Fahour said yesterday that a government sell-off of Australia Post was not on his agenda.
And the former banker said he had no plans to expand the postal company's agency banking services.