Rory Kennard joins Kennards Hire Board

Kennards Hire is pleased to announce the appointment of Rory Kennard to its board as a non-executive director.

Rory has over 20 years’ experience in industrial design and innovation. After graduating from UNSW with a degree in mechanical engineering, he set up his own industrial design business and, in 2004, following his initial success in this field; he co-founded Makinex (previously Work Smart Equipment) with business partner, Paul Weaver. Today the construction product manufacturer has a global footprint in 14 countries.

Rory has shown that innovation is key in successfully penetrating local and global markets, with Makinex’s powered hand truck, the ‘One Lift’, having won the 2016 Safe Work Australia Award for Good Design, as well as a number of other international awards. Replacing the need for a forklift in many situations, the use of the powered hand truck has shown to reduce back and shoulder injuries in the workplace. His hands-on approach continues to facilitate the creation and construction of products that enable people to work safer and build processes to improve efficiency.

“Having worked closely with the Kennards Hire business over the past two decades, I’m delighted to be joining the board in an official capacity.”

“My grandfather was an inventor so my love of tinkering around and finding new solutions to safety and efficiency challenges comes naturally. With ever more opportunities for strong innovations to meet time, safety and environmental goals, I’m looking forward to lending even more support to the family business,” said Rory.

Announcing Rory’s appointment, Chairman, Brendan Fleiter, said, “The family, board and I are excited to welcome Rory to the Kennards Hire board. He has extensive industry experience, not only within the hire industry, but also in innovation and product efficiencies across multiple, global industries. As the equipment and construction industries look for ever more time and resource efficient solutions, Rory’s expertise is a perfect complement to Kennards Hire’s growth in this space.”

Brendan said Rory’s experience in the conceptual design, development and rollout-out of equipment and tools that focus on safety and efficiency are exactly what the industry needs now and builds on the hire equipment company’s position as an industry leader.

Rory’s appointment expands the privately owned family business board to eight directors.