Revolving Doors – August 2023

It has been another month of mixed economic and sporting messages. The national unemployment rate remained at 3.5% but dropped to 2.9% in NSW. Inflation has also dropped from 7% to 6%, the Ashes have been retained (only just) and the Wallabies are having another rebuild….we just need to get interest rates going downwards next.

July can always be a challenging month for recruitment – everyone is focused on their year end and with school holidays also in July the market can also give mixed messages.

In CFO land, July activity continued to be strong. Activity was slightly lower than for July 2022, but much higher than July 2021. Overall, when looking at year to date activity, year to date 2023 continues to be ahead of year to date 2022.

The CFO moves I found of interest this month are the following :

ASX CFO Moves In

•             Jared Gashel becomes the new CFO at Adbri. Jared was previously interim CFO at Boral and has more than 20 years’ experience across three continents. Jared takes over from acting CFO Dianne Mong who will resume her role as GM Finance.

•             Following a global search for a new Group CFO, Metcash have announced Deepa Sita as their new Group CFO. Deepa has a great FMCG / Retail background from South Africa. Deepa will start in January 2024 with Alistair Bell staying on until Feb 2024 to help with her transition.

•             Medical device business SomnoMed have announced Darren Collins as their new CFO. Darren replaces Herve Fievet who leaves after 4 years with the business.

•             Retail energy business TPC has announced their long-standing CFO Jeffrey Ma is retiring after 23 years with the business. Tony Marlin has been appointed as his replacement.

•             Olivia Shang moves internally to become interim CFO at gold miner Kingsgate Consolidated. Ross Coyle, who joined in 2011 as CFO, is retiring.

 ASX CFO Moves – Out

•             Unfortunately, due to unforeseen personal circumstances newly appointed CFO Susan Graney has resigned from Spacetalk. Tonderai Maenzanise, who had been interim CFO, has been appointed as the Company’s new CFO.

•             After over 5 years at professional accounting and financial services business Count, CFOO Laurent Toussaint has resigned to pursue a new opportunity. A search is underway for his replacement.

•             Following the divestment of the MyHealth 1st business, 1st Group CFO / COO Richard Rogers has announced his resignation. Richard has been with the group since 2018.

CFO to CEO

•             In what is becoming a common trend, Stephen Mikkelsen, current CFO of SIMS Limited, has been appointed Group CEO following the retirement of Alistair Field. Steve Skurnac will take on the interim CFO role. A global search is underway for the permanent CFO role.

•             Chris McFadden who was appointed interim CFO in Nov 2022 and appointed permanent CFO in Feb 2023 at AF Legal Group, has been appointed CEO. Current CEO Stace Boardman, who gave notice of her intention to resign in April, has been appointed CFO and COO.

•             Experienced CFO Sean Unwin moves into the Managing Director role at LDM Global – an advisory firm for the legal sector.

Interesting Moves outside the ASX

•             The NFP sector continues to be very active with the Australian Red Cross announcing Jean–Baptiste Naudet as their new CFO. JB is moving across from St Vincent de Paul Society NSW where he was CFO. A search is underway for his replacement.

•             Ruth Martin returns to the airport sector joining Melbourne Airport as their new CFO. Ruth is currently Group CFO at St Vincent’s Health Australia but was previously CFO at Sydney Airport. This adds to the number of female CEO / CFO combinations with Lorie Argus the current CEO at Melbourne Airport. Kaylene Gaffney has been appointed acting CFO at St Vincent’s.

•             Following 7 years as Finance Director at Fossil ANZ, Richard Dael moves across to Marquee Retail Group as their new Group CFO. Marquee manage the Colette and The Daily Edited brands.

•             Following a long interview process Will Langley has been appointed as the new CFO at Citi Australia. Will has a strong banking career across Europe, Asia and Australia.

•             There has been a bit of musical chairs in the NSW Government CFO space. Deborah Chapman moves as CFO NSW Treasury to CFO at Infrastructure NSW. Natalie Seal moves internally to take Deborah’s role. Matt Conrow moves from Infrastructure NSW to become CFO at NSW Reconstruction Authority.

•             Titan Cranes & Rigging have announced Adam McCall as their new CFO. Adam was previously CFO at Cranbrook Care and is replaced by Ben Marsh.

•             Tania Trifunoski gets promoted to Finance Director at airline catering business Gate Gourmet.

•             Leading environmental consulting firm JBS&G has appointed Polly Doak as their new CFO. Polly moved back to Australia in 2020 and was most recently CFO at Dentsu Media.

About the author – Colin Kerr, AXR

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.