Sherry Duhe declines Santos exit interview unless with the board
Days after lifting the lid on her tense departure from Santos, ex-finance boss Sherry Duhe says she declined a generic exit interview after her request to meet with the board was rejected.
Ousted Santos chief financial officer Sherry Duhe was asked by an external consultant to provide feedback on her “employee experience” days after revealing her acrimonious exit was triggered by boss Kevin Gallagher’s leadership style and concerns over changes to her role.
The energy giant was “keen to understand more about the employee experience at Santos and will be using the consolidated reporting we provide them with to guide them in making improvements where necessary,” according to an email sent on Friday to Ms Duhe from talent consulting firm TQ Solutions.
“All results are only reported in a consolidated reporting format and individual responses remain completely anonymous.”
Ms Duhe rebuffed the offer of a 20-30 minute discussion with the consultant, saying she instead would be available for an exit interview directly with the Santos board, which is led by chairman Keith Spence.
“Given my reasons for leaving were already summarised at the highest level in a letter to Kevin Gallagher – on the themes of his leadership style and the resulting Santos culture – which was subsequently shared with the entire board, I do not feel I can add any more context through conversations with a third party,” Ms Duhe replied.
It remains unclear whether Mr Spence plans to discuss any of the issues directly with Ms Duhe or whether any of the issues raised in a letter she sent to management were investigated by the board.
Santos was contacted for comment.
While tapping external consultants for exit interviews is widely used across corporate Australia, executives at senior levels often carry out the process within the company rather than outsourcing the exercise.
Ms Duhe, widely viewed as a potential successor to Mr Gallagher, announced her unexpected exit on October 14, with Santos explaining she resigned to “pursue other interests”.
She originally sent a three-page letter outlining her concerns to Mr Gallagher and Santos’s people executive Kim Lee.
“I gave Santos my best shot, but in the end just couldn’t reconcile my leadership style to Kevin’s,” Ms Duhe wrote in an email to colleagues last week.
Both Mr Gallagher and Ms Lee urged her to reconsider her decision to resign but she then received a phone call from Mr Spence saying the board had received a copy of the letter and the “employment relationship had ended”.
Mr Gallagher, who has led Santos since 2016, thanked Ms Duhe for her “significant contribution”, citing her leadership in driving cost reductions and operational improvements.
Since her departure, an array of accusations have been levelled at Santos, sharpening investor concerns over governance and continuity at the Adelaide-based producer.
Ms Duhe raised concerns about the company’s valuation and modelling assumptions, coinciding with a move to shift key parts of the chief financial officer remit to strategy chief Tracey Winters. Santos then convened its board of directors for an unscheduled meeting late on Thursday after investors questioned the chairman’s explanation of events.
Mr Gallagher also gathered his executive leadership team together on Thursday less than two weeks since the last meeting of the top leaders of the company was held.
The board meeting was expected to partly address feedback from several investors who raised concern over Santos’s official version of the events that led to Ms Duhe’s departure.
Mr Spence held a series of emergency meetings with investors on Wednesday less than 48 hours after briefing some of those same shareholders as he scrambled to explain the circumstances behind her abrupt exit.
Santos has faced a steady drain of senior talent in recent years. In 2024, long-serving executive Brett Woods left to become chief executive of SGH-backed Beach Energy, while Jane Norman left the previous year to take the top job at Cooper Energy.
Insiders have described a crisis-like atmosphere on the 12th floor of the company’s Adelaide headquarters on Thursday.
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