Bradley E. Phillips has been named senior vice president of transition services in Australia. In this role Phillips will continue to lead the organisational integration of Macarthur Coal and Peabody Energy Australia, the company said.

Most recently, Phillips was general manager of finance for Peabody's Australia operations. He oversaw financial and capital planning, treasury, risk and assurance as well as financial reporting, shared services and financial systems and continuous improvement activities.

In addition, he was actively involved in the acquisition of Macarthur Coal in 2011.

Phillips has more than 15 years of financial and accounting experience with the company. He began his career at Peabody in 1996 and has held various accounting and finance positions of increasing responsibility, including manager of accounting, director of financial reporting, assistant corporate controller and vice president of financial and capital planning.

Prior to joining the company, he was employed by KPMG Peat Marwick and AG Edwards in St. Louis. Phillips is a graduate of Western Illinois University at Macomb with a Bachelor of Science in accountancy. He is a certified public accountant and a certified management accountant.

He will report to Peabody Energy executive vice president and chief operating officer Eric Ford.

Peabody Energy has relocated the office of its executive vice president and chief operating officer to Brisbane to align with the company’s growth in the country.

The decision in November to transfer the office, headed by Ford, came just a week after the company’s successful sole acquisition of Macarthur Coal. Ford will lead Peabody’s global operations from the office and has also been named chair of the Macarthur board.

The company said the move reflected the significant and growing contributions of the company's Australian operating platform.

Ford, a 40-year international management veteran, was most recently chief executive officer of Anglo Coal Australia.

Project development group executive Kemal Williamson will be among those reporting to Ford. Also based in Brisbane, he will focus on guiding expansion projects across Peabody Energy’s global platform.

Williamson, with 25 years in mining engineering and operations, was most recently the group vice president of operations and led Peabody's mining operations in the Midwest, southwest and Colorado regions of the US.