Sir Rod Eddington’s Appointment As ANZ Chairman In Doubt

Post by NeilMc on July 16, 2009 · Under Business News, Company News, banking · Comment

Australian banking major Australia & New Zealand Banking Corporation (ANZ) has signalled its intention to stick with its original succession plan for the role of chairman.

On Wednesday ANZ said that the plan for Sir Rod Eddington to replace retiring chairman Charles Goode was still in place, despite evidence pointing to the contrary.

Australia’s fourth largest banking group maintained its announcement last November that Sir Rod would join the lenders board towards the second half of 2009 and eventually succeed Mr. Goode at the end of a transition period.

“There has been no change to that plan since the announcement was made last year,” spokesman Paul Edwards said.

Media reports on Wednesday suggested that Sir Rod would meet the incumbent chairman later in the week and would use the meeting to reveal whether he intended to take on the new role.

In April, a report in The Australian suggested that Sir Rod had not fully made up his mind and was vacillating over whether to take up the position of chairman in the wake of the failure of Allco Finance Group. Sir Rod was a non executive director of the failed company.

If Sir Rod decides not take the appointment, then it is likely that ANZ director John Morschel, a director of telecom giant Singapore Telecommunications is the most likely candidate to succeed Mr. Goode.

When ANZ announced its decision to appoint Sir Rod to the post of chairman, it was at a time when a merger between mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto was expected, which would have relieved Sir Rod of some of his board duties.

That proposed merger ultimately collapsed in favour of an iron ore joint venture between the two companies.

Sir Rod has a heavy roster of commitments, including serving as chairman of Infrastructure Australia, and sitting as a board member of News Corporation.

Proxy shareholder groups including RiskMetrics have voiced their discontent citing Sir Rod’s involvement in the failed finance group as a concern, and the reason for “on balance” to vote against Sir Rod’s reappointment to the board of Rio Tinto.

Currently the incumbent chairman Mr. Goode is the longest serving director of ANZ, having been appointed to the board in 1991 and assuming the chairman’s role four years later.

Mr. Goode was reappointed for a further three years during last year’s annual general meeting, however ANZ made a commitment then that Mr. Goode would step down by February 2010 to make way for Sir Rod

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