ASX100 chiefs: Internationally experienced, except in Asia

29 October 2012 Myriam Robin

More than three-quarters of ASX100 CEOs have worked or studied overseas along the way to heading their current companies, a LeadingCompany analysis has found.

Of the ASX100 chiefs, 77 have worked or studied overseas, the majority in either the United Kingdom or America. One in four ASX100 chiefs have either studied or worked in the United States, while 16 have studied in the United Kingdom. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most who worked or studied overseas did so primarily in English-speaking countries.

The Australia in the Asian Century White Paper, released yesterday, set a target of one third of all ASX200 directorships being filled by those with Asian experience, to boost the skills of Australian companies in navigating their businesses into Asia.

However, when it comes to the current crop of ASX100 CEOs, only 12 have worked in Asia, and none have studied there.

One in four (23) ASX100 CEOs have never worked or studied outside Australia. These included some very successful CEOs, like WorleyParsons’ John Grill (who retired last week), and Andrew Basset of SEEK.

Other CEOs have resumes studded with foreign postings. Energy company Santos’ David Knox has worked in the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, the United States, and Pakistan. Treasury Wine’s David Dearie has experience in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, and the United Kingdom.

Of those with plenty of experience in Asia, ANZ chief Mike Smith led the pack, having worked for three decades with London-based HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), much of that in Hong Kong and Malaysia. Smith has crafted much of ANZ’s strategy around expansion in Asia, and when one looks at his career, it’s understandable that he would be one of the most enthusiastic about the opportunities posed by the Asian century.

Smith is also the only CEO to have worked in Latin America – he spent some time in HSBC Argentina.

Others to spend much of their career in Asia include Woodside Petroleum’s Peter Coleman (who has worked in Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong as well as the USA) and Myer’s Bernie Brookes, who has worked in India and China.

Seven CEOs have spent part of the career working and studying in South Africa before making Australia their home. They included some of Australia’s longest-serving and most influential CEOs, including Metcash’s Andrew Reitzer, Westpac’s Gail Kelly, BHP’s Marius Kloppers and TabCorp’s David Attenborough. Another eight CEOs spent some of their career in New Zealand, including the Commonwealth Bank’s Ian Narev, National Australia Bank’s Cameron Clyne and Telstra’s David Thodey.

For aspiring chief executives, the take-out is clear. Global experience pays off at Australia’s top companies.

See page 2 for our list.

Company	CEO / Managing Director	Worked overseas?	Studied overseas?	Country details / notes
AGL Energy	Michael Fraser	No	No
Atlas Iron	Ken Brinsden	No	No
Asciano	John Mullen	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK)
Amcor	Ken MacKenzie	Yes	Yes	America (Canada)
AMP	Craig Dunn	Yes	No	Asia (Malaysia)
Ansell	Magnus Nicolin	Yes	Yes	Europe (Sweden)
ANZ	Mike Smith	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK), Asia (Hong Kong, Malaysia), South America (Argentina)
APA	Michael McCormack	No	No
ASX	Elmer Funke Kupper	No	Yes	Europe (Netherlands)
Aurora Oil and Gas	Jonathan Kingsley Stewart	No	No
Alumina	John Bevan	Yes	No	Asia (various), Europe (UK)
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank	Mike Hirst	No	No
BHP	Marius Kloppers	Yes	Yes	Africa (South Africa), Europe (Netherlands)
Boral	Mike Kane	Yes	Yes	America (USA), Europe (various)
Boart Longyear	Craig Kipp	Yes	Yes	America (USA), Asia (China), Europe (Hungary)
Bank of Queensland	Stuart Grimshaw	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK), Australia and NZ (NZ), America (USA)
Beach Energy	Reginald George Nelson	No	No
Bluescope Steel	Paul O'Malley	Yes	No	America (USA)
Brambles	Tom Gorman	Yes	Yes	America (USA), Europe (France)
CBA	Ian Narev	Yes	Yes	Australia and NZ (NZ), America (USA)
Coca-Cola Amatil	Terry Davis	Yes	?	Australia and NZ (New Zealand)
Colonial First State Property Trust	Michael Venter	Yes	Yes	Africa (South Africa)
Challenger	Brian Benari	No	No	(Lead Zurich Capital Markets Asia, but role is Sydney-based)
Cochlear	Chris Roberts	No	No
Commonwealth Property Office Fund	Michael Venter	Yes	Yes	Africa (South Africa)
Campbell Brothers	Greg Kilmister	No	?
Computershare	William Stuart Crosby	Yes	?	Australia and NZ (NZ), Asia (India and Hong Kong)
Centro	Steven Sewell	No	?
CSL	Brian McNamee	Yes	No	Europe (Germany), America (USA)
Caltex	Julian Segal	Yes	Yes	Europe (Isreal), Africa (South Africa)
Crown	Rowen Craigie	No	No
David Jones	Paul Zahra	No	No
Downer EDI	Grant Fenn	Yes	No	Australia and NZ (NZ)
Duet Group	David Bartholomew	No	No
Dexus Property Group	Darren Steinberg	No	No
Echo Entertainment	Larry Mullin	Yes	?	America (USA)
Fortescue Metals	Nev Power	No	No
Fairfax	Greg Hywood	No	No
Goodman Group	Gregory Goodman	No	No
Graincorp	Alison Watkins	No	No
GPT	Michael Cameron	Yes	?	America (USA)
Harvey Norman	Katie Page	No	No
Insurance Australia Group	Mike Wilkins	No	No
Iluka Resources	David Robb	Yes	No	America (USA), Asia (Malaysia)
Investa	Scott MacDonald	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Incitec Pivot	James Fazzino	No	?
JB Hi Fi	Terry Smart	No	No
James Hardie	Louis Gries	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Leighton Holdings	Hamish Tyrwhitt	Yes	No	Asia (various)
Land Lease	Steve McCann	No	No
Lynas Corporation	Nick Curtis	Yes	Yes	America (USA), Asia (China)
Mirvac	Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz	Yes	Yes	Europe (various), America (USA)
Monadelphous	Robert Velletri	No	No
Macquarie Group	Nicholas Moore	No	No
Metcash	Andrew Reitzer	Yes	Yes	Europe (Russia, Israel), Africa (South Africa)
Myer	Bernie Brookes	Yes	No	Asia (India, China)
NAB	Cameron Clyne	Yes	No	Europe (various), Australia and NZ (NZ)
Newcrest Mining	Greg Robinson	No	Yes	America (USA)
News Corp	Rupert Murdoch	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK), America (USA)
Origin Energy	Grant King	No	No
Orica	Ian Smith	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Oil Search	Peter Botten	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK), Pacific (Papua New Guinea)
Arrium	Geoff Plummer	No	No
OZ Minerals	Terry Burgess	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK), Africa (?)
Paladin Energy	John Borshoff	Yes	?	Europe (Germany), America (?), Africa (?)
PanAust	Gary Stafford	No	No
Perseus Mining	Mark Calderwood	Yes	?	Africa (?)
Primary Health Care	Edmund Bateman	No	No
Qantas	Alan Joyce	Yes	Yes	Europe (Ireland)
QBE	John Neal	Yes	?	Europe (various)
QR National	Lance Hockridge	Yes	?	America (USA)
Ramsey Health Care	Chris Rex	Yes	?	Europe (UK)
Rio Tinto	Tom Albanese	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
ResMed	Peter Farrell	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Regis Resources	Mark Clark	No	No
SEEK	Andrew Bassat	No	No
Sims Metal Management	Daniel Dienst	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Stockland	Matthew Quinn	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK)
Sonic Healthcare	Dr Colin Goldschmidt	No	No
Spark Infrastructure	Richard Francis	Yes	No	Europe (UK)
SP AusNet	Nino Ficca	No	Yes	America (US)
Santos	David Knox	Yes	Yes	Europe (Scotland, UK, Norway, Netherlands), America (USA), Asia (Pakistan)
Suncorp	Patrick Snowball	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK)
Seven West	Don Voelte	Yes	Yes	America (USA)
Sydney Airport	Kerrie Mather	Yes	No	Europe (Denmark, Italy)
TabCorp	David Attenborough	Yes	?	Africa (South Africa), Europe (UK)
Transurban Group	Scott Charlton	No	Yes	America (USA)
Telstra	David Thodey	No	Yes	Australia and NZ (NZ)
Toll Holdings	Brian Kruger	Yes	No	America (USA
Tatts Group	Dick McIlwain	No	No
Treasury Wines	David Dearie	Yes	Yes	Europe (UK, Scotland), Asia (Singapore), Arabia (Abu Dhabi, Babrain)
UGL	Richard Leupen	No	No
Westpac	Gail Kelly	Yes	Yes	Africa (South Africa)
Westfield	Peter Lowey	Yes	No	Europe (UK), America (USA)
Wesfarmers	Richard Goyder	No	Yes	America (USA)
Whitehaven Coal	Tony Haggarty	Yes	?	Europe (UK)
Worley Parsons	John Grill	No	No
Woolworths	Grant O'Brien	No	Yes	America (USA)
Woodside	Peter Coleman	Yes	No	Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Hong Kong), America (USA)
Westfield Retail Trust	Domenic Panaccio	No	No