AWB Cold War warriors quit en masse
February 2, 2010
Dearn Mayne Reporters,
sorry to hit you with two editions in one day ( check out this morning's here ) but the four recalcitrant AWB directors have finally quit this afternoon, saving shareholders about $50,000 before they would have departed anyway after the late October EGM when a new constitution will be adopted.
You don't get mass resignations too often in the public company space. There was TNT and Westpac in the early 1990s, AMP had two cracks at it over the past decade and, of course, the Yannon debacle saw a reasonable clean out at Coles in the mid-1990s.
Check out today's magnanimous statement from AWB chairman Brendan Stewart as he said farewell to farmer directors Colin Nicholl, Xavier Martin, Rodger Schirmer and Russell McKenzie.
These four chaps have acted in concert all the way through this saga and it is thought that Rodger Schirmer was the one who led the move to quit, after Stewart labelled them all "unethical and immoral" for continuing to pocket board fees after their position was overwhelmingly rejected at last week's resumed EGM.
AWB shares rocketed 23c or 7.5% to $3.27 in trading today, so shareholders are now almost 15% ahead since the decision to end the farmer gerrymander and we can now look forward to the next board meeting which will be a first because there won't be a majority of farmers in the room.
Check out this edition from last week for uninspiring videos of these former AWB directors in action, plus the account of how their troglodyte supporters tipped wheat on your correspondent after the meeting.
Chasing Centro chairman Brian Healey
There are plenty more ordinary public company directors to chase after these AWB lads have departed. Former Centro chairman Brian Healey is a case in point and we've now got this audio file from last Friday's Incitec-Pivot EGM when it was only possible to sneak in a brief comment at the end as chairman Watson was sticking to the specific resolutions. Healey is 72 and has fallen on his sword at Centro, so let's hope he follows the lead of the AWB Cold War warriors and departs this fertiliser giant ASAP.
And what about ANZ's Jerry Ellis?
Finally, we shouldn't be too surprised that risk management was no good at ANZ when former BHP chairman Jerry Ellis chairs the risk committee after 13 years on the bank's board.
Ellis epitomises Australia's failure to deal with poorly performing directors. After BHP blew up $10 billion in the 1990s he should have been struck off. I ran that argument against him at meetings such as the 2000 Pacifica AGM as you can see from this story in The Age.
Alas, he's still hanging around with his reverse Midas Touch and now ANZ has copped it too. He turns 71 next month so let's hope Jerry is gone by the time the ANZ AGM in Brisbane comes around shortly before Christmas.
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.
sorry to hit you with two editions in one day ( check out this morning's here ) but the four recalcitrant AWB directors have finally quit this afternoon, saving shareholders about $50,000 before they would have departed anyway after the late October EGM when a new constitution will be adopted.
You don't get mass resignations too often in the public company space. There was TNT and Westpac in the early 1990s, AMP had two cracks at it over the past decade and, of course, the Yannon debacle saw a reasonable clean out at Coles in the mid-1990s.
Check out today's magnanimous statement from AWB chairman Brendan Stewart as he said farewell to farmer directors Colin Nicholl, Xavier Martin, Rodger Schirmer and Russell McKenzie.
These four chaps have acted in concert all the way through this saga and it is thought that Rodger Schirmer was the one who led the move to quit, after Stewart labelled them all "unethical and immoral" for continuing to pocket board fees after their position was overwhelmingly rejected at last week's resumed EGM.
AWB shares rocketed 23c or 7.5% to $3.27 in trading today, so shareholders are now almost 15% ahead since the decision to end the farmer gerrymander and we can now look forward to the next board meeting which will be a first because there won't be a majority of farmers in the room.
Check out this edition from last week for uninspiring videos of these former AWB directors in action, plus the account of how their troglodyte supporters tipped wheat on your correspondent after the meeting.
Chasing Centro chairman Brian Healey
There are plenty more ordinary public company directors to chase after these AWB lads have departed. Former Centro chairman Brian Healey is a case in point and we've now got this audio file from last Friday's Incitec-Pivot EGM when it was only possible to sneak in a brief comment at the end as chairman Watson was sticking to the specific resolutions. Healey is 72 and has fallen on his sword at Centro, so let's hope he follows the lead of the AWB Cold War warriors and departs this fertiliser giant ASAP.
And what about ANZ's Jerry Ellis?
Finally, we shouldn't be too surprised that risk management was no good at ANZ when former BHP chairman Jerry Ellis chairs the risk committee after 13 years on the bank's board.
Ellis epitomises Australia's failure to deal with poorly performing directors. After BHP blew up $10 billion in the 1990s he should have been struck off. I ran that argument against him at meetings such as the 2000 Pacifica AGM as you can see from this story in The Age.
Alas, he's still hanging around with his reverse Midas Touch and now ANZ has copped it too. He turns 71 next month so let's hope Jerry is gone by the time the ANZ AGM in Brisbane comes around shortly before Christmas.
That's all for now.
Do ya best, Stephen Mayne
* The Mayne Report is a multi-media governance website published by Stephen Mayne with occasional email editions. To unsubscribe from the emails click here.