New CEO Appointment - Paul Birch

Willie Creek Pearls have appointed Paul Birch as their new Chief Executive Officer. 

For Willie Creek Pearls, like many businesses, the past two years have been somewhat reminiscent of a Broome spring tide with highs, lows and at times some difficult visibility.  Despite the challenges and due to the hard work from our dedicated team, collectively our business has delivered encouraging results to our customers, guests and the company. This allows us to look to the future optimistically.  

Along with positive outcomes, 2021 bought with it some exciting announcements for Willie Creek Pearls including harvesting our largest pearl ever at 20.12mm, our collaboration with Olivia Newton-John and our exciting new marine biomedical company PearlBoneTM. The timing is ideal for us to strengthen our business management structure to position us effectively to work towards realising many of our visions for the future. Appointing Paul Birch as our new CEO means that we have in the centralised leadership role, someone who understands the unique nature of the business, its activities and all of the industries we work across. Paul has been our Broome General & Commercial Manager and Pearling Master for the past 7 years. 

Willie Creek Pearls Owner, Robert Banfield announced “We are very pleased to be able to recruit from within our organisation given the nature of what we do and who we are. During his time with the company, Paul has demonstrated his dedication and his application to the quality work produced and that he is best placed to provide the leadership required for this very diverse role. The family have a lot of respect and already have a great working relationship with Paul, and we are looking forward to supporting him in his new role going forward. Paul will also be in a better position to be able to support all of the Willie Creek Pearls dedicated staff in his position as the CEO. Congratulations Paul!“  

In response Paul commented “I am honoured to have been approached to take on this role for the Banfield family and all of my colleagues. We are privileged to have incredible people working at Willie Creek Pearls, engaging in such a unique and broad range of industries in some of the most amazing places in Western Australia. It will be exciting to lead and continue to work with the whole team into our future.” 

Paul is an avid rugby union fan, since playing as a Wesley College boy. Prior to working for Willie Creek Pearls, Paul was General Manager for Swings & Roundabouts and has over 14 years’ experience in the hospitality industry, with 16 vintage wine productions achieving numerous gold medals and trophies including best Rose at the Melbourne Wine Awards. Paul led the way for Willie Creek Pearls to obtain our commercial pearling licence and our new aquacultural facilities and was tasked with overseeing the new advancement of our commercial pearling area of the business, which has been vitally important to the company’s success and diversifications over recent years.