Revolving Doors – May 2022

As mentioned last month, the market for roles below $200,000 has been very strong and I thought the market above $200,000 would become just as buoyant in the second half of the year – especially once the General Election has passed.

However, this has happened sooner than I expected with April being a bumper month for CFO movements.  The activity for April 2022 nationally was 20% higher than April 2021. In NSW the increase from the same period last year was 50% – wow….

This month there were some notable CFO moves, some moving to CEO, several interim CFO roles announced and a number of roles that had been outstanding now filled. With so much activity in CFO land, I will try to summarise the movements as clearly as possible.

CFO appointments – ASX Listed

Racheal Kellaway is promoted internally to become the new Group CFO at Bank of Queensland. Racheal was the Deputy Group CFO to Ewen Stafford who has joined Loan Market Group in an executive role.

A leading provider of “Pay on Demand” services Beforepay have appointed experienced financial services executive Michael Bencsik as their new CFO. Michael replaces David Brady who is leaving the business.

Following CFO Dimitri Aroney’s previous announcement of his resignation from 3P Learning, Anton Clowes has been appointed into the CFO role. Anton was previously CFO of Servcorp. I believe Servcorp has appointed a new CFO but it has not been announced as yet.

Digital Wine Ventures – DW8, have moved quickly to confirm Clint Lander as their new CFO. Clint had been appointed interim in February 2022.

Data and voice services business Swoop have appointed Patricia Jones as their new CFO. Patricia is coming from ecommerce business Better That and replacing John Phillips who is retiring.

Listed biotech company Clarity Pharmaceuticals have announced David Green as their new CFO. David was most recently CFO of Ellume.  Outgoing CFO – Robert Vickery will continue as Company Secretary.

Carbon Minerals, a coal seam gas business, have appointed Kenneth Fung as their new CFO following Steven Danielson’s resignation.

I mentioned in March that Tracy Bucciarelli had resigned from energy procurement and service business Energy Action. Tracy’s role has been filled by Simon Smith who most recently was the CFO of Heron Resources.

David Loeffler has resigned his role as CFO of Carly, the car subscription business. David has moved this month to join Conexus as CFO. Conexus are a specialist publishing and events company focusing on investment markets.

ASX CFO Moves – Interim CFOs

The result of Seven Group controlling Boral has had an impact on the CFO role with Tino La Spina leaving the CFO role. Jared Gashel has been appointed internally as the acting CFO.

Aristocrat has announced Sally Denby as their interim CFO as the global search to replace CFO Julie Cameron-Doe continues.

Other CFO appointments

Ruth Martin takes on the interim Group CEO role at St Vincent’s Health Australia.  Ruth replaces Toby Hall.  Not sure if she has an interim CFO in place or if she is still performing her Group CFO duties as well.

Sharon Burns has moved from Suncorp where she was CFO of their Wealth business to become the new CFO at Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

Aged care provider Pathway Residence have filled their CFO role with Mark Broadhead moving into the role and starting this month.

icare NSW have announced the appointment of Stuart Farquharson as their new CFO.  Stuart is coming from Zurich Australia where he was CFO of the General Insurance business.

Yas Mendis has let me know he is starting a new role.  Yas is joining Bisley & Company as their new CFO.  Bisley & Company market and distribute industrial raw materials.

 The Australian Museum has a new CFO – Brett Ogier will be joining later in the year as their new CFO.

After nearly 10 years at Huawei, Luke Austin has found a new home as CFO of Thinxtra – the IoT Telco – they connect the physical and the digital world with the right IoT network and solution, so you can remotely track the location of assets or monitor their condition in real-time.

Kevin Fine who has been CFO of a number of Australian iconic retailers has changed sectors.  Kevin is now the CFO of Omni Tankers – a manufacturer of specialised tank containers.

Hospital and Health Care Group – Southern Cross Care have appointed Simon Officer as their new CFO.  Tara Williams had been acting CFO during the recruitment process.

 After 18 years at Abacus Property, CFO Rob Baulderstone will retire.  Rob is replaced by Evan Goodridge who has been promoted internally.  

Yvonne Martins has moved to IT consulting business Cloudwerx as their new CFO. Cloudwerx were listed as number 18 in Deloitte Fast 50 technology companies for 2022.

Brett Owers has moved from listed consumer goods business McPherson’s where he was a commercial finance director to Australian retailer – Winning Group as their new CFO.

Omar Kasdi has also moved on from McPherson’s. Omar was Group Financial Controller at McPherson’s and has recently joined internet provider RISE as their new CFO.

 Matt Croasdaile has landed a new CFO role and has started this month with Aje – a contemporary Australian fashion brand.  Matt is ex Macquarie Group and was the CFO of RM Williams and Dimeo.

Companies in the market for permanent CFOs

Barnardos Australia – I have spoken to a number of candidates who have been in the process for this role but still no one appointed yet.

Standards Australia – Peter Homan is currently the interim CFO.

Knight Frank – Deb Kemp is the interim CFO.

Future Super – role was advertised on Linkedin.

Colonial First State – given Andrew Morgan’s move to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, I am yet to hear who has replaced him as CFO

I expect it will be a couple of months before we find out who the new CFO is at oOh!Media given Sheila Lines’s resignation last month.

Also looking forward to hearing who gets the CFO role at Telstra following Vicki Brady’s promotion to CEO. This is likely to be announced later in the year.  [Hot off the press! Michael Ackland will take over the CFO role from September. This is an internal promotion].

Author – Colin Kerr

With over 25 years’ experience, Colin is a specialist interim and contracting recruiter within Accounting and Finance. If the role requires a qualified accountant – that is Colin’s area of expertise. He focuses on the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role and the direct reports (Financial Controller, Finance Manager, Management Accountant, Financial Planning & Analysis), as well as any other finance roles that sit in a corporate head office – tax, internal audit and treasury.