Comyn’s renos leave out home office; How punted Brown navigated shipwrecked career

Commonwealth Bank chief Matt Comyn’s demands workers return to the office have not gone down well.

Commonwealth Bank’s Matt Comyn displayed some sterling leadership this week when he pushed out human resources boss Sian Lewis on Monday to deliver the terribly unwelcome news to staff – that they’re expected to be back in the office, in earnest, by July 17.

A tremulous Comyn signed the order but dispatched Lewis to sell the message to the bank’s 49,000 employees. What a guy.

Compare that with NAB’s Ross McEwan, who at least had the cojones to stare down his senior leadership team in person and tell them to get their arses back to work five days per week.

No surprise that the development thus went down most poorly at CBA, judging by the reams of anonymous text messages leaked in the aftermath of a briefing held by the bank’s tech division.

As one CBA employee pointed out: “In a time of increasing interest rates and cost of living, the mandatory 50 per cent at work is going to put additional pressure on our team members and family who will now require additional daycare arrangements among others.”

Not that Comyn has to worry about these petty concerns himself. The man was paid $7m last year and just received a dividend payment of $172,000 courtesy of his 82,087 CBA shares (and that’s to say nothing of the deferred shares and performance rights).

Instead, what’s more likely to be dominating his attention is the $1m pimp-out of his home about to get under way, courtesy of plans just approved by the local council.

Comyn and wife Lucy-Ellen have been toiling for seven months to upgrade all three levels of their Randwick, Sydney home, purchased in 2012 while the CEO was a lower-echelon manager of 500,000 small business customers.

They bought the pile after downsizing from a single-level in Wollstonecraft that, after its own renovation, had a wine cellar put in.

Thereafter the couple moved to Sydney’s east for $3.3m. The digs are undoubtedly worth considerably more a decade on, and even more post-build.

Ensuites are being added to the home’s four existing bedrooms and the landscaping will receive a touch-up. Wine cellar? We weren’t able to confirm. No sign of any revamped home office either, of course.

Stormy waters

Sacked NSW public servant Amy Brown, let go after the John Barilaro US trade appointment palaver of last year, is no fan of sailboats, apparently.

So she tells us in a piece – Faith on Trial: How God Met Me in the Storm – published by Christian media service Eternity News on Wednesday. “Last year, I found myself in a metaphorical sailboat … in a metaphorical storm, with torn metaphorical sails, trying to navigate a very tumultuous, dark and frightening metaphorical sea,” she wrote.

Brown hasn’t spoken publicly about her sacking since September, when an investigation by former NSW public service commissioner Graeme Head concluded that Barilaro’s appointment hadn’t been conducted at arm’s length from government. He found Brown’s actions, in particular, showed an “apparent lack of due care and diligence” and were not “fully in keeping” with the code of Ethics and conduct.

Axed public servant Amy Brown. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Responding at length, Brown revealed it was mainly God (“my shepherd and my saviour”) who helped her navigate the workplace tempest. He sort of created the mess, too, she said. That’s a metaphor, as well. Test of character, as such.

“He puts us through trials in the workplace not only to ‘refine us like silver’ (Psalm 66) but so that our colleagues can see how our faith in the eternal God – who loves us unconditionally and is always in control – makes a marked difference to how we deal with tough situations.”

Gut-wrenching as those months were, as Brown reported, she said the eternal lord provided some helpful survival tools during those days fronting the parliamentary committees. Among them were ancient axioms taught during Sunday school, the “blessing of Christian music”, and friends who sent a weekly bible verse.

Take note, all ye enduring a scandal hence. We’re looking at you, PwC.

Burrito buddies

Burrito purveyor Guzman y Gomez has added zest to its board, but without reaching far from the personal network of foundation shareholder and chair Guy Russo.

It has added former Target boss Marina Joanou, who goes back with Russo and took over part of his role as head of department stores Kmart and Target when he left Wesfarmers in 2018. Russo is also on the board of shopping centre group Scentre.

GYG is 11.6 per cent-owned by Barrenjoey after the investment bank bought the stake from Magellan last year. Magellan, of course, is also part owner of Barrenjoey so the transaction felt a bit clubby.

The deal was sealed for $140m and valued the restaurant chain at $1.2bn. Just a couple of months later another 9.3 per cent holding was made available and marketed at a price suggesting a $1.6bn company valuation. Quite the hike in just a few months.