St George Appoints Acting Ceo
The Age
Saturday August 18, 2007
ST GEORGE Bank has moved quickly to weather the storm of the sudden loss of chief executive Gail Kelly to major domestic rival Westpac by slotting her most likely internal successor Paul Fegan into the top job on an acting basis.
Mrs Kelly's departure to Westpac yesterday sent shock waves through the 8500 staff who work for the country's fifth-biggest bank. This was despite speculation over the past few months that she was the favoured outside candidate to succeed David Morgan. St George went into immediate damage control, with the bank's chairman, John Thame, swiftly elevating Mr Fegan - whom Mrs Kelly had been grooming as a potential replacement - to the acting CEO's role. Mr Fegan joined St George shortly after Mrs Kelly's own appointment as managing director nearly six years ago. He moved from National Australia Bank in 2002 to head St George's rapidly expanding wealth management division, and his brief was expanded three years ago to include retail financial services. Mr Fegan was subsequently identified as the most likely internal candidate to take over from Mrs Kelly in April, when he was further promoted to run the combined retail bank and wealth management division in a company restructure. He will run St George while the board conducts an accelerated search for a new CEO, which Mr Thame said would include both internal and external candidates. The bank's shares yesterday lost 10? to close at $32.58.
© 2007 The Age