Revolving Doors – January 2023

Happy New Year and welcome to the first CFO Job Market Update for 2023!

It will be interesting to see how the year pans out and see if this “War of Talent” continues. There are more storm clouds around – especially in the tech sector with Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce making large numbers redundant.  We are also seeing some redundancies happening in multi nationals – especially those with a UK or US head office. 

Australian businesses seem to be okay at this stage but I think it will be a couple of months before we see more clearly how the employment sector is looking for 2023.

December was a busy month with some interesting CFO roles changing hands.  The moves for December 2022 that I found of most interest are listed below.

CFOs Becoming CEO

•             Healius have announced the appointment of their current CFO Maxine Jaquet into the CEO role.  Maxine had been CFO since August 2019 and replaces Dr Malcolm Parmenter who is stepping down as CEO.  No news as yet on who will replace Maxine in the CFO role.

•             Global office design business Unispace have appointed their Asia and APAC CFO, Heidi Duncan, into the interim Managing Director role for Asia & APAC.

ASX CFO Moves In

•             Good news at last for The Star Entertainment Group with Christina Katsibouba being appointed to the CFO position on a permanent basis.  Christina had been interim CFO since May 2022.

•             Real Estate media and technology business Domain will have a new CFO in Feb 2023.  John Boniciolli will be joining as the new CFO following Rob Doyle’s resignation.

•             Rob Doyle is joining creative online design business RedBubble as their new CFO.  Redbubble have a cool website…

•             Siteminder – the leading hotel commerce platform, have appointed Tim Howard to their CFO role following the promotion of current CFO Jonathan Kenny into the role of COO.  Tim joins from data analytics business Ortto (previously Autopilot).

•             Kaddy, who operate a technology platform to give beverage suppliers an end to end supply chain solution, have appointed Andrew Ong as CFO.  Andrew has a strong logistics and supply chain background from WooliesX and Australia Post.  Andrew replaces Clint Lander who has resigned.

•             Real Estate Investment Trust – Region Group (previously known as SCA Property Group) have appointed Evan Walsh as their new CFO.  Evan has been promoted internally.  Greg Inkson had been interim CFO following Mark Fleming’s move from the CFO role to the COO role in September 2022 .

•             Uno Makotsvana is starting a new CFO role.  Uno has joined ASX listed oil and gas exploration company – Melbana Energy.  Uno replaces Theo Renard.

•             Staying within mining – Ian Forbes has been appointed CFO at Maronan Metals.  Ian replaces Ian White who was Company Secretary and CFO.

•             Innovative technology company Inventis have appointed Michael Green as their new CFO.  Michael replaces Alfred Kobylanski who had been CFO for 15 years and has now retired.

•             RAM Essential Services Property Fund have appointed Brad Sheahon as their new CFO following the resignation of Ben Bochow.

 ASX CFO Moves – Out

•             Experienced CFO Alistair Bell has announced his intention to retire from Metcash – the wholesaler to independent retailers (IGA, Mitre 10).  Korn Ferry are running a search for his replacement.

•             Designer of steel bulk liquid storage tanks Saunders International are looking for a new CFO.  After 5 years in the CFO role Rudy Sheriff has resigned.  Brett Gregory has been appointed the interim CFO role.  Brett has over 18 years’ experience with Lend Lease.

•             Building energy management solutions business, EP & T Global are conducting a search for a new CFO following the resignation of Richard Pillinger.

Interesting Moves outside the ASX

•             John Freedman having taken on the CFO role at AVEO following their takeover by Brookfield has resigned.  Sameer Vij from Brookfield moves into the interim CFO role.

•             Robin Vandekreeke is the new Group CFO at The Harrison Group of Companies – an Australian owned private group.

•             Victoria Thompson is off to a new adventure, joining Lack of Color as their new CFO.  Lack of Color produce a range of men’s and women’s hats.  

•             After a finance career in the property sector, Simon Militano is combining his passion for finance, property and adding Opera as he joins Opera Australia as their new Finance Director.

•             Following on from last month there is more movement in the NFP space with Dinny Evans being promoted internally into the CFO role at New Horizons Enterprises.

Author & ‘CFO Whisperer’ – 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.