Kelly's Raid Fuels Westpac Speculation
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday May 11, 2007
ST GEORGE chief executive Gail Kelly yesterday raided the ranks of her former employer, the Commonwealth Bank, to put yet another potential successor in place as speculation grew about the chances of her replacing retiring rival David Morgan at Westpac.
In a surprise move, Michael Cameron has gone from running the biggest retail bank network in the country at the Commonwealth to being the finance director of Australia's fifth largest such institution albeit his new job has been greatly expanded from that held by his predecessor. While St George and Mr Cameron played down talk that he had been lined up as the leading candidate to succeed Ms Kelly if she does leave, market watchers expressed amazement that one of Commonwealth boss Ralph Norris's senior lieutenants would depart without an indication of his job prospects. His decision to quit was even more surprising since Mr Cameron had only taken charge of the 1000-strong Commbank branch franchise just over a year ago in a management shake-up instigated by Mr Norris after he succeeded ex-chief executive David Murray in September 2005. Mr Cameron, who left the Commonwealth on Wednesday after telling Mr Norris of his resignation, replaces St George's veteran financial director Steve McKerihan who is moving to become chief executive of the Anglican Church's Sydney Diocesan Secretariat. Mr McKerihan, whose salary package topped $1.8 million last year, oversaw St George's transformation from a building society and helped grow assets to $100 billion during his 20 years with the company, 12 of those as chief financial officer. However, his old post will now include responsibility for mergers and acquisitions, the bank's future strategy and its relations with shareholders and the corporate sector to accommodate his successor. It puts Mr Cameron on a par with Paul Fegan who has just taken over St George's newly-merged retail banking and wealth management division in a major reorganisation last month by Ms Kelly of her nine-strong executive team. That move was widely interpreted as propelling him to the top of the list of her likely replacements. In doing so, it has helped St George to prepare for life after Ms Kelly if Westpac or, less likely, ANZ move to appoint her to succeed their outgoing chief executives Dr Morgan and John McFarlane who both leave in seven months' time. In the meantime, Mr Norris now has the headache of filling a large hole in his management ranks with Ross McEwan, who is acting head of the retail business, and institutional banking boss Stuart Grimshaw the leading internal candidates to replace Mr Cameron.
© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald