Mike Baird refuses to rule out tilt at NAB CEO role

Former NSW premier Mike Baird hasn’t ruled out that he’s in the running to replace axed NAB chief Andrew Thorburn.

Former NSW premier Mike Baird hasn’t ruled out that he’s in the running to replace NAB chief executive Andrew Thorburn, who was forced to resign yesterday in the wake of the scathing critique of NAB’s leadership team by Commissioner Hayne in the royal commission final report.

Mr Baird, who is currently NAB’s retail banking head, is believed to be among those in the running for the role, along with Medibank chief and former NAB finance boss Craig Drummond, and NAB head of business banking Anthony Healy.

In an interview on Seven’s Sunrise this morning, Mr Baird said he was “very proud” of what outgoing boss Mr Thorburn had done as a leader, and labelled him an “incredible person”.

“Andrew has the highest integrity of anyone I have ever worked with,” he said.

“He is an amazing man and he has done a great job.

“Clearly, there are some things that have not gone well but at the moment, we think he is a great leader … and we need to get back to work.”

Asked repeatedly if would be throwing his hat into the ring, Mr Baird said “no comment”.

“I’m not going to talk about that. I got a big job to do and I will do it.”

In an interview with The Australian’s The Deal magazine in September, Mr Baird did not rule out an eventual tilt at NAB’s top job, but said the primary reason that he rejoined the bank was to work with Mr Thorburn in the position he had been offered.

Asked explicitly if he wanted to be CEO at NAB, where he started he business career as a graduate and spent 17 years, he said he had “no idea what the future holds”.

“It’s certainly not the reason I joined. I joined to actually work with Andrew in this opportunity. In three or four years’ time we’ll just see what takes place. It’s certainly not something that occupies me day to day. I certainly wouldn’t rule it out as something I may want to do, but it’s not the reason I joined,” he said at the time.

Mr Baird joined the bank in 2017 after leaving politics.

Pressure had been building on Mr Thorburn, as well as NAB chairman Ken Henry to step down since the banking royal commission recommendations came out on Monday, after Mr Hayne singled the pair out from the other major banks, noting they had failed to take the “necessary responsibility” for the NAB’s misdeeds and cultural failings.

“Having heard from both the CEO Mr Thorburn, and the chair Dr Henry, I am not as confident as I would wish to be that the lessons of the past have been learned,” Mr Hayne said in his report.

“I was not persuaded NAB is willing to accept the necessary ­responsibility for deciding, for ­itself, what is the right thing to do, and then having its staff act ­accordingly.”

Mr Thorburn had been with NAB since 2005.

Revelations out of the royal commission claimed the scalps of AMP’s chief executive and chairman last year, in the wake of a number of explosive allegations, including that the wealth manager had misled ASIC at least 20 times in its probe into the fee-for-no-service scandal.

The commission also heard claims that AMP’s board had tampered with an independent report on an investigation into the scandal by top tier law firm Clayton Utz.

NAB came under fire during the royal commission for its approach to the regulators as well as instances of charging fees to dead people and where services weren’t provided.

Meanwhile its mortgage introducer referral program was fraught with problems and bad behaviour, the commission heard.

with AAP