Goodbye CEOs: 39 chiefs make way for new faces in ASX100

28 September 2012 Myriam Robin

Greg L’Estrange at Gunns, Larry Mullin at Echo, and soon, Andrew Reitzer at Metcash.

All chief executives, and all gone, or soon to be.

This morning’s papers are heavy-laden with news of departing chiefs. The markets had barely settled before another announcement at 9am today: Woolworths chair James Strong has retired.

It’s been a dramatic 24 hours, but Echo, Metcash and Gunns aren’t the only companies turning to new leadership.

Since January 2010, 39 of the ASX’s 100 biggest companies have changed or announced an upcoming change of their CEO, according to LeadingCompany’s analysis of the ASX100’s CEOs. This year, eleven ASX100 CEOs took up their roles, while another six have announced their upcoming retirements. Two – Nick Collishaw at Mirvac and Larry Mullin at Echo – have been turned out by their boards in acrimonious circumstances.

The churn isn't confined to the ASX100. Billabong CEO Derek O’Neill resigned with a tattered reputation after leading Billabong for 20 years, the last few of which saw the brand’s share value dive from $15 in 2007 to lows of $1.10 this year. Macmahon Holdings CEO Ken Scott-Mackenzie exited nine days ago after the miner posted a profit half as big as last year’s, leading to its shares losing half their value. At Paperlinx, chief executive Toby Marchant survived a shareholder attempt to remove the chairman who was protecting him, but resigned in June, followed by the resignation of chair Harry Boon in September.

L’Estrange at Gunns suffered the biggest ignominy of all, after the company he led for only two years fell to administration earlier this week.

There are a few basic categories of CEO turnover we’ve seen in the past year.

Board to management acrimony: Mullin only had two years atop Echo, but left yesterday after the board decided on new leadership four months ago. Brett Paton, a director at Echo, is understood to have left in protest at the decision. Another example of boards turfing out a newish CEO came in May, when the board of construction company Boral terminated the employment of Mark Selway. “While operational improvements throughout [Selway’s] tenure have been excellent, the board has decided that the stewardship of the company going forward requires a chief executive with a leadership style suited to harmonising the changes that have occurred over the last two years,” chairman Bob Every said at the time.
Defeat: Some CEOs have resigned after failing to halt a rapid decline in their company’s fortunes. This includes O’Neill at Billabong and Marchant at Paperlinx.
Generational churn: Many of the departures are of long-serving chiefs finally taking a rest. The average ASX50 CEO is aged 53. Plenty are older. While some (Rupert Murdoch) will have their leadership pried only from their cold, dead hands, others are more than happy to take a step back, perhaps sitting on corporate boards instead. CEOs to step down after a long and fulfilling reign include John Grill at WorleyParsons, Peter Farrell at Resmed, and Reitzer at Metcash.

This CEO turnover is a positive development, in some respects. We’re seeing increased accountability for CEOs who fail to deliver. Generational churn may lead to our companies losing some of their most experienced and skilled operators, but it might also make room for new faces with new ideas.

Other aspects of this trend are more troubling. As a Goldman Sachs report found earlier in the year, the CEOs of our largest companies are rarely in the one company for the long haul. The average tenure of ASX100 CEOs is now just 3.9 years, and has been on the decline since the global financial crisis.

The ASX100’s CEOs wouldn’t be where they are today unless they were very good. But good enough to make their mark in so little time? We’ll wait and see.

See the full list of new and departing ASX100 CEOs over the page. Our earlier analysis of the ASX100, including why so many of them are former COOs and CFOs, can be found here.

Company	CEO / Managing Director	New or Retiring	Circumstances/date of appointment
AGL Energy	Michael Fraser
Atlas Iron	Ken Brinsden	New	Appointed February 2012
Asciano	John Mullen		Appointed February 2011
Amcor	Ken MacKenzie
AMP	Craig Dunn
Ansell	Magnus Nicolin		Appointed March 2010
ANZ	Mike Smith
APA	Michael McCormack
ASX	Elmer Funke Kupper		Appointed August 2011
Aurora Oil and Gas	Jonathan Kingsley Stewart
Alumina	John Bevan
Bendigo and Adelaide Bank	Mike Hirst
BHP	Marius Kloppers
Boral	Mike Kane	New	Appointed September 2012. Last Boral boss turfed out by board after disagreements over management style.
Boart Longyear	Craig Kipp
Bank of Queensland	Stuart Grimshaw		Appointed November 2011
Beach Energy	Reginald George Nelson
Bluescope Steel	Paul O'Malley
Brambles	Tom Gorman
CBA	Ian Narev		Appointed December 2011
Coca-Cola Amatil	Terry Davis
Colonial First State Property Trust	Michael Venter
Challenger	Brian Benari	New	Appointed February 2012
Cochlear	Chris Roberts
Commonwealth Property Office Fund	Michael Venter
Campbell Brothers	Greg Kilmister
Computershare	William Stuart Crosby
Centro	Steven Sewell	New	Appointed February 2012
CSL	Brian McNamee	Retiring	Stepping down July next year
Caltex	Julian Segal
Crown	Rowen Craigie
David Jones	Paul Zahra		Appointed June 2010
Downer EDI	Grant Fenn		Appointed August 2010
Duet Group	David Bartholomew		Appointed February 2011. Previous CEO retired.
Dexus Property Group	Darren Steinberg	New	Appointed March 2012. Previous CEO retired.
Echo Entertainment	Larry Mullin	Turfed out	Shock exit. Falling out with board.
Fortescue Metals	Nev Power		Appointed August 2011. Previous CEO retired (sort of)
Fairfax	Greg Hywood		Appointed February 2011
Goodman Group	Gregory Goodman
Graincorp	Alison Watkins		Appointed August 2010
GPT	Michael Cameron
Harvey Norman	Katie Page
Insurance Australia Group	Mike Wilkins
Iluka Resources	David Robb
Investa	Scott MacDonald
Incitec Pivot	James Fazzino
JB Hi Fi	Terry Smart		Appointed May 2010.
James Hardy	Louis Gries
Leighton Holdings	Hamish Tyrwhitt		Appointed August 2011. Previous CEO retired.
Land Lease	Steve McCann
Lynas Corporation	Nick Curtis
Mirvac	Nick Collishaw	Turfed out	Shock board decision in August. Replacement hasn't started.
Monadelphous	Robert Velletri
Macquarie Group	Nickolas Moore
Metcash	Andrew Reitzer	Retiring	Stepping down June next year
Myer	Bernie Brookes
NAB	Cameron Clyne
Newcrest Mining	Greg Robinson		Appointed July 2011
News Corp	Rupert Murdoch
Origin Energy	Grant King
Orica	Ian Smith	New	Appointed February 2012. Old CEO retired to make way for the highly-regarded Smith.
Oil Search	Peter Botten
OneSteel	Geoff Plummer
OZ Minerals	Terry Burgess
Paladin Energy	John Borshoff
PanAust	Gary Stafford
Perseus Mining	Mark Galderwood
Primary Health Care	Edmund Bateman
Qantas	Alan Joyce
QBE	John Neal	New	Appointed August 2012. Previous CEO retired.
QR National	Lance Hockridge
Ramsey Health Care	Chris Rex
Rio Tinto	Tom Albanese
ResMed	Peter Farrell	Retiring	Board is looking for successor. Farrell to stay in role till end of 2013.
Regis Resources	Mark Clark
SEEK	Andrew Bassat
Sims Metal Management	Daniel Dienst
Stockland	Matthew Quinn	Retiring	Chairman says Quinn stepped down of own decision. Eleven years at helm marred by run of poor earnings.
Sonic Healthcare	Dr Colin Goldschmidt
Spark Infrastructure	Rick Francis	New	Appointed June 2012. Replaced CEO who wants to retire to spend more time with family.
SP AusNet	Nino Ficca
Santos	David Knox
Suncorp	Patrick Snowball
Seven West	Don Volte	New	Appointed June 2012. Replaced long-serving CEO upon retirement.
Sydney Airport	Kerrie Mather		Appointed June 2011. Former CEO stepped down at end of five-year contract.
TabCorp	David Attenborough		Appointed June 2011. Former CEO steped down after heading demerger.
Transurban Group	Scott Charlton	New	Appointed July 2012. Previous CEO made shock decision to stand down.
Telstra	David Thodey
Toll Holdings	Brian Kruger	New	Appointed January 2012. Previous CEO retired.
Tatts Group	Dick McIlwain	Retiring
Treasury Wines	David Dearie		Appointed May 2011.
UGL	Richard Leupen
Westpac	Gail Kelly
Westfield	Steven Lowey
Wesfarmers	Richard Goyder
Whitehaven Coal	Tony Haggarty
Worley Parsons	John Grill	Retiring	Retiring in October after 40 years with the business
Woolworths	Grant O'Brien		Appointed October 2011. Former CEO retired after five years in role.
Woodside	Peter Coleman		Appointed May 2011.
Westfield Retail Trust	Domenic Panaccio		Appointed November 2010.