Short stay at Oil Search lucrative for Keiran Wulff
Coming after veteran Oil Search boss Peter Botten was never going to be an easy task, but outgoing Keiran Wulff has surely cemented himself as the group’s shortest-serving chief executive.
The shock announcement of his departure on Monday comes just 17 months after he took up the role, in sharp contrast to Botten’s tenure of more than 25 years.
Just as the ultimate reason for the resignation, whether health or complaint-related, was hard to garner from chair Richard Lee, Wulff’s exit package is also a little grey.
His resignation, effective immediately, is likely to see him relinquish his hefty holdings in restricted shares as well as performance and alignment rights – many of which were only approved by shareholders at the oil group’s AGM in late April.
It’s worth noting that in April the issue of incentives was opposed by 30 per cent of voting shareholders.
Still, he holds more than $1.06m in ordinary shares with wife Amanda and, after taking home a total package of $2.9m last year, there’s sure to be some money left in the kitty.
The couple have stayed true to their West Australian roots, despite Oil Search’s HQ being in Sydney, though time will only tell how long they will stay in the harbourside capital.
Since the end of last year, the two have called home a $2000-a-week apartment in the city’s north shore, owned by former investment banker Brad Orgill and wife Saskia, while they also retain a multimillion-dollar bolthole in North Freo.
Severing links to the PNG gas operator after working for several of its departments over the years may be easier said than done, however.
Wulff, a trained geologist who wrote his PhD on the Upper Jurassic of the Barrow sub-basin, was for a time a partner with Oil Search through his Aligned Energy biomass venture in PNG, though Wulff’s 30 per cent stake in the project was ultimately bought out by the listed company in September 2016.
Still, Wulff remains sole shareholder and director of one Aligned Energy Consulting entity, roles he has held since 2009.
Whether that holds any clue into his moves post-Oil Search we will just have to wait and see.
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Lifting the lid
Half way into Sex Discrimination commissioner Kate Jenkins’ parliamentary workplace review and there was little given away in her interim report released on Monday.
Details focused on the quality of the data itself, showing that, of the 345 participants, the majority were former and current parliamentary staff while only 16 current or former parliamentarians had so far taken part.
In an accompanying video, Jenkins described feedback from participation as “overwhelmingly positive”, noting that participants expressed feeling valued, respected and heard.
We’ll have to wait until November, though, to find out whether her findings can garner a similar description.
In the meantime, there’s more data collection to be done, the Human Rights Commission earlier this month tapping Roy Morgan in a $123,000 contract for its market research insights.
The commission said the research outfit was conducting a voluntary survey of the 3700 current parliamentarians and their employees, set to be disseminated over three weeks this month.
While the commission won’t make any judgment on any specific case, there’s no denying the catalyst to the investigation was the experience of former Parliament House staffer Brittany Higgins, more details of which were revealed by the Department of Parliamentary services on Monday.
Answering questions on notice lodged by senator Katy Gallagher in May, the department set out a timetable of events from the incident in March 2019, including that the department of finance had been notified of the security breach at 9am and hours later was behind the request for the office of then defence industry minister Linda Reynolds to be cleaned at 1pm.
No word, though, on what any of the key names in the review think of the basic training programs currently out for tender by the finance department.
The tender sets out for the successful supplier to commence training from September, and be complete by the end of the year – leaving very little room for Jenkins’ findings to be implemented there.
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Poynton at the table
Perth businessman John Poynton is the latest to be called to give evidence in the last remaining public hearings of Crown Resorts, this time its grilling before WA’s royal commission and its chair, Neville Owen.
Poynton was one of several directors shafted from Crown in the wake of Patricia Bergin’s findings earlier this year, but more recently it’s his wife, Perth councillor Di Bain, who’s been facing similar board upheaval.
Bain was only last month appointed as chair of Tourism WA by state Tourism Minister David Templeman after a stream of exits from the board’s ranks including former chair Nathan Harding, taking membership to just six from an earlier board of 10.
Good thing Premier Mark McGowan’s hard border with most of the rest of the country means any tourism initiatives are relatively slim.
Along with the new-look board, public servant Rebecca Brown has made a return to the organisation as its chief executive, while it scouts for a new managing director – an ad for the role boasts a $230,000 salary and opportunity to “deliver on the strategic vision and goals for Tourism WA”.
Within that role, there’s naturally some crossover with the state’s department of sport and cultural industries of course, the same department that oversees the gaming and wagering commission.
Recall it was former director general of the department Duncan Ord that resigned from his post just days after his appearance at the royal commission after questions were raised as to his qualifications in the role.
Needless to say, he now lists himself as adviser minister for culture and the arts, with Lanie Chopping now his replacement.
WA’s internal movements are proving to be just as difficult to keep up with.
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