Former Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens and former Bankers Trust executive Jillian Broadbent are front and centre as Macquarie Group looks to identify its next chairman.
The prestigious position will see a changing of the guard, likely to be announced within six months, ahead of Macquarie chairman Peter Warne’s term ending in July.
Warne threw succession planning into the spotlight last year when he flagged his likely retirement from the Macquarie board in 2021.
That would mark 14 years for Warne on the Macquarie board and will have provided chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake about two years in the top job.
The chairman succession is somewhat complicated by the fallout of COVID-19 on markets and economies around the world, spurring a profit warning from Macquarie last month. It has guided that interim profit for the six months ended September 30 will drop about 35 per cent on the year earlier period, highlighting several factors including the “uncertain speed” of global recovery.
There is also the US presidential election, which Macquarie will be following closely given it earns 25 per cent of its income from the Americas.
The Macquarie board does have strong candidates to succeed Warne, but Stevens and Broadbent are the frontrunners in this columnist’s view.
Woolworths and Origin Energy chairman Gordon Cairns — tipped as the next Macquarie chairman before he took the reins at the supermarket giant in 2015 — is stepping down from the asset manager and investment bank’s board before the end of this year.
Former Westpac finance chief Phil Coffey would be an outside chance to land the Macquarie gig.
Warne — a former Bankers Trust executive — has been Macquarie chairman since 2016 and joined the board in 2007. His predecessor was Kevin McCann who took over from David Clarke.
Stevens, 62, has the clout in Australia and globally to pick up the chairman’s role, after joining the board about three years ago. His other board commitments include being on NWQ Capital Management’s investment committee and chair of the NSW Generations Fund Advisory Board.
As an aside, Stevens’s RBA predecessor Ian Macfarlane served almost a decade on the board of ANZ.
Back to Macquarie, though, and Broadbent, 72, has had considerably more public board experience than Stevens. She is a director of Woolworths and formerly sat on the boards of the ASX, SBS, Coca-Cola Amatil, Woodside Petroleum, Qantas and Westfield.
Longstanding Macquarie board member and former Insurance Australia Group chief executive Michael Hawker left his non-executive director role on Wednesday, a month earlier than expected. That was because of his appointment as a director at Westpac.
Macquarie’s board also represents a good example of gender diversity with a split of five men and four women. All the directors have strong credentials.
CEO search
Headhunters at Russell Reynolds Associates are in pole position to conduct the QBE Insurance chief executive search.
Now QBE executive chairman Mike Wilkins has privately told investors he will expedite the process to limit any impact on the company’s business momentum.
Former chief executive Pat Regan left suddenly last month after the QBE board investigated a complaint by a US-based female employee.
A review by MinterEllison on behalf of the board found material that fell short of the insurer’s code of conduct and ethics.
Wilkins is spearheading the process to find a new chief executive and is keeping close tabs on external candidates.
Insurance Australia Group — where Wilkins had a stint as chief executive until late 2015 — has just appointed Nick Hawkins to its helm, taking over from Peter Harmer.
That raises questions about what’s next for IAG runner-up and Australia boss Mark Millner.
IAG board member Andy Cornish and recently departed Suncorp insurance executive Gary Dransfield are also likely on the QBE candidate list.
Westpac’s auctions
Westpac is still working through its asset sale program but it appears the life and general insurance division sales will be first cabs off the rank.
JPMorgan remains on board for the life insurance sale, as previously foreshadowed by The Australian.
A final decision on the future of the investment platform business is yet to be made, but if a sale is to occur following a detailed scoping study, sources suggested that would happen well into 2021.
Westpac’s deliberations on its Pacific operations — across Papua New Guinea and Fiji — despite being relatively small, are also ongoing given the sensitive nature of the potential divestment.
The bank’s executives are set to meet with regulators and government on this matter in coming months, given some concerns Westpac may look to offload the operations to a Chinese suitor.
Last month, Westpac chief executive Peter King did not rule out selling the bank’s Pacific operations to a Chinese buyer, but said “all considerations” would be taken into account as part of a strategic review.
King was answering questions from a parliamentary committee, which quizzed him over whether the bank would act in Australia’s national interest and refuse a sale to a Chinese group if it divested the Pacific division.
“That (strategic review) process is ongoing and we haven’t made any decisions about what we will do,” he said at the time.
“We’d consider that (nationality of potential buyers of the unit) at the point in time that we need to consider it.
“We would take into account all considerations … who are the potential owners and whether they meet the requirements.”
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