Keiran Wulff used to joke with colleagues about his abrasive management style.
“You’ll never die not knowing what I meant,” was heard around Oil Search’s Sydney headquarters on several occasions after executive meetings.
His supporters say he could be gruff and direct, partly due to the immense pressure of trying to weather a massive oil price crash that was testing even the most seasoned of CEOs.
Others in the firing line say he frequently overstepped, with rumours of shouting matches in the office swirling through the industry.
A combative leadership style is hardly unusual in the corporate world but Wulff clearly overstepped, with a whistleblower brave enough to raise the issue with the board.
Three big issues with his exit remain unresolved. The biggest is whether he left the company due to problems with long-term health issues or because his behaviour with staff had become too big a problem to ignore. Chairman Rick Lee ducked and dived when quizzed whether it was one, the other or possibly a combination of both.
By including both health and behavioural issues in the company’s statement on Monday announcing his resignation, Wulff’s CV will inevitably be stained by the internal investigation which found fault with his management style.
The second question is whether this was a one-off problem or took place over a longer period of time. Lee said a whistleblower raised it in mid-June but questions whether there was an issue with the exit of CFO-designate Ayten Saridas remain unclear.
Finally, from a corporate perspective, there’s now a real vacuum over the next leg of growth with the company pulling away from a year-end target for sanctioning its Alaskan oil project.
Most expect it will have to find an external CEO given few company executives appear obvious replacements and the feeling among investors a fresh set of eyes is needed.
If Woodside Petroleum is any yardstick, that could take upwards of six months and risks putting Oil Search into a holding pattern in the interim.
It will also open up the PNG producer to fresh takeover speculation given its depressed share price and uncertainty over whether Alaska will proceed as the market expected.
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