Brisbane director Tony Bellas well rewarded for boardroom roles

One Brisbane director collected $860k in fees from his boardroom roles last year and there is still no news on who will replace him at his most high profile gig.

Tony Bellas collected $806,860 in directors fees last year from six board positions.

BELLAS STAYS PUT

STILL no news on Tony Bellas’ replacement as chair of Corporate Travel Management. Jamie Pherous’ travel empire has been looking for a new chairman since at least September when the company announced it was pipe and slippers time for Bellas.

Bellas had intended to step down in October after almost nine years as chair, with the official line that “the time was right for him to retire and allow for renewal.”

But as we all know the short selling attack by VGI Partners on CTM in September threw a spanner in those retirement plans. As a consequence, Bellas was reappointed to steady the ship although we were told in October that the process of recruiting a new chair “was ongoing.”

Since then there’s been radio silence, but Bellas continues to be chairman of five companies – quite a workload, although down from six after he stepped down as chairman of ERM Power last month. Of course, the work is well rewarded.

Bellas drew director’s remuneration of $860,860 across the six boards last year, and his equity holdings in these companies nudges $12 million, of which $5.6 million is Corporate Travel. Bellas can’t be happy that CTM’s share price is off 15 per cent since the recent profit result, underlying continuing concerns about the company’s accounting.

Corporate Travel yesterday reiterated its October statement that it was looking for a replacement for Bellas. Bellas could not be reached for a comment.

CLIVE AND THE LADIES

ROSES between a thorn was the phrase that sprang to mind when businessman and political hopeful Clive Palmer was spotted in the Members’ Dining Room at Tatts on the historic day women were allowed to enter its hallowed doors. “Clive was surrounded by ladies on his table and acting like a real peacock,” says our City Beat spy. The spy tells us the occasion to mark International Women’s Day as well as the induction of women members to the club for the first time had a festive feeling much like a Melbourne Cup.

Also spotted in the crowd was local stock broker and Renaissance man Charlie Green and former Mirvac chief executive Greg Paramor. Underscoring Tatt’s new modern image, old-fashioned pea and ham soup was off the menu replaced by trendy snapper and asparagus. While the crowd was an evenly matched mix of women and men, our spy says a possible protest was spotted in the wine tasting room adjacent to the members’ dining room. “The room was packed with men only,” he told your diarist.

GIRL POWER

TWO Brisbane teenagers could soon be winging it to the US to showcase their business smarts to NASA. St Aidan’s Anglican Girls’ School year 10 students Molly Bell and Imogen Mitchell have fought their way to the final stage of an international competition called the ‘The Conrad Design Challenge’. To do this, the girls had to identify a real world problem and then apply Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (STEM) principles to solve it.

Their idea involves using a drone with sonar technology to map the underwater topography of waterways to ensure they are safe for recreational and commercial use. The idea must be a decent one because the girls have been asked to present to a panel of scientists and entrepreneurs at NASA’s Cape Canaveral in April. The girls have a Go Fund Me to help pay for the trip.

WHEELY TOUGH

THINGS are getting tougher out in caravan world, with the recent collapse of Brisbane RVs out at Burpengary and nationally-based Aussie Adventure Caravans Group entering administration. According to City Beat reader Craig Mitchell, a big problem is the importation of cheap products from places like China. Mitchell says one of his relatives bought an imported camper trailer recently but it started to fail after a short time. At the same time, local manufacturers are selling at discounted prices, flooding the market with completed and partly completed caravans and camper trailers.

“The winners now are the public getting quality locally made products at reduced prices, but long term, we will be left with fewer locally made products and inferior imports that don’t offer value for money,” he says