I recently asked why Lance Hockeridge hadn’t got the boot following his Aquila shocker:
Turns out that he has:
Rail haulage group Aurizon is considering external candidates to replace chief executive Lance Hockridge, with the company’s board expected to decide on a successor next week.
The rail group is believed to have received a shortlist of three external candidates from its executive search firm to replace Mr Hockridge, who has run the company for six years and led it through its initial public offering in late 2010.
The shortlist is not believed to include former chief operating officerMike Franczak, who is preparing to return home to Canada after leaving Aurizon at the end of 2015.
The succession process comes as Aurizon struggles to find new sources of growth following the slump in coal prices, which have hurt haulage volumes.
Mr Hockridge and his direct reports did not receive short-term bonuses in 2015-16 because they failed to meet key performance hurdles, including earnings targets, with the CEO’s total pay package down 42 per cent to $3.2 million from $5.48 million a year earlier. Annual net profits fell 88 per cent to $72 million.
The company has also been forced to write off hundreds of millions of dollars for scrapped rail and port expansion projects in the West Pilbara and Queensland’s Galilee Basin.
New chairman Tim Poole, who replaced John Prescott in September, has been overhauling the group’s board, bringing in former AGL Energy CEO Michael Fraser and Macquarie banker Kate Vidgen.
Mr Poole has said he wants to bring in people who can adapt to “a rapidly changing business environment.”
That is, not buy zombie assets two years after the peak of the market.
