Former AMP chair Catherine Brenner won’t seek re-election to Coca-Cola Amatil board

The former AMP chair plans to leave her role as a director of Coca Cola Amatil when her current term expires next year.

Catherine Brenner arrives at the Coca-Cola Amatil AGM in Sydney earlier today. (AAP Image/Daniel Munoz)

Embattled former AMP chair Catherine Brenner will leave her role as a director of Coca Cola Amatil, succumbing to shareholder outrage in the wake of the royal commission revelation.

After resigning from the beleaguered wealth manager AMP last month before the company’s annual general meeting, Ms Brenner has decided against seeking re-election to the board of the Coca Cola subsidiary (CCL).

“Catherine Brenner has been a Director of the Company for 10 years,” CCA chair Ilana Atlas told shareholders this morning. “She has advised the Board that she does not intend to seek re-election at the AGM next year at the end of her current term.

“… We feel that for an orderly transition, it would be appropriate – and we value her skills and her contribution – for her to resign and remain on the board until the next AGM.”

Ms Brenner was forced to resign from the top post at AMP after she became implicated in the company’s fees for no service scandal at the royal commission into banking. Ms Brenner was also implicated in a manipulated report send to the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.

AMP shares tumbled to a six-year low on Friday after last week’s overwhelming shareholder vote against its remuneration report and the likelihood of further brand damage from the fees-for-no-advice scandal.

The Australian Shareholders’ Association called on Ms Brenner to resign, citing her accountability for governance at a company that dealt unethically with customers.

Ms Brenner isn’t due for re-election until Coca-Cola Amatil’s 2019 AGM, but the ASA urged shareholders to speak up and voice their concerns at the company’s meeting.

The former AMP chair — who is also on the board of building products supplier Boral — has been a Coca-Cola Amatil director since 2008, is chair of the ASX-listed firm’s risk and sustainability committee, and sits on its audit and finance committee.

The ASA said it was unable to support Ms Brenner on the CCA board.

ASA monitor Roger Ashley said most Coca-Cola Amatil shareholders would have wanted Ms Brenner to resign in light of the AMP revelations heard at the royal commission.

The AMP board imploded in the lead-up to last Thursday’s annual meeting. Ms Brenner resigned, chief executive Craig Meller was dismissed, and two directors Holly Kramer and Vanessa Wallace resigned ahead of certain defeat in their re-election polls.

The company’s longest-serving director, Patty Akopiantz, will step down before the end of the year.

Executive chairman Mike Wilkins will hand over to David Murray before July 1 and resume as a non-executive director.

AMP last week suffered the humiliation of an overwhelming shareholder vote against its remuneration report, as the embattled wealth manager warned of further customer remediation costs and higher expenses to modernise its systems in response to the rolling fees-for-no-service crisis