Mechanical engineer Julian Dimech has been appointed chief executive officer of Gozo Channel, the company that runs the ferry service between Malta and Gozo.

Mr Dimech, 46, has been occupying top managerial posts for the past 15 years, including the role of managing director at Baxter Healthcare Limited.

He holds a Masters degree in business administration.

His appointment comes a few months after the court gave Gozo Channel the green light to go ahead with the call for applications for CEO.

The company’s former chairman, Joseph Grech, who resigned in November last year after it was revealed that he directed a ferry to return to port and pick him up, had filed an injunction to prevent Gozo Channel issuing the call and for him to be given the job of CEO instead.

Dr Grech filed the injunction after receiving a letter from Gozo Channel informing him that his application, which was one of two, was not being considered.

He said he was excluded from the recruitment process despite being “the most qualified person for the job”.

According to the company, however, Dr Grech had been excluded because of the incident last November.

The Gozitan lawyer, who had been appointed by the Government as executive chairman, was forced to resign after ordering the ferry back to port because he arrived late.

Dr Grech was aiming to catch the ferry at 7.30pm, not realising the winter schedule of the company he was responsible for dictated it left at 7.15pm.

Baffled commuters found themselves being taken back to Mġarr on the chairman’s orders.

In March Paul Curmi was appointed chairman instead of Dr Grech.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.