Santos chief Kevin Gallagher in mix for top Woodside job
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher has been named as a potential successor to Woodside Petroleum boss Peter Coleman
Santos chief executive Kevin Gallagher has been named as a potential successor to Woodside Petroleum boss Peter Coleman, with one of the biggest jobs in the Australian energy sector up for grabs for the first time in a decade.
Mr Gallagher — a contender for the Woodside job when Mr Coleman was appointed in 2011 — may prove a popular choice and could be a risk for Santos‘s fortunes in the interim, Credit Suisse said, under the headline “Bring Back Kevin”.
“We see Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher as a potential choice given popularity with equity investors and familiarity with Woodside business — Gallagher used to run Woodside’s North West Shelf asset and was a contender for the top job before Peter Coleman joined as CEO in 2011,” Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said.
“We see the possibility that Kevin Gallagher moves to Woodside as a potential risk Santos may face in 2021 as it could cause Santos to lose the ‘Kevin premium’ we believe it achieves due to market trust in his management.”
Shell executive Zoe Yujnovich, a former Australian boss at the energy giant, may also be a contender for the position given her experience working in both LNG markets and Western Australia.
“We might expect the candidate search to look beyond Australia but still have a preference for Australians living abroad given the political sensitivity of the role. Current and former Australian heads of the major — Zoe Yujnovich of Shell for instance — come to mind,” Mr Kavonic said. “We think a background in LNG, joint venture relationship management, M&A, infrastructure alongside strength in delivering a narrative that appeals to equity markets may also have appeal.”
Potential internal successors to Mr Coleman for the Woodside CEO role include chief financial officer Sherry Duhe, executive VP development and marketing Meg O‘Neill and chief technology officer Shaun Gregory.
Ms O’Neill is the frontrunner, according to the broker.
“From an equity markets perspective she could be viewed favourably as a strong technical pick — operations and projects background — to maintain base business resilience.”
Analysts immediately questioned whether Woodside might change its strategy under a new leader given investors have some misgivings over how quickly it can execute its Burrup concept.
Woodside chairman Richard Goyder indicated a focus would remain on its current strategy.
“I remember when Rob Scott took over from me at Wesfarmers,” Mr Goyder told analysts. ”CEOs will bring their own focus and energy and will bring his or her energies to the company. But there’s momentum and there’s a plan and we’re looking for an excellent person to take over from Peter. But the work we are doing will continue and we’ll be very focused on that in 2021.”
Mr Coleman was circumspect on his next move with his exit expected in the second half of 2021.
“I’ll open it up to the universe and see what comes. There’s a lot of opportunities out there in the conventional oil and gas world and also the new energies world. I’m proud of where Woodside is on our use of technology. We’ve been looking long and hard at some of these new technologies. There’s a number of areas for me to look at but my focus for now is on Woodside and Woodside solely. We have a lot on our plate in the next six months and I want to maintain the momentum we’ve got.”
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