BCA drops the ball in CEO search; Paul Scurrah blows fuse over chilli sauce
Tim Reed’s shambolic attempt to find a new chief executive for the Business Council of Australia, of which he is president, is starting to rival the fiasco that’s become of Richard Goyder’s efforts to name the next boss of the AFL.
Having winnowed the shortlist to two candidates, and with near-unanimity reached on Tech Council boss Kate Pounder, the work of the BCA’s recruiter, Russell Reynolds, was utterly trashed when a board member chucked in the name of Stuart Ayres at the 11th hour.
Whether or not that board member was Jennifer Westacott, the BCA’s outgoing chief executive, and someone who has publicly sung the praises of Ayres, a former NSW tourism minister, is unclear. That said, it’s hard to believe CBA’s Matt Comyn, BHP’s Mike Henry, or anyone else on the BCA board, would vouch so vigorously for the former politician (one with his own recruitment scandal trailing him).
What is known is that Ayres lasted about five minutes on the short-list while he was belatedly put through the recruitment process and had his name “sense-checked” with Canberra apparatchiks and BCA stakeholders.
The response from the Prime Minister’s office and those working for Treasurer Jim Chalmers, among others, was said to be tepid at best. From that point onwards, he found himself parked, as Margin Call understands it.
All of which has left the board sheepishly going back to Russell Reynolds to course-correct back to Pounder, who would now be well apprised of the board’s detours and dysfunction. As would former WA Labor treasurer Ben Wyatt, who’s still on hand if Pounder no longer wants the gig (with Ayres waiting with fingers crossed if they both say no).
It seems the problem all started with a view – misconceived or otherwise – that neither Pounder nor Wyatt were muscular enough to take on the Albanese government with IR reform. That’s a bit rich, especially when Westacott hasn’t exactly burnished her credentials in that space recently, either.
Blown a fuse
Former Virgin boss Paul Scurrah emerged on Twitter this week with his mind clearly a universe apart from the priorities of Pacific National, the country’s largest freight operator which he leads as its CEO and managing director.
Months of dignified silence on the platform were abruptly shattered when Scurrah fired off an emotional tweet slagging off Zeus Street Greek, a purveyor of authentic Greek cuisine. The issue was their liberal use of hot sauce on his pita wrap.
“Do better!!!” wrote Scurrah, hashtagging the restaurant chain and making a buffoon of himself. “Almost hospitalised from you (sic) unwanted smothering of chili (sic) sauce.”
Needless to say we were almost hospitalised from his overuse of exclamation marks. Readers may chortle, as did we, but for Scurrah this incident was clearly a national catastrophe.
Judging by the timing of the tweet – in the late afternoon on Tuesday – the fiasco with the chilli sauce might have capped a lengthy ANZAC Day commemoration. Margin Call asked Pacific National to provide further context for Scurrah’s outburst but didn’t receive a response.
Branching out
More on billionaire investor Gretel Packer – we hear the eastern suburbs heiress has placed some of her money with Sam McKay’s private equity outfit Point King Capital, McKay being an associate of her brother James Packer.
McKay was a key executive at James’ Consolidated Press Holdings and is still a trusted Packer representative on the boards of several entities, including the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Packer Family Foundation (Gretel sits on the latter, too.)
Not unexpectedly, PKC declined to comment on where Gretel’s funds could be channelled, but it’s on record that the firm likes global consumer companies. Among other investments, it has stakes in Mexican restaurant chain Guzman y Gomez and online pet supplier Pet Circle.
Oversight will be provided by the managing director of Gretel’s Ritam family office, lawyer Glen Selikowitz, who’s been appointed a director of one of McKay’s Point King vehicles.
Gretel had been close to fellow billionaire Will Vicars and for several years ran her family office from the same building as his Caledonia Investments in Sydney‘s CBD.
But as reported by Margin Call, she recently shifted her base to the suburb of Edgecliff and paid $26.5m to take ownership of a building in which she already rented office space. PKC’s office isn’t far, either.
DA lodged
Meanwhile, James Packer’s curious ambition to build a residential development in the Geelong suburb of Corio has had to be amended following discussions with local authorities.
Margin Call has been keeping tabs on Packer’s plan for a $7.12m block that he and his business partners bought last year. The working title for the development is Edenville, the partners being Joe Gersh’s Gersh Funds Management and former Crown executive Todd Nisbet.
A week ago the Packer consortium submitted modified plans for what was to be their 148-dwelling development, located on the site of a former primary school. That’s after lodging a blueprint in October.
Obviously something was amiss, except the local authorities won’t release the plans for comment until their concerns have been resolved.
Browned off
The privilege of pointing the bone at Australia’s rich and powerful, its wannabes and big egos, is that we must take the same medicine when we err.
Perhaps it was our giddiness at the Pies’ comeback in the fourth quarter of the Anzac Day clash on Tuesday that diminished our powers of deduction, leading us to mistakenly link Collingwood president and former Nine boss Jeff Browne with a yet-to-be-sold mansion in Sorrento.
Alas, it was the wrong Jeff Browne. The $25m-plus home on Point Nepean Road is actually owned by another Jeff Browne, a former partner at law firm Sullivan & Cromwell who endures there as senior counsel.
Medical skirmish not so healthy
Almost the entire board of the Heart Research Institute will be called to give evidence in a contract dispute with ex-head of cardiovascular research, Professor Shaun Jackson.
‘The scapegoating of business has to stop’: literal alarm at corporate Oscars
Seats were in short supply at business’s equivalent of the Oscars, but the speeches didn’t miss and at least one big name couldn’t wait to hot-foot it out of there before the dessert plates were even cleared.