Thodey rings off as Telstra boss on a chat and a takeaway salad

No lunch in the boardroom. No selfies with staff. No tributes from adoring workers.

It was David Thodey’s last day atop Telstra yesterday, but while CEOs like Westpac’s Gail Kelly might turn an exit into a week-long festival, it seems the Thodemeister didn’t get that memo delivered to his phablet.

“He had an internal meeting and ate a takeaway salad,” a Telstra spokesman said.

There’ll be time for celebrations later: while Thodey handed in his CEO title yesterday, he’ll be around until August, handing over to new boss Andy Penn.

The telco yesterday also appointed Warwick “Austin Powers” Bray as CFO, replacing Penn. Bray, a former investment banker and McKinsey consultant, moves up from group MD of products.

Mpire building

It’s payday for Perth’s most stereotypical Russian millionaire, Zhenya Tsvetnenko, who yesterday listed his digital ad business Mpire Media after raising $6m from dotcom-hungry investors.

In yet another sign that the mining boom is long gone, the reverse takeover will see Mpire’s business decanted into the hollow vessel of gold and copper explorer Fortunis Resources.

Zhenya is to get 14 million shares, or 23 per cent of the company, valued at 25c each. With shares soaring 13 per cent to hit 35c yesterday, he’s already about $1.4m ahead — or almost as much as he reportedly spent on his wedding to missus Lydia in 2008. He’s also (of course) into digital currency in a big way, as chairman of bitcoin trader Digital CC.

Old farts clubs

They’ve been called “old farts clubs’’ — offices, complete with full secretarial services leased by investment banks to non-executive directors, which in the past have been mainly male.

The most famous is O’Connell Street Associates, a deeply private group of 25 prominent NEDs who share premises on the sixth level of 2 O’Connell Street in the heart of Sydney’s CBD. Members include the likes of Myer chairman Paul McClintock, Stockland chairman Graham Bradley, CBA chairman David Turner, Wesfarmers and Boral chairman Bob Every, and Maurice Newman, the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council.

Women have joined the ranks in recent years, most notably RBA board member Heather Ridout.

One of the O’Connell Street Melbourne equivalents has been the space let by Macquarie in Melbourne’s flagship office tower, 101 Collins. In its prime it boasted the likes of Toll chair Ray Horsburgh, Qantas chair Margaret Jackson, Transurban chair Laurie Cox and former Packer family boss Peter Yates. But the whisper is that the space is now no more.

Yates has jumped ship to the Myer family, Horsburgh and Cox are winding down and Jackson — these days chair of Spotless — is looking for new digs. Who takes her in remains to be seen but the good money is on Evans & Partners (who helped float Spotless last year) a few doors down the road.

CuDeco farce goes on

When will the CuDeco farce end? Yesterday Wayne McCrae’s copper outfit racked up 98 days since stock last changed hands, courtesy of a lengthy self-imposed suspension.

Extending its suspension on April 9, it said it expected to make an announcement finalising a much-needed capital raising by this Thursday “at the latest”. Needless to say this deadline sailed by without a peep. As did yesterday’s deadline to file a quarterly report detailing its financial pain.

The penalty for failing to do so? Suspension from the ASX.

Gaudry on her bike

Chief executive Tracy Gaudry has pedalled away from the Amy Gillett Foundation, the bike safety charity chaired by Liberal pollster Mark Textor.

Gaudry said she left proud of her 10-year stint at the front of the peloton, while Textor said the organisation’s leadership needed “new energy”, although no permanent replacement has been announced.

For a brief moment yesterday it looked like the wheels might have fallen off the foundation, with figures on the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission showing a loss of $430,00 in the last financial year.

But board member Jane Seaborn said they were uploaded in error and on Friday they were taken down.

“We’ve never made a loss,” she told Margin Call.

She said 2014 figures were yet to be audited but showed a $204,000 surplus for the year, with net assets of $691,000.