QR’s flagship freight business QRNational Coal continues to bolster its executive team in the face of increasing competition in the $1 billion-plus coal haulage market by employing a high-profile, global marketing executive to transform the way it approaches the marketplace.

Linda Scard, former Global Vice President of Marketing for a division of global pharmaceutical, medical devices and consumer goods group Johnson and Johnson, joins QRNational Coal in the role of National Commercial and Marketing Manager.

Her appointment is one of a number of new senior appointments in the coal business which have been made as part of an ambitious reform program designed to reinvent QRNational Coal as a more commercially savvy, customer-focused business capable of meeting competition head on.

Group General Manager of QRNational Coal Marcus McAuliffe said that Scard’s strong commercial background would bring greater commercial rigor to the business.

“Linda brings with her enormous commercial acumen and a history of developing world-class products and services that customers want, that yield good prices, are run at known and manageable costs, and that deliver the margins and profits shareholders expect,” McAuliffe said.

“In this respect, what we are trying to achieve at QRNational Coal is no different from what other businesses in other industries seek to achieve and her skills are readily transferable.

“Linda’s considerable expertise and strong track record will be vital for creating a new commercial culture in our business.”

Ms Scard, who has recently returned from London to Australia, said she was pleased to join QR at such a pivotal point in its history.

“I feel very privileged to join the team at QR which has an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise built over 143 years,” Scard said.

“In this next era of the business my challenge will be to add to this knowledge and expertise an intimate understanding of our customers and an ingrained sense of customer service.

“Supported by a reinvention of the business basics, QRNational Coal will offer customers world-class products and services to ensure we remain their best option for converting mined coal into delivered coal.”

This reform, coupled with QR’s unique expertise and experience in the market, will make it a tough competitor according to Marcus McAuliffe.

“Be assured we will be fierce competitors and will be pursuing a significant majority share of our home market in Queensland. The new QR will be assertive in pursuit of its core objectives that relate to safety, customers, commercial and growth,” he said.

“No stakeholder should underestimate our determination to succeed.”