One AGL board seat enough for me, Cannon-Brookes says

The Atlassian co-founder had requested two positions, but his private investment vehicle says it has been impressed with the inbound interest from ‘high-quality independent … candidates’.

The Australian Shareholders Association had said they did not support Mike Cannon-Brookes’ bid for two AGL Energy board seats.

Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes says he now only wants one AGL Energy board seat, not the two it had demanded late last week.

In a statement, Mr Cannon-Brookes’ private investment vehicle Grok Ventures said it had “been impressed with the inbound interest it has received from high-quality independent director candidates” after AGL abandoned its plans to demerge its power generation business.

Half of the AGL board will also depart, including the company’s chairman Peter Botten.

“Grok will seek one nominee on the board with the caveat the vacated balance is filled by experienced independent directors, a strong independent chair and a visionary CEO,” Mr Cannon-Brookes’ company said on Friday.

“We remain focused on ensuring we have a group of people at the table who represent shareholders’ best interests and understand the economic opportunity in front of AGL around decarbonisation and delivering a more ambitious path forward for the company.”

The statement came shortly after the Australian Shareholders’ Association, in an email to members, said it had assessed AGL and did not support Grok’s bid for two board seats.

“During the public debate about the demerger plan, there was some speculation in the media that Mike Cannon-Brookes had requested two board seats on the AGL board,” wrote the association’s chief executive, Rachel Waterhouse.

“Our company monitoring guidelines do not support such a proposal, and at this stage ASA would only consider one of the seven director seats to be appropriate for a nominee director in proportion with the associated shareholding.”