The AGL board knocks back three from four directors nominated by billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes
Only one of the four people Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes wants to join the AGL board has won approval from the company ahead of its AGM.
AGL’s board will support the nomination of only one of the four directors nominated by dissident shareholder Mike Cannon-Brookes, setting the company up for a showdown with the Atlassian billionaire at its November 15 annual shareholder meeting.
AGL released its notice of meeting on Friday, saying its board would support only the nomination of former Tesla executive Mark Twidell from the four nominees of Mr Cannon-Brookes, through Galipea Partnership, a company associated with his privately-owned investment arm Grok Ventures.
Mr Twidell is the former director of energy programs at Tesla, and AGL chair Patricia McKenzie said he would bring valuable experience to the company.
But she said AGL’s board would not support Grok’s other three candidates, including former ESB chair Kerry Schott, Australian Financial Complaints Authority chair John Pollaers, and Metcash and CSR director Christine Holman.
“The board has determined that the skill set and experience of the other Galipea Candidates would not add to the overall effectiveness of the board,” AGL said.
“In particular, while each of Dr Kerry Elizabeth Schott AO, John Carl Pollaers OAM and Christine Francis Holman are respected directors in their own right, their skill set either is already present on the Board or is not aligned to the priority skills that are being sought through the current renewal process.”
A spokesperson for Grok said the AGL decision “made no sense to us”, and said the company would take its campaign for the other three directors directly to AGL shareholders.
“The board is rejecting highly-qualified, independent directors who are committed to helping
them make AGL the leading green gentailer in the world,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“It’s yet another poor decision that doesn’t seem to be rooted in logical business decisions and certainly ignores the threats and opportunities facing AGL.”
Grok welcomed the board endorsement of Mr Twidell but said that, even with his addition to the AGL board, the company would not have the breadth of skills needed to help AGL through the transition to becoming a green energy company.
Grok controls only 11.3 per cent of AGL shares and Ms McKenzie told shareholders it was “unusual” for a shareholder without a controlling interest to nominate so many candidates to the board of a listed company.
Given the timing of these nominations, AGL has not yet completed its own processes to verify the independence of the Galipea candidates,” she said.
The spokesperson for Grok said none of the directors it was backing had any relationship with Grok “other than broadly agreeing with our view – and that of AGL shareholders – that this transition needs to occur as quickly as possible and with an ambition for AGL to lead Australia’s energy transition.”
It is unclear how much support Grok’s candidates will get outside of Mr Cannon-Brookes own votes, but on Thursday high profile fund manager Geoff Wilson said his “small” shareholding in AGL would also be voted in favour of the four candidates, calling on the AGL board to support new independent directors.
Assuming all of AGL’s current directors are returned at the November 15 meeting, and Mr Twidell is elected as a new director, AGL would have six members on its board.
In the meeting notice Ms McKenzie indicated the company would be seeking to bring on more directors over the next year, with AGL looking to add directors with merger and acquisition experience, and candidates with “customer, digital retail and emerging technologies expertise”.
“The board is of the view that appointing the remaining Galipea candidates to the board could limit its ability to bring on additional directors who possess the priority skills outlined above,” she said.
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