Masters head steps down as board decision looms

SYDNEY — Masters Home Improvement director Melinda Smith has tendered her resignation only a few months before the troubled joint venture’s board is due to decide its fate. Smith, chief operating officer from 2009 to 2012 and director since the summer of 2013, will leave the company by the end of the calendar year, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. JV partners Woolworths and Lowes have scrambled to bolster the floundering company, injecting a combined $150 million into it last month. Since October 20, Lowe’s has been entitled under the terms of the partnership to sell its one-third stake after giving 13 months’ notice.