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Edward H. O’Brien Enterprises Pty. Limited ABN 41 004 245 569

Edward H O’Brien was the founder of the directory advertising sales industry in Australia. Since 1924 Edward H O’Brien Pty Ltd were uninterrupted contractors to Telstra for advertising sales, and later for pre-press operations, of Yellow Pages telephone directories. From 1991 until recently O'Briens were joint venturers with Telstra for the end-to-end print directory, intErnet and a wide range of other new media services provided by Sensis Pty Ltd (previously Pacific Access Pty Ltd). Telstra elected to buy out the O’Brien equity, thus completing their 100% ownership of Sensis.

In early 2011 the Directors of Edward H O’Brien Industries Pty Ltd, the then parent company of Edward H O’Brien Enterprises Pty Ltd, determined that it was appropriate for The O’Brien Group of Companies to divest its various assets and operations and distribute surplus funds so shareholders could take their own investment direction.

Edward H O’Brien Enterprises Pty Ltd owned minority equity in the directory operations of Papua New Guinea and Fiji. A consortium was formed to purchase Edward H O’Brien Enterprises Pty Ltd so their services could continue to support directory operations in PNG, Fiji and the Solomon Islands.

The Consortium consists of three key personnel who have been involved in directory operations for many years; being Mr Phillip Watts, Chairman; Mr Kim Askew, Managing Director and Mr Brian Waterhouse, Finance Director and Company Secretary.

The Consortium and Shareholders of Edward H O’Brien Enterprises Pty Ltd

Phil Watts – Joined O'Briens in 1970 to manage the financial and systems operations of the company. He was appointed Managing Director in 1979. He negotiated the development of the national joint venture with Telstra known as Pacific Access (now Sensis) which integrated the sales, production and publishing contractor functions across Australia. Phil, was appointed a Director of this business until the O’Brien equity sale of Sensis to Telstra..

Phil was directly involved in the negotiation and establishment of PNG Directories Limited in 1990 and has continually been a Director of this company.

Kim Askew – Joined O'Briens in 1968, where he experienced and managed all facets of the print directory business within O'Briens and later in Pacific Access (Sensis).

In 1994 this included his active involvement in producing the 1^st Online Yellow Pages product in the world. He was later appointed National Sales Director and achieved the best metropolitan sales results over those in the preceding four years. Kim was then appointed Group Manager – Manufacturing and Logistics, where he directed the successful introduction of Process Colour directories with full product roll-out for the 1999 issues. He led the change of directory paper purchasing strategy to achieve the best price and necessary product improvements and re-negotiated commercial conditions with the company’s Printers to achieve productivity and financial improvements for the business.

In 2000 he re-joined the O'Brien group where he took direct responsibility for our management services for the directories businesses in PNG, Fiji and Solomon Islands.

Brian Waterhouse – Joined O'Briens in 1997. In addition to his financial and secretarial responsibilities to the O’Brien Group, he maintains a significant oversight of all accounting in the Port Moresby office and the preparation of monthly and annual management accounts and statutory financial statements including liaison with the audit process.

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