Mike Baird appears to be firming as the favourite to replace Andrew Thorburn as NAB CEO, via UBS:
Following the negative comments by Commissioner Hayne in the Royal Commission Final Report NAB announced the resignation of both the CEO Andrew Thorburn and Chairman Ken Henry. NAB announced that well regarded and highly experienced Phil Chronican (formally CFO of Westpac and CEO of ANZ Australia) will be the Acting CEO at NAB while a global search is undertaken for a permanent CEO. At that stage we would expect Phil Chronican to take over as Chairman of the Board. We believe NAB has a number of solid internal candidates for CEO with Mike Baird (Head of Consumer Banking and former Premier of New South Wales) a lead contender in our view.
NAB is mad if it goes down this path. All it will be doing to confirming that it has learned nothing. Ken Henry is not the face of the banking royal commission failure for nothing. He is its most toxic exemplar because he personifies regulatory capture and the entitlement that comes it. Bad behavior flows from this structure.
Perhaps through no fault as his own, Mike Baird is exactly the same, a former political superstar poached by banking. To install him as CEO now would resonate throughout the land, in people’s minds and hearts, as NAB reaching even deeper into the swamp of vested interests and corruption.
Spare us the ignominy, NAB.
