Former KPMG chief Geoff Wilson joins Toll board

Geoff Wilson is the first Australian director appointed to the Toll board since Japan Post bought the company.

New Toll director Geoff Wilson during his KPMG days with then chairman Peter Nash.

Toll Holdings is to announce the first Australian director to be appointed to its board since owner Japan Post asserted control of the group, after it reported an annual loss of $1.43 billion last year, driven by writedowns across its transport and logistics businesses.

Toll is expected to announce as early as today that former KPMG Australia chief executive Geoff Wilson has joined the board of the logistics group, following a career spanning more than 35 years in numerous positions with KPMG in Australia, Hong Kong and the US.

Mr Wilson will also assume the role of chairman of Toll’s audit committee.

During his time at KPMG he was highly regarded for his accounting pedigree, and will be an important addition to Toll’s board as it looks to get its finances in order after a disastrous period.

Toll Group executive chairman John Mullen said Mr Wilson’s knowledge and experience across multiple markets, including Japan, and his leadership of large, dynamic workforces would be “invaluable to Toll’s transformation, governance and future growth agenda”.

Mr Wilson is the last of eight directors to be appointed to Toll’s board following its rebuilding by Mr Mullen this year, and the resignations in recent years of former chairman Ray Horsburgh and former director Nicola Wakefield-Evans.

Mr Horsburgh and Ms Wakefield-Evans remained as Toll directors after Japan Post paid $6.5bn to acquire the Australian transport group in 2015.

Japan Post has since acknowledged that it paid too much and is looking to recover some of the money by lifting the performance of Toll.

In January, Japan Post appointed ex-Linfox executive ­Michael Byrne as Toll managing director and Mr Mullen, the current Telstra chairman and a former Asciano chief executive, as executive chairman.

The Toll board now comprises Mr Mullen, Mr Byrne, Mr Wilson and Japan Post executives Kunio Yokoyama, Tomohiro Yonezawa, Taneki Ono, Noboru Ichikura and Norio Wakasa.

Under a new reporting and governance structure announced this year, approval will now be required from Japan Post for Toll to undertake “mat­erial matters’’.

Under Mr Byrne’s leadership Toll had done a strategic review of its operations to adapt to the challenging market conditions, to grow areas of its business continuing to perform strongly and to improve customer outcomes.

Mr Byrne has dramatically overhauled the group’s information technology operations.

Last month Toll strengthened its management team by appointing a new chief financial officer, former Treasury Wine Estates ­finances boss Noel Meehan.

Mr Meehan, who joined the company on September 20, brought almost 20 years’ experience in senior finance and leadership roles, including his most recent role with global wine giant Treasury and senior finance positions at Orica, Qantas and Australian Airlines.

In August, Mr Mullen said he was confident Toll would be profitable this financial year after reporting losses of $1.43bn loss for 2017 and $70.3 million for 2016.