Gossip rife after Oil Search executive Ayten Saridas’s abrupt exit

Gossip about Ayten Saridas’s abrupt exit from Oil Search was rife after she left in December 2020, including claims that her time at the company was an ‘unmitigated disaster’.

Ayten Saridas outside Federal Court in Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Gaye Gerard

Gossip about oil and gas executive Ayten Saridas’s abrupt exit from Oil Search was rife after she left in December 2020, including claims that her time at the company was an “unmitigated disaster” and that she was a diversity pick for a job she was not capable of performing in, a court has heard.

Ms Saridas has accused her former employer – where she worked for just four months – of breaching her deed of release by actively misrepresenting the circumstances in which she left and she is seeking damages and costs in the NSW Supreme Court.

Ms Saridas has alleged former managing director Keiran Wulff and outgoing chief financial officer Stephen Gardiner bullied and harassed her after she was headhunted to join Oil Search, which forced her resignation.

Oil Search has since merged with Santos.

During a tense cross-examination on day four of the trial which is set to be extended by up to 10 days, a personal friend and colleague of Ms Saridas, Sunil Salhotra, said Oil Search’s former investor relations head Ann Diamant told him during a conversation in May 2021 that Ms Saridas’s time at the company was an “unmitigated disaster”.

Mr Salhotra, an executive who has worked at Santos and Pangaea Resources, also said Ms Diamant said “basically that she was hired because she was a female”. Under cross-examination by Santos’s barrister Jeremy Clarke SC, he agreed he could not recall the specific set of words Ms Diamant used but insisted his recollection of the “tone and context” of the conversation was ­correct.

He also denied being overly effusive in support of his friend and denied Mr Clarke’s assertions he was mistaken about the conversation.

“It is possible (unmitigated disaster) … was a reference to what was occurring at Oil Search, not in reference to Ms Saridas,” Mr Clarke said.

Mr Salhotra said he worked with Ms Saridas at Santos between 2009 and 2011, when she was treasurer.

After Ms Saridas left Oil Search, Mr Salhotra said he spoke with her and believed she was “upset” but couldn’t say why she left, except that she was “unhappy” at the ASX-listed ­company.

Wilson’s Advisory credit analyst Craig Brown also gave evidence on Monday and said he understood Ms Saridas to be a “highly regarded CFO” but that an analyst from Regal Capital said he heard Ms Saridas was pushed out of her job at Oil Search and she was “not capable” of working in it.

He said his best recollection of the conversation was Ms Saridas was “let go … (because) she was unable to perform her ­duties”.

Mr Brown said he worked with Ms Saridas at oil and gas producer AWE.

Another witness for Ms Saridas gave evidence as well: Kenneth Williams, a non-executive board member of South Australia Water.

He said he gave a positive reference for Ms Saridas when he was contacted by Oil Search’s people officer Sarah Elliot in 2020, and said she was suitable for the CFO role.

“I recall I expressed the view Ms Saridas had a strong technical background,” he said.

“I referenced the Coronado transaction … (when) she launched an IPO for a coal company,” he said.

“I pointed out that Ms Saridas tended to be quite direct. Unfortunately this is regarded as a credit or a good thing in male CFOs and typically, in my experience, it is regarded as a bad thing when the relevant professional is a woman.”

Ms Saridas’s solicitor Michael Gillis told the court Nuix non-executive director Sue Thomas – who spoke with Ms Saridas in 2021 – “refused” to give evidence despite being served a subpoena.

Ms Saridas is due to be cross-examined on Tuesday.