In 2023, as Washington H Soul Pattinson celebrated 120 years of being listed on a stock exchange in Australia, managing director Todd Barlow was turning over a key question in his mind: was it time to hire an inaugural chief operating officer, who could spearhead the now $12 billion conglomerate’s key non-investment functions?

That was months before Soul Patts mounted a surprise $3 billion bid for Perpetual Limited, which, had it been successful, would have required it to up the ante on its operations.