Australian Wool Innovation says internal movement normal

Australian Wool Innovation has defended its decision to move its former chief executive into an overseas role. Here’s what chair Jock Laurie told Senate Estimates.

Australian Wool Innovation has defended the decision to move former chief executive Stuart McCullough into a new role overseas.

And the company has also said it is normal practice to employ new roles internally without an external search and interview process.

Questioned by Senator Glenn Sterle during the Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee Senate Estimates on Tuesday, AWI chairman Jock Laurie said “it wasn’t correct” that Mr McCullough has been “moved sideways without a proper executive search” into the chief marketing and innovation officer role.

“He (Stuart) has been managing that for a long period of time … and the intellectual property and contacts Stuart has, and the ability to focus 100 per cent of his time on that and not the 20 per cent time he has been able to previously (means he is the right person),” Mr Laurie said.

Stuart McCullough has moved into a new role overseas, sparking calls of nepotism from the Senate.

“I asked him if he’d be happy to go and focus on that 100 per cent of the time with the sole purpose of pulling wool through the system and identifying any issues and product development (needs). It’s a job he has been doing, but I asked him to focus 100 per cent of his time on it.”

Senator Sterle questioned if it was common practice to employ people internally without a search or interview process.

Mr Laurie said “yes” it was normal.

“We’ve moved quite a few people into different roles and that has been done by the CEO regularly. We can identify people with talent that fit in to a specific area. This is not unusual,” he said.

Mr McCullough has been employed in his new role on a “reduced package” which means his salary will remain the same as when he was chief executive, but he would no longer receive short term incentives, which were reviewed on an annual basis and could be between $50,000 and $60,000.

While no location has yet been confirmed for Mr McCullough’s new role, Mr Laurie said it would possibly be London.

“We want to target areas we can invest in from a marketing point of view, so we want really clear advice to the board where the opportunities are going to be coming from. We want to identify product development opportunities. That is where the expertise is crucial.”

And Mr Laurie said he believed the chief marketing and innovation officer role couldn’t be fulfilled in Australia as it needed to be “embedded in the market”.

“(I think he) needs to be embedded in the market to get a gut feel of what is happening in those markets. And I know from his experience of the wool industry he can the provide that information back to us. My view is that there is an opportunity to really sharpen the focus of our international offices. I don’t think we can be complacent, we need to drive this very very hard,” Mr Laurie said.