Grief over breach of trust

A chief of staff can cause a lot of pain to the leader and the organisation, as NAB boss Andrew Thorburn learnt this week.

National Australia Bank chief executive Andrew Thorburn. Picture: Hollie Adams

In my experience working in a ­global investment bank for 10 years, having written speeches for its chairman as a young thing and meeting and speaking with a generation of business leaders, there is no greater trust bestowed by a chairman or chief executive or political leader than the trust they bestow in the executive assistant or chief of staff.

Why? Because this person spends more time with them than their wife or partner. They often have a working relationship of many years. They clearly have an extraordinary privileged access to the inner workings of the top executive which could range from employee salaries and bonuses to the most secret strategic ambitions of companies, takeover targets and politically sensitive material.

On a need to know basis, the EA or chief of staff almost without exception needs to know. As a result, many become intertwined with the personal lives of their bosses, creating slack where they can, perhaps for quality time with kids, or going off the rails.

Sometimes they’re asked to bend a few rules perhaps, covering up executive largesse, the odd Christmas party indiscretion.

Who knows which EAs or chiefs of staff are this minute covering up the indiscretions of their bosses, affairs with other staffers in ministerial offices that might still be going on against the new rules, before they can be ­discreetly reassigned. Truly, the stories that a good EA could write about were they not the subject of strict confidentiality agreements could create a wave of airport bestsellers. They know the seven-eighths under the water, the skeletons in the closet, the frailty of their bosses.

These people are the great gatekeepers, particularly when it comes to the fourth estate but also, for business bosses, their direct reports, and for prime ministers, their ministers and backbenchers.

Take Peta Credlin’s much examined role as chief of staff to Tony Abbott, or indeed Ainsley Gotto as chief of staff to John Gorton. Smart and coquettish until the end, Gotto died in February of this year and took, oh, so many ­secrets to the grave.

Rosemary Rogers.

So it is then the ultimate breach of trust, if not betrayal of trust, when an EA or a chief of staff becomes embroiled somehow in a matter that damages the organisation and their leader. Such is the case for NAB’s former chief of staff Rosemary Rogers, who worked for nine years at the bank for two chief executives, Andrew Thorburn and Cameron Clyne.

Exactly what Rogers knew about the alleged overpayment and kickbacks to The Human Group, whose offices were raided yesterday, will no doubt come out following the police investigation. She is now part of the inquiry.

At this stage, there is no suggestion that she was responsible for this alleged operation and no suggestion that these allegations are true and no one has been charged as part of the investigation.

What we do know is that Rogers resigned in December last year after a whistleblower alerted the bank to what they saw as inflated payments to The Human Group, a business that managed executive projects and events. It should be noted that no charges have been laid against its director Helen Rosamond, whose business and home were raided by police.

It would appear that CEO Andrew Thorburn acted as promptly as possible, with an internal investigation swiftly conducted and its findings handed to police.

Rogers is reported to have resigned and, while no reason was given, a staff email from Thorburn referred to a “lapse of judgment” on her behalf.

Yesterday Thorburn found himself facing the media at The Leadership Institute’s conference. He clearly decided, with the backdrop of the royal commission, he had to face the media in a doorstop after his onstage appearance.

Noting that the reported stories about the kickbacks are allegations and that people have not been named by police, Thorburn spoke squarely: “There has been times in my career in banking where people step over a line — and that line is a line of what’s legal and what’s the law — and they commit actions for their own gain which when they’ve found it always ends in a very unfortunate situation for them and their families. And that’s the other thing in these cases — there are people involved who you know, I know and have worked with and there is ... a grief I have for them, as well as deeply for the bank.

“But I also would like to respect the police, they are running an investigation and we are co-operating but not involved with that and that’s appropriate, and there are people that are involved here, where no doubt there’s a sadness and difficultly and I’d like to give them space.”

It’s worth noting that Thorburn has been carrying this matter right through the royal commission grilling into different matters of fraud and corruption relating to the bank’s Introducer Program.

The Human Group cites trust as one of its core credentials, “sharing company values and complimenting your ethos” and promises to be “an additional arm of your company’s organisation with no hidden agendas”.

Ticky Fullerton hosts Ticky weekdays on Sky News Business at 5.30pm.