Global Express boss Christine Holgate gets to work with new hires
You could hardly call Christine Holgate’s break between jobs a holiday, though the 10-month stint off work before joining Global Express sure has put a little pep in her step, or so it seems.
A week into her new role as boss of parcel group Global Express, Holgate has had plenty to busy herself with, not least making her mark on the newly spun-off business now under ownership by private equity outfit Allegro and its managing director Adrian Loader.
That includes expanding her leadership team.
Margin Call hears there’s been a new hire to lead the company’s finance function, and if past experience is any guide we wouldn’t discount a former Australian Post colleague for the position.
Recall even well before Holgate’s first day at the firm she had already snagged several of her former employer’s top staff members, prompting chair Lucio Di Bartolomeo to issue retention bonuses as a means to keep the IP in house.
Unlikely as it might be, we wouldn’t put it past current Post CFO Rodney Boys to make the shift.
And just as Holgate busies herself with matters of staffing, so too has she joined the boards of 12 new company entities, bolstering her resume alongside her ongoing positions on Mark Korda’s Collingwood board, though that too could be at risk at the December AGM if the membership unrest continues.
Along with the expected Australian Parcels business, the new chief assumes directorships of Eagle Property CO, Queen Shipping and Taslink, among others.
But just as Holgate resumes her executive duties, there’s another in her Mosman home taking some time out.
Husband Mike Harding is counting down the days to his retirement from the Downer board at the end of the month.
Let’s hope that all goes off without a hitch.
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Labor blow in
It’s close to 50km from Cabramatta in Sydney’s west to the rarefied northern beaches environs of Scotland Island on Sydney’s Pittwater.
But for Senator for NSW Kristina Keneally it might as well be a world away.
Word on the street is that former NSW Labor Premier Keneally is being considered for the western Sydney lower house seat of Fowler, from which incumbent MP Chris Hayes is retiring at the next federal election.
Such a move would be Keneally’s second tilt at the lower house, having run and lost against former Aussie tennis great John Alexander in the seat of Bennelong in late 2017.
Keneally again shifting her focus to the House of Representatives seat would solve a major problem for Labor’s NSW Right amid the continuing battle between Keneally, who is deputy leader of the opposition in the Senate and shadow minister for home affairs, and Labor senator since 2016 Deborah O’Neill for just one right-wing upper house spot.
But a shift for Keneally to Fowler, which takes in suburbs that include Abbotsbury, Cabramatta (where Fowler has his electorate office), Canley Heights, Canley Vale, Chipping Norton, Fairfield East, Liverpool, Mount Pritchard, Prairiewood, Wakeley and Warwick Farm, would mean major upheaval for the pollie and her BCG partner Ben Keneally.
In late 2017 the power couple paid $1.8m for their waterfront hideaway property looking towards Bayview on the exclusive Pittwater island, moving from Hunters Hill where they had previously been renting after selling in Pagewood.
Management consultant Ben, of course, is a former mayor of Botany, again, nowhere near Liverpool.
That’s the thing about being a federal senator, you can choose to live anywhere in your state and not cop flack.
But would the good people of Fowler welcome such a blow in?
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Queensland rules
As if the stringent border restrictions weren’t enough, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk didn’t hold back in stomping on the hearts of NSW footy fans on Wednesday, expressing her glee at hosting the entirety of the finals series in the Sunshine State.
It’s the first time the NRL final hasn’t been played in Sydney in the league’s 114-year history, and is set to deliver more than just bragging rights, with an expected $25m economic lift across the remaining games.
Among the recipients of the uplift are set to be the clutch of state-owned stadiums, which last year posted a $9m loss which was put down to capacity restrictions.
All the while the recently de-branded Stadium Australia sits vacant – the move surely another hurdle in the venue’s ongoing sponsorship quest (and in contrast to family owned printing group BB Print whose sponsorship of Mackay Stadium is surely paying off).
The Australian Rugby League Commission was represented by its head of football Graham Annesley at the (largely expected) announcement on the Sunshine Coast, while chairman Peter V’landys and NRL chief Andrew Abdo remained in locked-down Sydney.
Seems Palaszczuk’s penchant for NRL exemptions didn’t quite extend to the administrators themselves.
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How’s that for a rough deal?
If shepherding the league through the pandemic and all of its politics wasn’t enough to juggle, V’landys Sydney home has also been undergoing its own upheaval.
The chairman and wife Phillipa recently got the go-ahead on a near half a million dollar upgrade to their six bed home, bought in 2019.
Works include an extension to the upper floor, demolition and rebuild of a double-garage to include a lift and extended coverage of the pool cabana.
All that earthwork would hardly be pleasant to calm the tensions on any zoom negotiations.
He’s not the only one of the league’s commissioner’s set to watch the proceedings from the couch – former Queensland premier Peter Beattie remains off limits in Balmain, as is Gary Weiss, better known for corporate raiding conquests, Wayne Pearce and Tony McGrath.
In the state for the finals are former Queensland sports minister Kate Jones and Megan Davis.
All those Sydneysiders can at least take solace in holding the Origin trophy.
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