Revolving Doors – December 2021

Welcome to the final CFO Market Update for 2021. What a year it has been – just as we are getting back to “normal”, we get impacted by Omicron!

As a summary for the year, I thought it would be helpful to see the trend in the number of CFO placements during 2021.

The trend shows a steady pattern during the year until a peak in activity in September and October. Activity dipped in November primarily due to the market beginning to look towards a Christmas break. Whilst this shows the trend for actual placements, interestingly, my list of companies looking for new CFOs has increased this month.  There were more CFO roles advertised in November than usual – I expect these roles to get finalised towards the end of the year, with the announcements about the new CFOs being made in early 2022. The first CFO Market Update for January 2022 should be very interesting!

CFO appointments in NSW – ASX Listed

•             TPG Telecom have announced their CFO replacement following the departure of Stephen Banfield, who announced his resignation in May 2021 after 20 years with TPG Telecom Group.  Grant Dempsey will join TPG in February 2022.  Grant is currently CFO of Alumina.

•             Ladies apparel business, City Chic has appointed Peter McClelland as CFO.  Peter will take over from Munraj Dhaliwal. 

•             Chris Shepherd is the new CFO at Nickel Mines, replacing Peter Nightingale who has been CFO since 2007.

•             Michael Fahey has been confirmed as the CFO of iCollege following the takeover of Redhill Education.  Michael had been CFO of Redhill.

•             Integral Diagnostics is currently in the market for a new CFO following Anne Lockwood’s decision to resign.  Anne’s resignation will be effective 30 Jan 2022.

•             GWA joins the list of companies looking for a new CFO following Patrick Gibson’s resignation. Patrick is off to another ASX business. I will update you all next year.

CFO appointments outside NSW – ASX Listed 

•             CFO Sherry Duhe is moving from Woodside Petroleum to Newcrest Mining – both Top 50 ASX companies.  I suspect the search for a new CFO for Woodside is on hold given the potential merger between Woodside Petroleum and BHP Group announced last week.

•             Another Top 50 ASX company, Coles, has a new CFO with Charlie Elias being hired to replace outgoing CFO Leah Weckert.  Leah has been promoted internally to Chief Executive, Commercial & Express. 

•             Explosives and chemicals business, Incitec (ASX 100) has appointed Chris Opperman as Interim CFO, following the previous announcement of Nick Stratford’s resignation.  Chris is an internal promotion.

Other CFO appointments

•             John “Harry” Butler has stepped down as CFO of leading security business, Certis Australia (SNP Security).  Current Group Financial Controller, Rajat Dhall has been appointed as interim CFO.  John will still be involved with Certis on a consultancy basis.

•             West HQ (Rooty Hill RSL) are also in the market for a new CFO.  Daniel Brandon who has been CFO since 2018 has announced his resignation.

•             Craig White is moving on as Group CFO at Genesis Care (global leader in radiation oncology and cardiology) at the end of January 2022.  The Group CFO role is being relocated to the US.

•             Barnardo’s Australia are advertising for a new CFO following James Barry’s decision to resign.  James will be there until January 2022.

•             Lorene Hunt moves from BAI Communications to become CFO of Amplitel.  Amplitel is part of Telstra and is the new name for their mobile tower infrastructure provider.

•             Gareth Yates moves into the interim CFO Australia role for BAI Communications, following Lorene Hunt’s move.

•             Innovative payments business, Limepay have appointed Trent Millane as their new CFO.  Trent’s joins from MediaCom, where he spent four years as CFO.

•             Property Council of Australia (PCA) are in the market for a CFO/Company Secretary as Jo Gullick has resigned and is moving to Tasmania in the new year. Jo will still be involved with PCA in managing a major CRM project during 2022.

Other business looking for CFO’s include:

•             Standards Australia

•             Cushman and Wakefield

•             Knight Frank

About the Author –

Colin Kerr is a Principal Consultant – Contracting | [axr] Recruitment & Search – a specialist in executive search, selection and contract recruitment. He has joined to build up their interim / contracting business and focus on interim CFO roles and their direct reports. If you know of any recent CFO ‘movers and shakers’ or need any assistance in this area, please get in touch [email protected]

After graduating with a first-class honours degree in Accountancy from the University of Stirling, Colin began his career with PwC in their audit team in London and became a qualified Chartered Accountant. After a secondment to PwC Jakarta for three years, Colin moved to Sydney in 1997 and began his recruitment career with a leading international recruitment firm.