Seán Lucey has been on secondment from the Clonmel office to oversee the smooth transition and restructuring of Kentz South Africa's regional financial operations over the past 15 months.

At a farewell party on 12th September, Eoin Hurley, Africa Regional Manager, thanked Seán for all his assistance and support over the past year, as well as wishing him well on his return to his role in the Group Finance department. Eoin presented him with a book on South Africa as well as a South African rugby jersey – rugby is one of Seán's passions!

Staff and management alike from the South African offices will miss Seán's friendliness, his dancing ability and his company on Friday evenings in the “Corkonian” and they would like to wish him the best for the future, whatever it may hold.

Eoin Hurley and Seán Lucey saying their goodbyes

Gavin Fee, Electrical Site Engineer for Thiess Kentz based at Xstrata Zinc Zn Pb Concentrator Revamp Project, recently participated in the 20th Mine2Mine Half Marathon race in Mount Isa, Australia. Gavin triumphantly crossed the finish line in first place, in a time of 1 hour 22 minutes and 2 seconds, making headlines in the local community newspaper. The Mine2Mine race is a local event, organised by the Isa Rats Triathlon Club, and it attracts competitors and spectators from neighbouring communities.

Gavin also competed in the well-known Gold Coast Half Marathon on 7th July. Gavin came in 139th out of a starting pack of 1,000. Well done, Gavin, from all your Thiess Kentz supporters!
On front cover of local paper		Gavin crossing the finish line

L-R: Tom Dee, Gwen Gannon, Ronan O'Brien, Teresa O'Brien, Cathal Coffey and Kelly O'Shea
		Richie Power of Kilkenny and Ken McGrath of Waterford get ready to do battle

The blue-and-white army of Waterford was clearly outnumbering Teresa O'Brien, who seemed to be the only Kilkenny (The Cats) supporter in the office before the biggest day of the year on the hurling calendar. Waterford (The Déise) were represented by Kelly O'Shea, Cathal Coffey, Tom Dee, Gwen Gannon and Ronan O'Brien.

On match day, 7th September, the Cats were the favourites, having been in nine of the last 10 finals and winning five of them. The Déise had not featured in a final since 1963 and the last time they won was 1959. They were certainly the underdogs and seemed to give up without a fight even before throw-in. Kilkenny, undeniably, gave one of the most convincing performances the people will see in their lives and they annihilated Waterford from the first whistle, the final score being 3-30 to 1-13.

Congratulations to Teresa and Mike Naughton from Kilkenny who were cheering on their superb team. Commiserations to Tom, Kelly, Cathal, Gwen, Ronan, Catriona Nugent, Pat Leahy, Noel Kelly, Ed Power and all the other faithful Déise fans. “There's always next year!”

Group Four of the Executive Diploma in Leadership Management (EDipLM) completed their second workshop at the Arabian Courtyard Hotel in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 8th-12th October. It covered the essentials of project management and included special reference to the Kentz Project Management Manual. The workshop also included various presentations given by subject experts.
		Front row (L-R): Eric Sandelands, IMC; Brendan Smith, Thiess Kentz, Australia; Darren Ivers, Kentz Saudi Arabia; Steve Durant, Kentz Russia; and Brendan Toomey, Kentz Qatar. Back row (L-R): Vince Scurria, Kentz Canada; Ross O'Muirthile, Kentz Russia; Mark Preston, Thiess Kentz, Australia; Catriona Nugent, Kentz Corporate; Joe Golden, Kentz Qatar, Dominic Botha, Kentz Saudi Arabia; Dino Maltezakis, Kentz Qatar; and Shaji Balakrishnan Kentz Qatar.

The final day concluded with an assignment on Programme Management reflections and closure of the workshop. Our sincere thanks go to the presenters, as always, for their time and effort – without their help this workshop would not be possible.