AGL Energy cuts senior execs and ahead of demerger
One of Sydney’s oldest companies, AGL Energy, will make the switch to Melbourne and hundreds of jobs may move with it.
AGL Energy — one of Sydney’s oldest companies that lit the city’s first streetlights 180 years ago — will move the headquarters of its demerged businesses to Melbourne and cull several of its big name executives in a major corporate shake-up.
The power giant, which plans to split into two by the end of 2022, told staff both its retail arm AGL Australia and coal-focused generation unit Accel Energy would be based in Melbourne as part of slimmed down businesses with top executives also set to depart.
AGL’s last chief executive, Brett Redman, was based in Sydney along with the legal, finance and corporate affairs functions. However, both AGL Australia head Christine Corbett and Accel CEO Graeme Hunt live in Melbourne, which was a factor in the decision while the bulk of the new executives teams also reside in the city.
The electricity operator already has a sizeable presence in Melbourne’s Docklands, where it occupies a 12-story building housing its trading floor, generation and customer service divisions. The switch to Melbourne is likely to see hundreds of senior jobs transferred to the new head office as well.
While AGL said it will retain a “strong presence” in NSW capital, the loss of its headquarters to Melbourne nearly two centuries after the company was first formed in Sydney marks a further changing of the guard as the company reinvents itself to battle tough market conditions.
Four of its nine-strong executive team will leave as part of the shake-up, with several business functions either combined or gone under the restructured companies. Concerns have been raised by some in the industry over the loss of a separate corporate affairs executive general manager for either company given the giant restructuring task still ahead.
The power giant’s future business and technology boss, John Chambers, will depart in February 2022 while corporate affairs head, Liz McNamara, and strategy boss, Joao Segorbe, will be gone by the time of the demerger in June 2022.
Long-serving company secretary and general counsel, John Fitzgerald, will leave by December 2022 after working for six months in the same role at AGL Australia.
AGL Australia has combined people and corporate affairs into one business function, as foreshadowed by The Australian’s DataRoom column, led by Jo Fox, who is currently in charge of people and culture at AGL Energy.
Ryan Warburton, AGL’s current commercial and industrial head, will take on the same role at AGL Australia while Jo Egan was named chief customer officer for consumer from her current role of product and portfolio head.
A search process for a trading, supply and operations boss for AGL Australia is underway.
Mr Hunt’s Accel Energy named Amanda Lee as chief people officer, a similar role to that already held, while joint secretary Melinda Hunter will take on general counsel and secretary roles at Accel.
Accel is also recruiting for a chief financial officer with AGL’s current CFO, Damien Nicks, already snapped up by Ms Corbett at AGL Australia. AGL’s chief operating officer Markus Brokhof has already been named in the same role at Accel along with a deputy CEO title, a potential nod to speculation he was in the running for Mr Hunt’s role.
Nailing down the roles will at least be another tick for AGL chairman Peter Botten along the fast-moving path to a demerger and ahead of a landmark annual general meeting three weeks away on September 22.
Mr Hunt will be paid fixed remuneration of $1.55m to lead Accel while Ms Corbett will receive $1.2m as head of AGL Australia.
AGL Australia, which will provide electricity, gas, internet and mobile services to 30 per cent of Australian households and plans to target full carbon neutrality to chase a higher valuation as a green retailer.
Accel will retain a 15-20 per cent shareholding in AGL Australia with Australia’s oldest utility, which dates back to 1837, planning to complete the demerger in the fourth quarter of 2022.