Revolving Doors – June 2022

We start this edition with a new Government and a new Australian Prime Minister. Good luck to all the newly elected MP’s – let’s hope they can work together and resolve some difficult issues.

The employment market continues to be strong – there was an article in the SMH last week with the headline: “Sydney job pool falls below 100,000”. The city’s unemployment rate is now 3.2%, below the national rate of 3.9%, and 2.1 percentage points lower than in the same month last year.

My CFO market update reflects that movement also with CFO activity up 17% nationally from the same period last year. NSW is showing a 27% increase in activity.

My highlight for this month is the number of new female CFO appointments. I have been doing this report for over 5 years, there has never been a month where the number of female appointments outstrips the male appointments – until now!! My next highlight will be when this statistic becomes irrelevant and there is such gender balance that it is not reported anymore.

CFO Appointments – ASX Listed

•             Leading logistics provider Wiseway has announced a new CFO.  Chris Scholtz has been appointed CFO starting immediately.

•             Premium branded dairy company A2 Milk has appointed David Muscat as their new CFO.  Previous CFO Race Strauss is taking some time out to pursue other interests. Mark Sherwin will be interim CFO until David starts in October 2022.

•             Following Anton Clowes move from Servcorp to 3P Learning, David Hunt has been appointed the new CFO at Servcorp. David had been CFO at Aveo before the business was taken over by Brookfield.

•             Recently listed mining exploration company, Maronan Metals have appointed Ian White as their CFO.  

•             Car subscription business Carly has appointed Michael Mobilia as their new CFO as they scale up their business.  Michael replaces David Loeffler who has moved to Conexus.

ASX CFO Moves – Interim CFOs

•             Following a major shakeup in the senior leadership team at The Star, Christina Katsibouba has been appointed interim CFO following Harry Theodore’s resignation.  Will be interesting to see how things pan out at The Star.

ASX CFO Moves – Becoming COO / CFOO

•             Following the appointment of a new CEO at Magellan – Kirsten Morton who was CFO, and had been acting CEO, has moved into a new role at Magellan as Chief Operating Officer.

•             In a similar vein to Magellan, Countplus has appointed a new CEO.  Laurent Toussaint, who had been interim CEO, has a new role as Chief Financial and Operating Officer.

Other CFO appointments

•             Natalie Housson moves from MoneyTech to join me&u as their Global CFO.  I know me&u from going to the pub and ordering food using the “button” at our table. Katrina Barry has also joined as CEO – making it another female CEO/CFO partnership.

•             This month I got clarification on the CFO role at St Vincent’s Health Australia. Last month I mentioned CFO Ruth Martin had moved into the interim CEO role.  As a result of that move, Belinda Johnson has moved into the interim CFO position.

•             Lynn Love moves into her first CFO role. Lynn moves from Only About Children, where she was Head of Commercial Finance, to become CFO at Adora Fertility. This was previously part of Healius who sold this part of their business to Private Equity firm Liverpool Partners.

•             Property business Knight Frank has a new CFO and COO. Deb Kemp who was acting CFO moves into the COO role. James Harding moves across from Cushman & Wakefield and becomes the new CFO at Knight Frank.

•             One that I missed last month was Cherie Quinn’s return to Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CANZ). Cherie had been interim CFO in 2019. She returned last month as the new Finance Director of CANZ.

•             Transgrid has appointed a new CFO with Nadine Lennie moving from Atlas Arteria to become their new CFO. Jeff Forest had been interim CFO.

•             After four years as CFO of NSW Police, Adam Summons has left the force. The role to replace Adam has been advertised recently on Linkedin.

•             After 18 years with Hills Pet Nutrition, Agustin Pettinato has a new role. Agustin joins household and personal care products business Church & Dwight as Finance Director.

•             Barnardos Australia has finally found a new CFO. Ollie Parker joins Barnardos from another NFP – Sylvanvale.

•             Beverly Shaw-Lennox has been appointed CFO to ANC – one of the fastest-growing “last mile” delivery companies in Australia.

•             Ehinomen Akhabue has a new CFO role. Ehinomen is the new CFO at Secure Co.

Companies in the market for permanent CFOs

•             David Mackenzie, the CFO of asset identification business Data Dot Technology, has announced his resignation. David will be leaving the business in mid-August.

•             Standards Australia – Peter Homan is currently the interim.

•             Future Super – the role was advertised on Linkedin. No update as yet on who has taken the role.

•             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 resignation.

About the Author –

With over 25 years’ experience, Colin Kerr 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.