Acting Public Trustee Samay Zhouand recently removed all the directors on an “executive leadership team’’

City Beat spies tell us the revolving door has been getting a bit of a work out at the very highest echelons of the Public Trustee of Queensland, with the agency’s most senior body next in line.

REVOLVING DOOR

It sounds like the revolving door has been getting a bit of a work out at the very highest echelons of the Public Trustee of Queensland.

City Beat spies tell us that acting Public Trustee Samay Zhouand recently removed all the directors on an “executive leadership team’’, the agency’s most senior body, and tasked an external consultancy to review its structure.

He has also temporarily appointed a new director to the office of the CEO, our sources report.

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Zhouand’s shake-up of the organisational whiteboard comes almost three months after he took the helm following the shock suspension of his long-serving predecessor, Peter Carne.

Acting Public Trustee Samay Zhouand.

We still don’t know the details of the alleged wrongdoing which sidelined Carne but they are serious enough that the Crime and Corruption Commission has confirmed that it’s taking a look. Carne could not be reached for comment.

Meanwhile, a flood of complaints about the PT’s alleged mismanagement of cases prompted Shadow Attorney-General David Janetzki to ask state Ombudsman Phil Clarke to investigate the much-maligned agency in late July.

So has Clarke taken up the challenge? His spin doctor this week wouldn’t confirm or deny an investigation is underway.

But Janetzki said yesterday that Clarke’s office told him they had conducted a review in 2016 “and will consider further once their current program of work is complete’’.

“I’m taking that as a ‘no’!,’’ Janetzki fumed.

If the experience of Victoria is any guide, though, Clarke might want to reconsider. As he would surely know, earlier this year his counterpart down south uncovered “systemic’’ problems in that state’s trustee operation, with 23 of 30 cases exhibiting “poor financial management’’.

CALLING IT QUITS

She’s been a prominent advocate for Brisbane’s burgeoning tech start-up community over the past seven years.

But Peta Ellis is calling it quits as CEO of River City Labs, walking out the door on Friday and into an uncertain future.

Ellis, who joined the organisation from its inception in 2012 and was promoted to boss four years later, told City Beat yesterday she had enjoyed an “awesome innings’’ but it was time for a change.

CEO Peta Ellis will leave River City Labs on Friday.

Her immediate plans are to spend a bit more time with her family but she sees herself inevitably returning to the start-up mentoring sector.

“This is my game. This is what I love doing,’’ she said.

Ellis told us that her decision to leave was unrelated to the decision last September by RCL founder Steve Baxter to offload the company to the Sydney-based Australian Computer Society.

She said the new owners had been instrumental in launching new RCL-affiliated labs in both Sydney and Melbourne.

STREAMING SURGE

The number of people streaming music around the world will nearly double over the next three years, according to an industry top gun whose company has sold 170 million albums.

Terry McBride, the Canadian boss and co-founder of Nettwerk Music Group, told the BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane on Wednesday that 331 million listeners use the likes of industry leaders Spotify, Apple and Amazon today.

That figure is conservatively forecast to jump to 538 million by 2022, said McBride, who has worked with the likes of Coldplay, Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan.

Singer Chris Martin of Coldplay.

At the same time, the number of downloads has unsurprisingly fallen 27 per cent since 2016.

McBride also had plenty of counterintuitive advice for aspiring artists at his keynote address, including his warning not to seek airplay on JJJ before growing a global fanbase.

To do otherwise “will kill your career internationally’’ because of the way algorithms “geo-fence’’ musical communities online, he warned.

RESCUE BID

Silver Chef entered a trading halt yesterday as it started talks with major shareholder Luke Trickett and his Blue Stamp Company over his proposal for a $50 million capital raising to resuscitate the struggling kitchen equipment leasing business.

Trickett’s 19.99 per cent stake in Brisbane-based Silver Chef was enough to torpedo a $28 million takeover by private equity mob Next Capital last week.