James Packer’s hand out for first Crown pay packet

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It’s only taken six months but expect Crown boss Rowen Craigie and his financial sidekick Ken Barton to reveal today that James Packer’s Crown Resorts board has finally signed off on the 48-year-old billionaire’s first pay packet.

Crown’s independent rem committee — Geoff Dixon, Harold Mitchell and John Horvarth — has been considering Packer’s request, first made in August last year, to draw a salary from the listed casino company.

Packer’s no longer on the Crown board, which instead is now chaired by his Consolidated Press boss Robert Rankin, and is not a member of the five-strong senior management team.

Nonetheless, we are sure he deserves the roughly $10m a year that the rem committee is believed to have signed off on (with plenty of independent advice, of course) for his executive services and the work of his folk at Cons Press.

School’s out

The wholesale sidelining of the Scots College board in Sydney should strike fear into the hearts of a who’s who of corporate Australia who serve on the councils of top private schools.

On Friday the Presbyterian Church turfed the entire council of the elite Bellevue Hill boys school amid allegations (denied) of a power struggle.

Trustees were concerned over “corporate objectives outweighing the educational mission” of the elite school.

The sacked board of the registered charity had been led by chair Gillian Heard, a director of training consultancy The Learning Community.

In the 2014 college annual report, Heard recounted an update of the school’s “strategic plan” as well as implementation of a “ new policy suite to enhance our governance arrangements”.

The report shows the council included former Macquarie banker Greg Simitian, TressCox Lawyers corporate finance partner Philip Mitchell and Alfa Romeo-racing ANZ executive director Andrew Leithhead. None could be reached for comment.

Scots alumni include billionaire property developer Harry Triguboff, owner of Meriton Apartments, the late painter Brett Whiteley, film director Peter Weir and journalist-turned-barrister Stuart Littlemore, last seen shoving reporters out the way on behalf of client Eddie Obeid.

It is one of Sydney’s eight prestigious GPS schools for boys — unlike nearby Cranbrook, whose alumni include Packer and disgraced businessmen Jodee Rich and Rodney Adler.

The Cranbrook board, led by ARTC chair and outgoing Veda chair Helen Nugent and Eureka Capital’s Roger Massy Greene, boasts as members former Gresham adviser Jon North, Washington Soul Patts director Warwick Negus, Boston Consulting Group senior partner Patrick Forth and McKinsey partner Angus Dawson.

Rich’s ‘forfeit’

All of which reminded us to hit refresh on Rich, the co-founder of the Lachlan Murdoch and Packer-backed flop One.Tel, and his latest play, PeopleBrowsr.

The former One.Tel head dude is boss of the San Francisco-based tech company, which does something we can’t understand and looks to have run foul of California Secretary of State Alex Padilla.

PeopleBrowsr is officially “forfeited” to Padilla, meaning Rich and mates appear to have failed to file requisite docos with his office. They’ll need to get things sorted to recover their right to dream big in Cali.

There was no answer on the phone at PeopleBrowsr in Sydney yesterday, with Rich perhaps taking a minibreak on his 1600ha Woodwark Bay spread in the Whitsundays.

You can play tech millionaire at the luxury resort for a mere $19,000 a night. No word of a discount for long-suffering former One.Tel shareholders.

Bow and arrows

Great to see PR girl Roxy Jacenko creating a silk purse from a sow’s ear.

At the same time as being outraged at circulation of doctored images exploiting her four-year-old daughter Pixie, Mum was sniffing out an angle for the pair’s hair bow business.

After briefing media and police on the pics, Jacenko offered heartfelt thanks to her and her daughter’s disciples.

“As a little thank you — all orders … will ship FREE and also come with a complimentary small white bow — enter ‘thankyou’ on checkout … these revolting people WILL NOT get us down,” Jacenko posted.

Meanwhile, the folk at Romance Was Born, whom Roxy has in her crosshairs, are still talking to their lawyers.

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