Andrew Liveris in the mix for Jac Nasser’s job at BHP

Cartoon: Rod Clement.

As the process to replace Jac “The Knife” Nasser as BHP chairman gets to the pointy end, who should jet into Australia but outgoing Dow Chemicals boss Andrew Liveris?

The 62-year-old son of Darwin has flown Dow’s $85 million Gulfstream 650 private jet Down Under for something of a farewell tour. A $77 billion mega-merger with rival chemical giant DuPont is expected to relieve Liveris of a job by the second half of the year.

By way of setting up life after Michigan, last year Liveris and his wife Paula (renowned for her decorating flair) secured a $8.5m pad in Sydney’s prime ministerial harbourside suburb, Point Piper. Now he just needs a portfolio of local directorships — and a few company expense accounts — to match his ego.

So it’s interesting to discover that Liveris is scheduled to catch up with former BHP chairman Don “Don’t Argue” Argus in coming days. Could Liveris really be trying to put himself in consideration to succeed fellow Australian business expat Nasser?

Two things are certain: despite not being a member of the BHP board and being caught up in an embarrassing credit card scandal at Dow, Liveris is a peculiarly self-confident man.

Secondly, the Hillary Clinton loyalist turned Donald Trump loyalist would appear to have only slightly more chance of chairing the Big Australian than Gail “Cleopatra” Kelly.

The race leader would seem to be BHP director Lindsay Maxsted, so long as he can make an orderly transition out of his prestigious gig as Westpac chair.

Fellow BHP director Malcolm Broomhead, who we spotted in Parliament House in Canberra yesterday as part of an Australian Institute of Company Directors entourage, is still in mix. However, his role as chairman of BHP supplier Orica — currently run by the failed BHP CEO candidate Alberto Calderon — complicates things.

And then there’s fellow BHP director Ken MacKenzie. The former boss of packaging giant Amcor has far from a Steven Bradbury route to the top job.

Donald Trump and Andrew Liveris.

Romance in the air

There was a palpable romantic vibe in Canberra yesterday. The atmospheric rain contributed. But the main cause was surely the fact that last night The Lodge’s occupants, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and his better half Lucy, celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary. Cheers to that!

Political romance was in the air at the parliamentary coffee shop Aussies where Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young caught up with her idol Bob Brown. Also in the Aussies crowd were Franchise Council of Australia executive chair Bruce Billson and Bespoke’s Ian Smith, whose clients include Jennifer Westacott’s Business Council of Australia, the big business lobby that Billson sparred with in his previous gig as the most enthusiastic small business minister in history.

Over at the Trough, enjoying the much improved, now public sector-administered food were the private sector champions of the Menzies Centre: executive director Nick Cater, enterprise boffin Andrew Bragg and director Tony Shepherd, whose Shepherd Review (or at least phase one of the cri de coeur) will be released on Monday after the GWS Giant’s chair hosts Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in the SCG Trust’s box for the Swans-Port Adelaide game.

A less ironic member of the recently nationalised Parliament House canteen was public broadcasting queen Michelle Guthrie, whose new Aunty chairman Justin Milne — not lawyer Danny Gilbert — is expected to be formally announced today.

Guthrie seemed pleased by the addition of fresh rolls to the Trough’s menu. Although it’s no match for the fare her decorated chef Darren Farr serves up at his Singapore restaurant LoKal.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie.

Kennett’s exit

As much as we love a conspiracy theory, sometimes they’re hard to get off the ground.

Like the one about former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett pulling the plug as chair of mental health outfit BeyondBlue because of the fallout from the Amber Harrison-Tim Worner scandal at Seven West Media, of which Kennett is also a director.

TWAM-20160917 EMBARGO FOR TWAM 17 Sep 2016 NO REUSE WITHOUT PERMISSION FEE APPLIES Jeff Kennett Pic : James Geer

The inconvenient fact is that the outspoken Kennett publicly foreshadowed he was going to retire as BeyondBlue chair on June 30 as early as March 2016. Yep, a year ago.

And there have been a range of other mentions of his retirement plan since last March, including a cover story last September in The Weekend Australian’s top shelf glossy mag.

When Kennett first flagged his BeyondBlue exit he didn’t even know who or what an Amber Harrison was.

Remember that Kennett and fellow directors Sheila McGregor and Michael Malone only found out about the internal executive scandal when the former PA Harrison went nuclear last December with revelations of her affair with Worner and her subsequent treatment at the hands of commercial director Bruce McWilliam, head of HR Melanie Allibon and the Seven gang.

Kennett, Malone and McGregor joined the Seven board in mid-2015 at the same time as Worner, but were never brought inside the tent by chair Kerry Stokes or their fellow directors on the Harrison scandal.

Sheila McGregor.

Gender imbalance

So what of Gilbert + Tobin partner Sheila McGregor’s now vacant seat on the Seven West board after she left in early February over the media group’s handling of the Amber Harrison affair? At the time billionaire Kerry Stokes’s company was silent on whether the lawyer would be replaced to keep the board 10-strong, or whether the number of directors would shrink to nine.

Since McGregor left there remains just one woman to help steward the group, venture capitalist Michelle Deaker at her OneVentures, in which her fellow Seven director Peter Gammell is an investor.

The Australian Institute of Company Directors says boards should adopt a 30 per cent target for female directors. Seven is sitting at 11 per cent.

Meanwhile, following the departure of Holly Kramer and Elizabeth Gaines from the Nine Entertainment board, chair and former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello has recruited accountant Samantha Lewis to his top table. He expects to make a second appointment by the end of this month.

Maybe he could send Stokes his discarded short list?

John Neal.

Pay cut for Neal

Concerned readers have expressed disappointment over a lack of update on John Neal’s red-faced general insurer QBE.

Here’s one: sacked group chief operating officer Colin Fagen, who left the group in early February when his rapid upward QBE trajectory came to an abrupt end, is yet to settle negotiations with Neal over his exit package. Fagen engaged racy workplace law firm Harmers to help with his claim. A decision on the exec’s bonus was withheld in the recent QBE annual report. The decision is still outstanding.

Curiously, Fagen’s departure was almost perfectly synchronised with revelations about Neal’s blossoming relationship with his personal assistant, an office romance Neal was tardy in revealing to chairman Marty Becker’s board, who docked the romantic CEO’s pay by $550,000. Negotiations with Harmers continue.