Vocus takes second-best option when naming new chair

Bob Mansfield, the preferred option for Vocus chair.

The market liked the move but Vaughan Bowen’s ascent to the chair at Vocus sends all the wrong messages on the company’s recovery plans, and is a second best option.

Clearly the preferred option was to have former Telstra chair and founding Optus chief Bob Mansfield as chairman, but the Sydney-based guru was not prepared to devote the time to chair the Melbourne-based company.

Instead he will be deputy and Bowen will take the top job, which in name means he will drop the title as executive chair.

In reality he will be a very hands-on chair, which is nothing new for Vocus chief Geoff Horth.

Horth took Bowen’s job to become the M2 chief in 2011 prior to the telco’s 2015 merger with Vocus.

The message being spread internally is the changes are all about certainty, after what has been a volatile few months for the company culminating in former Vocus chief James Spenceley walking away from the board earlier in the year.

Vocus was trading 1.2 per cent high in late morning trade ast $2.50, up from the September lows of $2.26 but well below the $6.26 stock price this time last year.

Little wonder Bowen said his first task was to recover value lost for a company which had a market value of $4 billion a year ago and is worth just $1.7 billion today.

Vaughan Bowen

Bowen was one of the founders of M2 back in 1999, having just returned from a spell in Indonesia working in the marketing department at Secure Parking.

He is one of the smartest owls in the telecommunications tree and has extraordinary staff loyalty for those who have worked at the company for a while.

This means his move to the chair was internally popular, as well as pleasing the market.

But on any governance manual a former founding chief returning to be chair is not ideal at a time when some independence would help market the company.

Mansfield would have provided that but you can only play with the cards you are dealt.

Having waved goodbye to potential private equity bidders Horth is working overtime to integrate Vocus to fulfil the value on offer in its merger with M2.

Vocus is the fourth-placed telco in Australia and can leverage this to shake up the behemoths like Telstra.

Horth has recruited Simon Smith to be chief technology officer and Mark Wratten as CFO from Recall.

The team is now in place and the board settled, even if it’s a little too cosy, so now is the time for Horth to lay the groundwork for future growth.

Having now been in the top job for six years he is clearly closer to his use-by date than the start and one of Bowen’s key jobs will be to select his replacement.