ASA says Treasury Wine Estate’s chair John Mullen has too many executive roles to continue

John Mullen has too many board seats to continue as Treasury Wine Estates’ chair, according to the ASA. But other influential proxy advisers are more relaxed ahead of this week’s AGM.

Expectations are that John Mullen will step down from his other major role as chair of industrial pallet company Brambles, when a replacement can be found. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Aaron Francis

The Australian Shareholders Association will oppose the re-election of Treasury Wine Estate’s chair John Mullen at the company’s annual meeting next week on the grounds that he has too many board seats.

Proxy adviser Ownership Matters said it would not oppose the re-election of Mr Mullen, who took on the role of chair of Qantas earlier than expected in April following the retirement of former chair Richard Goyder.

Ownership Matters director Dean Paatsch said Mr Mullen had indicated his plans to “lighten” his directorial load following his move to chair Qantas.

Expectations are Mr Mullen will step down from his other major role as chair of industrial pallet company Brambles when a replacement can be found.

The shareholders association is criticising what it sees as Mr Mullen’s “heavy workload” of being chair of three listed companies: TWE, Brambles and Qantas.

Mr Mullen is also chair of non-listed advisory company Scyne Advisory, a spin-off from PwC’s government consulting business, and is a director of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners.

“In 2023, the ASA supported Mr Mullen’s election as TWE chair despite a heavy workload given his advice that he was resigning as chair of Telstra,” the ASA said in its report outlining its voting intentions at the TWE AGM.

“He subsequently replaced this responsibility with the chair of Qantas.”

Ownership Matters director Dean Paatsch says John Mullen indicated his plans to “lighten” his directorial load following his move to chair Qantas. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian.

In a pre-AGM meeting with the association, Mr Mullen said he would be winding down some of his commitments but said he would “not walk out on his responsibilities”.

“Mr Mullen noted that he is working towards succession planning with regard to some of his responsibilities for both listed and non-listed companies,” the ASA said.

But it said Mr Mullen could not name the roles he was planning to shed because of commercial reasons.

Mr Mullen, who became a director of TWE in May 2023, stepped up to the role of chairman at the end of its annual meeting in October last year following the retirement of former chair Paul Rayner.

ASA says it is undecided about the proposed re-election to the TWE board of director Garry Hounsell, a former executive with accounting firms Ernst & Young and Arthur Anderson, also citing concerns about his workload.

It notes that Mr Hounsell is currently chair of listed HelloworldTravel and Electro Optic Systems and the Commonwealth Superannuation Corporation as well as being a director of the unlisted Findex Group.

“We consider his workload heavy,” the ASA said. “We believe Mr Hounsell is well qualified and can contribute to the board. However, due to his heavy workload we are undecided (over) his re-election.”

“At the AGM, we will seek further information about his workload and decide our voting on his response.”

Despite its concerns about the workload of Mr Mullen and Mr Hounsell, the ASA is not advising shareholders to vote against the TWE remuneration report.

Mr Paatsch said Ownership Matters was taking Mr Mullen at his word that he was planning to reduce his directorship roles.

He said he expected that this would see Mr Mullen step off the Brambles board in time.

“He is a quality person, and he has no intention of not making good on his commitments (to lighten his workload),” he said. “We are supporting his re-election.”