Monday saw a round of significant changes on the board of embattled energy provider, AGL with a couple major retirements, two new appointments and an impending departure.
A week ago, AGL had no new CEO and chair, then Paula Dwyer, the former chair of Tabcorp was the new AGL Energy chair, but there was still no new CEO; then she was out after media criticism. Yesterday AGL had a chair-elect, but still no new CEO.
AGL is one of Australia’s largest energy companies, the country’s biggest coal generator and greenhouse gas emitter. The changes were made necessary by the collapse of its demerger idea ahead of a shareholder meeting in late May that resulted in yesterday’s board changes being foreshadowed at the time.
AGL announced to the ASX that chairman Peter Botten had decided to step down from the Board, with current Board member Patricia McKenzie replacing him as Chair, effective yesterday.
Ms McKenzie is currently the Chair of NSW Ports and the Sydney Desalination Plant group companies. She was previously the Chair of Essential Energy, a director of APA Group, AEMO ((Australian Energy Market Operator), Macquarie Generation and Transgrid, CEO of the Gas Market Company and a key participant in the Council of Australian Government’s National Energy Reform. Ms McKenzie was also the Chair-elect of AGL Australia.
Also joining the board from yesterday will be Miles George, a former Chair of the Clean Energy Council and adviser to the AEMC (Australian Energy Markets Commission) and AEMO as an Independent Non-Executive Director.
AGL said Mr George is the third new Director appointed in the last 12 months, joining ESG and energy transition specialist Vanessa Sullivan and long-term international energy executive Graham Cockroft.
In line with the changes above, non-Executive Director Diane Smith-Gander brought forward her resignation date to yesterday.
CEO Graeme Hunt will finish in his role on September 30, at which point Chief Financial Officer Damien Nicks will take up the role of interim Chief Executive Officer. Finance and energy executive Gary Brown will act as Interim Chief Financial Officer.
These changes were made necessary by AGL’s decision in late May to end its demerger proposal after significant opposition from some shareholders meant the idea would have been defeated at a shareholder meeting.
The opposition was led by Michael Cannon-Brookes, whose investment co, Grok Ventures has just over 11% of AGL.
The withdrawal of the demerger idea meant that several senior management and board members would be going, with AGL announcing the resignation of both CEO Hunt and chair Botten.
AGL was planning to split the company into two – putting the bulk of the company’s fossil fuel assets into a new entity, Accel Energy while leaving the core AGL brand to focus on electricity retailing, renewable electricity generation and providing carbon neutral services to customers.
AGL shares fell nearly 2% to $6.97 at Monday’s close.
