Former Premier Peter Gutwein has landed a plum job as a strategy advisor at Hobart ship builder Incat, the company announced on Thursday.
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Mr Gutwein, who left office in April, was Premier at a time when the government extended a $100 million loan to Incat to aid in the construction of a 120-metre catamaran.
He is the latest of a number of former government MPs who have moved into the corporate sector in recent months.
Sarah Courtney, the former Minister of Children, Youth, Disability Services and Education, who resigned in February, was this week appointed chair of East 33 Ltd, a NSW oyster producer, while former Minister for Parks, Police, Fire and Emergency Management, Jacquie Petrusma, who resigned in July, joined automation and artificial intelligence company Ausprime AI as chief operating officer in August.
Mr Gutwein said the loan to Incat was made nearly two years before his expected start date at the company in the new year.
"There was no conflict of interest because at the time, joining Incat, let alone leaving politics, was not in my thinking," he said.
"So the decision I made then was a decision based on the times we were in, and we provided support at a time, as with many businesses, COVID was ravaging supply chains and affecting orders," he said.
"So that decision then, I'm very proud of, as it has kept people employed at Incat and enabled them to get through."
Incat chairman Robert Clifford said he began speaking to Mr Gutwein about joining the company after his resignation in April.
He said Mr Gutwein, who was also Climate Change Minister and has a background as a financial planner, could supply needed skills in the coming years, when Incat is set to benefit from the transition of the world's shipping fleet from fossil fuel-based ships to ships powered by renewable energy, including battery-electric, hydrogen and methanol-based propulsion.
Incat will focus on electric boats, despite the state government's push to develop a local hydrogen and methanol industry, because of higher expected demand for short-range ferries, which will likely be powered by batteries in the future due to the cost of the alternatives, Mr Clifford said.
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