Arrivals and Departures

By Colin Kerr

2021 has, as you would expect, started slowly in CFO land.  Whilst the end of the 2020 year saw a lot of roles being finalized and announced before the year end, January started 2021 at a much slower pace than the end of 2020.

There was a bit more activity outside of NSW – the main announcements of note outside NSW being the appointment of Shane Buggle as acting CFO at ANZ Bank.  Shane is standing in following the resignation of Michelle Jabiko who is off to become CFO at Transurban.  

It was also announced that Geoff Roberts, the Group CFO of Seek will be retiring this year.  It will be interesting to see who lands these important CFO roles.

In NSW there was less movement in the listed space – the only movements of note being the following:

• Andrew Stedwell is the new CFO at Ovato (a leading media, marketing and printing company).  He is replacing Geoff Stephenson.
• Copper and Gold explorer – Native Mineral Resources, have a new CFO in Chris Jacob who is replacing outgoing CFO – Emma Dooley.

There were however some interesting moves in the non-listed space.

• Seth Wreyford is the new COO at Hort Innovation – a research and development business focused on the horticulture industry..  Seth moved to Hort from Brita Water Filters
• Replacing Seth at Brita is Samantha Matheson – Samantha is moving across from BUPA where she was Head of Finance.
• Adam McCall who recently left Enwave Australia has picked up a new CFO role.  Adam is the new CFO at Pathway Residence – a privately held boutique Aged Care business.
• Emma Costello is the new CFO at Reserve Bank of Australia.  Emma has a strong financial services background having previously worked at CBA and Bank of Ireland.
• Former PWC Partner and Sunnyfield CFO, Mark Driessen has a new role in the NFP space becoming ED Finance and Corporate Services at Manly based Royal Far West.
• Linda Benson also returns to Sydney to join A2 Milk Company in a senior finance role – Linda was overseas initially with Aristocrat and more recently as senior director finance at Scientific Games.

Whilst activity was low for January – this is as expected, even without Covid January is traditionally a quiet month.  

I think we shall see the market taking of in the next few months, especially in the interim space as people head back into the office, projects get given the green light, and more confidence returns across the market.

Fingers crossed….