Whitehaven Coal’s chief financial officer Kevin Ball has topped the ranks of the country’s best performing financial bosses, based on the increase in the market capitalisation of top 100 companies over the past three years.

The low profile Mr Ball, who started at EY but has worked as a CFO at energy and coal companies since the 1990s, has helped the coal miner led by CEO Paul Flynn to defy a campaign by British hedge fund Bell Rock Capital and grow the share price from less than $1 back in September 2020 to over $7.