It’s taken a few months but IOOF managing director Christopher Kelaher finally departed the embattled wealth manager yesterday as it now refocuses on “restoring trust” to its damaged brand name.
Amid a shareholder class action and court action by APRA, the prudential regulator, IOOF told the market what investors had been waiting for – that Mr. Kelhaer was going.
He has been on leave since December when the APRA moved to disqualify him and other top executives and directors (including the chairman, George Vernados) over accusations they had failed to act in members’ interests.
Last month Sydney law firm Quinn Emanuel kicked off a shareholder class action, claiming evidence from the Hayne royal commission showed that IOOF subsidiaries allegedly breached their trustee duties, and that directors and officers knew about it.
IOOF said on Thursday that Renato Mota will continue as acting CEO following the departure by mutual consent of Mr. Kelaher, who will be paid $1.27 million in lieu of his notice period.
“In the interests of the company, it is time for IOOF to move forward under new leadership,” said Mr. Kelaher, who had led the fund manager for a decade.
George Venardos had earlier been replaced as chairman by Alan Griffiths, who has been in the role on an interim basis since Mr. Venardos went on leave at the same time as Mr. Kelaher late last year.
“I am entirely committed to restoring trust with all our stakeholders and accelerating the pace of change in respect of governance, culture and the resetting of relationships with stakeholders,” Mr. Griffiths said.
“The company has experienced difficult circumstances and disruption during the last six months.”
APRA in December moved to disqualify a total five senior IOOF employees and impose new licence conditions, saying it had concerns dating back to 2015 and that IOOF had consistently failed to address them.
IOOF shares had been sold off because of disclosures during the royal commission but lost more than a third of their value on the day the action was made public.
The reaction from investors was muted yesterday, IOOF shares only fell 1.5% to $6.40.
