Ex-AMP chair Catherine Brenner back in the boardroom

Ex-AMP chair Catherine Brenner is quietly returning to corporate life after the Hayne probe.

Catherine Brenner is quietly returning to corporate life after the maelstrom of the Hayne royal commission.

Former AMP chair Catherine Brenner is quietly returning to corporate life after the maelstrom of the Hayne royal commission, joining the global board of the Sydney-based George Institute and participating in a private corporate governance forum in Salzburg, Austria, earlier this month.

The George Institute, chaired by National Australia Bank director David Armstrong, has facilities in Britain, China and India, and aims to reduce the burden of chronic diseases and injury.

Other board members include Yasmin Allen, who is a director of the Australian Securities Exchange, Cochlear and Santos, and Melinda Conrad, a director of the ASX, Caltex and Stockland.

The governance forum attended by Ms Brenner 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 famous 1965 film.

With the Australian Securities & Investments Commission likely to decide before the end of the year if it will take any enforcement action as a result of its long-running AMP investigation, it’s ironic, at the least, that one of the SGS directors is former chairman Greg Medcraft.

Mr Medcraft stepped down from ASIC in late 2017 to join the OECD as head of financial and enterprise affairs.

He was chairman of the watchdog in 2015 when it kicked off its investigation into the AMP fees-for-no-service scandal. Ms Brenner became AMP chair the following year, in mid-2016.

The theme for the private forum, which took place from October 3 to 5, was: “Friend or foe — how should directors face disruptive risk?”

Read more: Catherine Brenner praised as she ends stint as director of Coca-Cola Amatil

The program for the 40-odd participants was almost tailored for survivors of the AMP debacle, including discussions about why corporations are not more effective at taking preventive action to address risk, and the practices used by successful companies to promote cohesion between the board and management.

Ms Brenner was unavailable to comment about her contribution.

As AMP chair, she became a target for investors amid the turmoil that followed the appearance of senior advice executive Jack Regan at the financial services royal commission.

She resigned in April last year, three days after senior counsel assisting Rowena Orr told commissioner Ken Hayne that the evidence showed AMP had no respect for compliance, and a willingness by executives and directors to deal with ASIC in a manner that could be seen as a deliberate attempt to mislead.

Ms Orr invited Mr Hayne to find that AMP had broken the law on multiple occasions by charging fees without providing the required services, and presenting ASIC with an expert’s report prepared by the law firm Clayton Utz that was said to be independent but was found to have had a lot of internal input.

While Ms Orr recommended criminal charges, the commissioner did not single out AMP.

Instead, he invited ASIC to consider whether criminal ­charges should be laid against a number of entities involved in fees-for-no-service, without nam­ing them.

Ms Brenner also stepped down as a director of Boral and Coca-Cola Amatil after giving up the AMP chair.

Her supporters point to the fact that the company self-reported to ASIC.

They also say allegations she interfered with the Clayton Utz report, which focus on an internal email, are misinformed.

When Ms Brenner first noticed that then-chief executive Craig Meller was not in the Clayton Utz report, she emailed chief legal counsel Brian Salter and Nick Mavrakis, the Clayton Utz partner who was leading the review.

She asked that “Clayton Utz’s findings (whatever they may be) regarding Mr Meller be included”.

The royal commission heard that the reason for Mr Meller’s omission was contained in an email exchange between Mr Salter and Mr Mavrakis.

Mr Mavrakis said in the email that inclusion of Mr Meller would have attracted “unnecessary attention to (Mr Meller) by ASIC”, given that Clayton Utz had found that he was unaware of the fees-for-no-service practice and had not seen internal legal advice saying it was illegal.

According to her supporters, Ms Brenner was only correcting an omission in the report, rather than engaging in a cover-up.

AMP asserted at the time that Ms Brenner, Mr Meller and other directors had not acted inappropriately in relation to the preparation of the Clayton Utz report. If ASIC fails to take action against Ms Brenner, she can be expected to seek out other board roles.