Jack Truong hits back at Hardie chairman Michael Hammes after abrupt sacking

The ouster of James Hardie chief executive Jack Truong has descended into a public spat between the former building materials boss and the company’s board.

Jack Truong, former chief executive of James Hardie, says Mr Truong said he was ‘blindsided by the termination and (I) unequivocally reject the ­assertions made by (James Hardie chairman Michael) Hammes and the company’.

The ouster of James Hardie chief executive Jack Truong has descended into a public spat between the former building materials boss and the company’s board, with Mr Truong “unequivocally” rejecting allegations he created a hostile work environment.

In his first public comments since his abrupt sacking on Friday, Mr Truong said he was “blindsided by the termination and (I) unequivocally reject the ­assertions made by (James Hardie chairman Michael) Hammes and the company”.

“I’m equally proud of the progress we made in building a culture of inclusion and respect with our more than 5000 devoted employees,” he said. “Based on employee and customer feedback, it was clear that they recognised our progress.”

Mr Truong was removed from his position on Friday, after which Mr Hammes – in a frank investor call – described his behaviour as “intimidating, threatening and not respectful of the individual”. The company had commissioned an independent survey of management in reaching this conclusion, Mr Hammes said at the time.

Mr Truong became the latest executive at an ASX-listed company to be removed or depart a position after accusations of overseeing a poor workplace culture. Vik Bansal left Cleanaway Waste in January last year, Kieran Wulff resigned from Oil Search in July, and Paul Brennan quit PolyNovo in November over disquiet about their management styles.

Responding to Mr Truong’s statement on Monday, a James Hardie spokesman said the company’s board had “provided clear feedback and counselling on the impact that Mr Truong’s behaviours were having on his colleagues on multiple occasions”.

“The board ultimately had to make the difficult decision to terminate Mr Truong’s employment,” the spokesman said. “This decision was in the best interests of the company, its ­people and the delivery of its strategy.”

Mr Hammes, in a call some equities analysts found unprecedented, said several executives at James Hardie had notified the board they intended to resign as a result of Mr Truong’s behaviour.

“He started treating people over the last few months with a lack of respect, in intimidation, fear, humiliation, publicly and privately. And it wasn’t a one meeting problem. Why? I can’t answer that question but it was there,” he said.

On Monday, James Hardie started the process of restructuring its executive team. It appointed Ryan Kilcullen into the newly created role of senior vice-president of global operations. Mr Kilcullen has spent 14 years at James Hardie, and will now oversee a capacity expansion program and lead the global safety and procurement teams.

John Arneil, currently the country manager in Australia and New Zealand, has been ­promoted to the company’s Asia-Pacific general manager. He has previously run James Hardie’s businesses in Britain and Canada.

Harold Weins, a non-executive director, is acting as the company’s chief executive, while a search for Mr Truong’s permanent replacement is under way.

Another board member, Moe Nozari, previously a long-time senior executive at 3M, resigned from James Hardie effective immediately. Mr Truong, before joining James Hardie and prior to his time as Electrolux CEO, had spent more than two decades at 3M.

Separately, the company said Joe Liu would be appointed chief technology officer after a 26-year career at 3M, most recently as senior vice-president of R&D and commercialisation.

Mr Wiens said Mr Liu would bring “a strong track record of leadership within commercial, innovation and international management roles, along with a deep background in R&D”.

James Hardie shares closed 65c lower at $50.89.

Reacting to the departure of Mr Truong on Friday, RBC Capital Markets analyst Paul Quinn told clients he had “never seen something like this but ­appreciate the board’s decisive action”.

“Investor focus is related to whether the behaviour enabled the impressive financial performance,” Mr Quinn wrote. “We think that Hardie leadership struck the right tone on the call, and have confidence in their ability to identify the right leader. Therefore, we think that the pullback presents an opportunity to add to the stock.”

The departure of Mr Truong came at the same time as the company upgraded its full-year net profit guidance to $US625m ($873m), from the previous expectation of between $US580m and $US600m.

Mr Truong was previously James Hardie’s president of international before succeeding longstanding CEO Louis Gries in 2019.