Four blue-chip CEOs announced their departures this week as rapid advances in AI intensify pressure to deliver shareholder returns.
Tom Richardson
Nick Rohrlach has served as chief of Virgin’s loyalty program Velocity since 2021, when he jumped shipped from rival Qantas in a move that sparked a legal battle between the two airlines.
Cheyanne Enciso
A pair of directors at Northern Minerals has taken issue with the timing of two crucial shareholder meetings, pointing to further drama at the geopolitically charged rare earths junior
Simone Grogan
The appointments of Isar Mazer and Russell Baskerville as non-executive directors lift board numbers back out to nine ahead of the proposed retirement of deputy chair Brent Stewart later this year..
Sean Smith
Company filings show the 44-year-old resigned as a director of up to 18 companies on Sunday, including his privately-owned VGW Holdings and his Lance East family office.
The appointment was announced with the promotion of Matthew Nixon to chief executive, with outgoing non-executive chair Tony Kiernan to remain on Genesis’ board as lead independent director.
Chinese interests have mounted a fresh campaign to overthrow Northern Minerals’ leadership and take control of the rare earths player feted by the Australian and US governments.
Adrian Rauso
Woodside Energy is forecasting annual production for the next 12 months will fall from a record 198.8 million barrels of oil equivalent in 2025 to between 172mboe and 186mboe.
Sean Smith and Daniel Newell
Develop Global’s chairman Michael Blakiston has sold more than $700,000 of stock and the company made a mea culpa for failing to disclose share purchases by a different director.
No warning, just a late-night revelation: BP was ousting its chief executive and filling the role with an outsider, vetted during a top secret process that only a handful of people even knew was happening.
Mitchell Ferman, Kevin Crowley and Ruth Liao
Will Woodside Energy go with an outsider to replace Meg ONeill, or look to promote from within? The answer lies in chair Richard Goyder’s past hires at some of Australia’s biggest companies.
WiseTech Global has released more findings from an external review into the alleged misuse of company funds by co-founder Richard White.
Staff Writers
A third of ANZ shareholders have voted against its remuneration report, making it the first Big Four bank since Westpac in 2019 to suffer a second strike. New CEO Nuno Matos is forgoing short-term bonuses.
Stephen Johnson
ANZ chairman Paul O’Sullivan says the bank’s board maintains the option to reduce bonuses further for executives amid growing discontent over accountability for past failings.
Adam Haigh
Former Bunnings boss John Gillam will take the helm of industrial conglomerate SGH as chair from June.
John Van Der Wielen replaces former Rio Tinto boss Sam Walsh, who had chaired the mint’s Government-owed operating company, Gold Corporation, since 2019.
John Van Der Wielen succeeds Neale Fong and adds to his chairmanships of the ASX-listed biotech Orthocell and the WA Government’s Future Health and Research Fund.
Michael Arnett just survived Thursday’s vote at NRW’s annual general meeting in Perth, with 48.6 per cent of voted shares directed against his re-election.
The one-time caravan maker said chair John Klepec had temporarily taken the reins of the company following the “departure” of Sydney-based Mr Nicholson after 4½ years.
The defence company has also disclosed that some of the $70 million of sales occurred on November 10, after DroneShield’s announcement that day of a new contract that was pulled several hours later.
Geraldton-born geologist Erica Smyth was one of the first women to crack the senior executive ranks of Australia’s major resources companies.
Peter Coleman will take over from Alan Tribe next week, two months after embarrassing infighting that saw PYC’s managing director resign and then return five days later.
Her appointment is one of a number of changes to the IGO board since an overhaul announced in June that was influenced by shareholder anger over IGO’s disastrous takeover of Western Areas.
Shares in the WA conglomerate were smashed 7 per cent lower to a three-month low of $86.13, pushing its market value under $100 billion, as shareholders met for the AGM.
