Exodus on both coasts as Seven West cleans house

Rod Clement’s view

All eyes may be on Kerry Stokes’s Seven West operation on the east coast, but in the billionaire’s home town of Perth, things don’t seem much more settled.

While philandering group chief executive Tim Worner fights for his corporate survival in Sydney, at Seven in Perth, things are also pretty chaotic.

Stokes and Worner (who is also from Perth) jetted across the country earlier this month, after Worner allegedly confided to an industry contemporary that he had some problems in the west that needed sorting.

That seems an understated way to put it.

Stokes’s western flank rivals the sex-obsessed Sydney HQ for drama.

Local boss Chris Wharton is on long service leave until March and says he’s returning to the top office. But it is understood Wharton will be “retiring” next year.

Meanwhile, his CFO Mark Shelton left the building at about the same time, when staff were told he was taking a role with “another company”.

He’s since turned up running a group of four roadhouses out of Perth, called Outback Travel Services — an interesting career move.

Stokes has wheeled in EY audit partner Philip Teale to fill the breach, which has tongues wagging on the terrace. What’s the auditor looking for?

The changes don’t end there.

In October, the retirement of group editor-in-chief of Stokes’s West Australian Newspapers Bob Cronin was brought forward. And the boss of Channel Seven in Perth Mario D’Orazio is believed to be on extended sick leave.

There is also talk that sales ­director at The West Australian David Bignold, who was also Perth based but in October transferred to Sydney, has left.

Seven would not comment yesterday on either D’Orazio’s or Bignold’s status.

Going back a little further, one time company secretary and CFO in Perth Peter Bryant, who also took a keen interest in marketing, was moved to Sydney to finish his career with the group. Bryant has since rebounded as CFO at Barminco.

Not surprisingly, the turbulence isn’t making headlines in WA, where Stokes owns most of the media, having recently received ACCC approval for his acquisition of The Sunday Times and its Perth Now website.

The swamp might be draining fast, but Perth is still Stokes’s town.

Amber alert

The woman at the centre of the Seven scandal, former executive assistant Amber Harrison, will not be asked to participate in the independent inquiry that Seven yesterday initiated into whoopsy-gate.

Nor will the enduring execs at the centre of the saga be asked to stand aside as it is conducted or pending its outcome, as occurred amid Nine’s 60 Minutes Beirut inquiry by former journo Gerald Stone.

There’s no detail, however, on the inquiry’s terms of reference. Seven’s non-executive directors who sit on the audit and risk committee — broker and former Essendon chairman David Evans (who resigned from the Bombers gig in 2013 during the Dons’ drugs scandal), venture capitalist Michelle Deaker and long-time Stokes lieutenant Peter Gammell might be wondering if they will be quizzed. Maybe even commercial director Bruce McWilliam and HR boss Melanie Allibon. And what about the proprietor? That would be brave.

Back when it was an unfolding internal scandal, an option to extend Worner’s three-year contract as CEO, which began in July 2013, was twice exercised by the board.

A year was added on the first anniversary of his appointment as CEO, which was the same time as the Harrison affair became known by Seven execs.

It was extended for another year on the second anniversary just as Worner was elevated to the Seven West board, which was about the same time that Harrison took her claim to the Australian Human Rights Commission. That takes his CEO contract to mid 2018.

Should the Seven inquiry continue well into next year (Nine’s 60 Minutes inquiry took under two months to complete) that would mean should Stokes decide to let his CEO go, Worner could be paid out nearly to the end of his almost $3 million-a-year contract, in lieu of a 12-month notice period.

He’d also leave with his fully paid shares, which are worth about $235,000. And his 3.5 million performance options could be subject to a financial settlement.

Retail billionaire Solly Lew’s exec Mark McInnes has already proven corporate reincarnation after a harassment scandal is possible. As McInnes goes to show, life could work out OK for Worner after Seven.

Return of serve?

Back in September, the flagship current affairs show Sunday Night on Stokes’s Seven ran an interview with professional kiddie catcher Adam Whittington.

It was billed as a behind-the-scenes look at the disastrous Beirut kidnap operation he had worked on at rival broadcaster Nine’s flagship 60 Minutes.

With that precedent, will Hugh Marks’s Nine now return serve with an interview with Harrison?

There certainly seems to be an opportunity for an enterprising — or vengeful — media outlet to swoop in.

Ever since she took to her iPhone with a blowtorch, Harrison has been separated from the full trove of emails and texts between herself and Worner.

Amber Harrison’s phone.

The black-label collected works is in the possession of Seven and Harrison’s former lawyers Harmers, who had great success representing Kristy Fraser-Kirk against her boss McInnes but haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory this time around.

We gather Michael Harmer’s scarlet legal shop has told Harrison she won’t get access to the emails until she stumps up an outstanding $45,000. Harrison says she has already paid the controversial firm $150,000.

Word is that there’s some stuff in the email-and-text trove that make the Seven wild man’s earlier missives seem tame.

All of which must be tempting some at Nine’s Willoughby bunker to reach for the cheque book.

David and Goliath

You have to respect the courage of Harrison, unleashing Armageddon against her former lover Worner and the might of the Seven West Media empire.

Stokes and his execs have amassed an army to counter Harrison and her allegations. Cost doesn’t seem to matter.

In-house, there is the legal brain of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s close friend and former business partner Bruce McWilliam, as well as trusted bomb-thrower/media strategist Simon Franci s. Top tier accounting firm Deloitte was also called in to audit Harrison’s credit card bills.

City PR’s Tim Allerton is also taking calls, while communications consultant Jim Kelly from Domestique is advising the Seven West Media board behind the scenes. That’s some damage control.

Seven also has the resources of its publicity department, led by Susan Wood. Interestingly, there’s been no word yet from Wood about Harrison’s Human Rights Commission claim. We’re all ears.