Paula Dwyer faces opposition from AGL’s biggest shareholder as she seeks chair role

Paula Dwyer has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Peter Botten as AGL chair, but faces tension with its biggest shareholder.

Mike Cannon-Brookes is AGL’s biggest shareholder.

AGL Energy faces a fresh fight with its biggest shareholder, Mike Cannon-Brookes, after it short-listed Paula Dwyer as its next chair ahead of a major overhaul of its board and strategy.

Ms Dwyer is in the running to take over from Peter Botten as chair but the potential appointment of the seasoned director looks likely to re-open a rift with the high profile billionaire who has been agitating for a climate-savvy hire who can transform AGL into a green energy player.

AGL was expected to name its new chair at a strategy update in the last week of September but may now confirm the appointment earlier with Ms Dwyer in pole position to take over the top board role, beating out other contenders including Treasury Wine Estates chairman Paul Rayner.

Paula Dwyer has been short-listed to take over as chair of AGL. Picture: Aaron Francis

Pressure has been growing on the board to find a suitable candidate after Mr Cannon-Brookes effectively sunk the company’s planned demerger in May in a stunning defeat for the nation’s largest power generator. Mr Botten and chief executive Graeme Hunt were among four directors to quit with the company’s strategy plunged into disarray. The billionaire, who was part of two rejected takeover bids for AGL with Brookfield, has laid out demands for a swifter exit from coal and higher climate goals.

His private vehicle, Grok, said in June it was important “to find an independent chair that‘s really, really strong” who could accelerate the utility into a clean-focused energy company, harnessing the combined power of households’ rooftop solar and batteries.

Grok expressed serious misgivings about Ms Dwyer’s appointment given its view the company needs to be fundamentally rebuilt to extract value for shareholders from the energy transition, sources said.

Ms Dwyer was a previous chair of gaming giant Tabcorp and Healthscope and was thought to be in the running to become chair of ANZ after a long stint as a director at the top four bank. Healthscope was sold under Ms Dwyer’s watch for $5.7bn to Canada’s Brookfield, which recently emerged with a 2.6 per cent stake in AGL, further stoking takeover speculation.

Outgoing chair Peter Botten. Picture: Adam Yip

AGL said on Tuesday the selection process was well advanced noting the “process for appointing the incoming chair, as with any new director, is a responsibility of the AGL board and its nominations committee. AGL will provide further updates to the market as required.”

The new chair faces impatient investors looking for a cohesive plan to guide it through massive electricity market volatility.

AGL directors Vanessa Sullivan and Graham Cockroft have faced a formidable to-do list: anchoring a fourfold strategy refresh that involves adapting the initial demerger rationale into a renewed single business, reworking its climate plans, executing the correct energy mix to guide it through the transition and determining the right capital structure to fund both its existing business and bulging renewables pipeline.

Grok met with AGL after its annual results in late August and the influence of its largest shareholder in moulding the new company will also be closely watched with the tech titan’s investment group expected to be handed a board role to reflect its ownership clout.