Former Brisbane Broncos boss Bruno Cullen appointed chairman of Austbrokers Comsure
Former Brisbane Broncos boss Bruno Cullen is set to take on a new position. But he’s not the only one, with something akin to a game of corporate musical chairs about to play out in Queensland’s peak industry bodies. SEE WHO’S ON THE MOVE
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BUCKING BRONCO
Former Brisbane Broncos boss Bruno Cullen will be starting as the inaugural chair next month of insurance brokers Austbrokers Comsure.
The group is a product of this year’s merger of southeast Queensland-based Comsure, Bestmark and Citycover.
Cullen, who joins the board from November 1, previously served as chair of Townsville-based Queensland Country Bank for 14 years.
He stepped down in April but still remains on the board, with plans to depart after the AGM next month.
MUSICAL CHAIRS
Something akin to a game of musical chairs is set to play out next month across a couple of Queensland’s peak industry bodies.
We learned on Friday that Dr Brett Dale will be leaving his post as group CEO of the Motor Trades Association of Queensland on November 18 after 4½ years in the role.
Taking his place will be Rod Camm, who most recently served as the Brisbane-based principal of Nous Group, an international management consultancy.
After packing up his office, Dale will be moving across to the Australian Medical Association Queensland, where he’ll be taking over as boss from a medico who’s served in an acting capacity for the past few months.
He stepped in after the departure of Jane Schmitt, who spent 11 years as CEO of the AMAQ and started in a newly-created “external relations” role at the Mater group last month.
Whew. Got all that?
Dale told us that he was proud to have turned around the MTAQ and boosted its focus on innovation as a future full of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles comes into sharper focus.
“The industry is on the cusp of a revolution in terms of technology’’ said Dale, who spearheaded a push to establish the nation’s first auto innovation hub in 2017.
So why is he leaving the organisation, which was founded 91 years ago and now represents more than 15,000 auto-related businesses generating about $21bn in revenue annually?
Dale couldn’t help indulging in a bit of corporate-speak, telling us the change was “a really good opportunity to bring someone in to take us to the next level’’.
He certainly won’t be lacking challenges at the AMA as we all await the rollout of a vaccine to snuff out the pandemic.
SLAM DUNKED
Will the proposed $1.5bn makeover of storm-battered Dunk Island and Mission Beach ever eventuate? It seems increasingly unlikely.
The corporate cop wants to wind up fund manager M101 Nominees Pty Ltd, part of James Mawhinney’s Mayfair Group which announced the ambitious scheme last year.
But M101 told a court this week that a liquidation would jeopardise the tourism project and potentially result in a fire sale of properties on the mainland.
The company maintains its working on financial rescue package that will be presented to investors shortly.
But a Federal Court judge rejected M101’s request for an adjournment of the case to allow it more time to make the restructuring scheme work.
The setback follows a move earlier this year by the family of Peter Bond, former heard of failed Linc Energy, to claw back control of the island.
CYBER WAR
Well this is a tad worrying.
A national survey of more than 3200 business and tech executives has found two-thirds are expecting cyber attacks on cloud services in their industry in the next 12 months.
Released by bean counters at PwC this week, the survey also revealed fears of an assault via ransomware and state-sponsored attacks on critical infrastructure.
Just in the period between April and June, at the height of the pandemic shutdown, PwC noted there had been a whopping 65 per cent spike in cybersecurity incidents across Australia.
The cost to business was an eye-watering $1.1bn, taking the total for the financial year to $7.6bn.