AMP chair Catherine Brenner hounded out while Westpac’s Brian Hartzer has time-out in the naughty corner office
In-demand Arnold Bloch Leibler litigator Leon Zwier is not exactly prolific on Twitter, averaging a single tweet every 12 months or so since he joined the social media platform in 2012.
The unfolding Westpac drama, however, has piqued his interest.
On Monday morning, Zwier tweeted Westpac was fortunate that its chairman is Lindsay — as opposed to Linsey — Maxsted.
Juxtaposing the experience of former AMP chair Catherine Brenner, who was hounded from office over the company’s fees-for-no-service scandal and an expert’s report that was said to be independent, but had significant internal input, Zwier said Westpac’s issues with Austrac would have been seen as a failure of gender diversity in the boardroom if Westpac’s chairman were female.
READ MORE: Hartzer hangs on | Board survival matter for investors
Zwier told Four Pillars it was an issue he felt strongly about.
“I’m very concerned that female directors appear to be treated more harshly in a corporate crisis than male directors,” he said.
After giving up the AMP chair, Brenner also stepped down from the Coca-Cola Amatil and Boral boards.
This newspaper reported last month that she was edging back into the life she once knew, joining the global board of the Sydney-based George Institute and participating in a private corporate governance forum in Salzburg, Austria.
The forum was hosted by the Salzburg Global Seminar at its global base in the Hotel Schloss Leopoldskron, dubbed the Sound of Music palace because of its appearance in some of the outdoor scenes in the 1965 film.
The corporate watchdog could decide before the end of the year if it will take any enforcement action as a result of its long-running AMP investigation.
Ironically, one of the Salzburg Global Seminar directors is former ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft.