Archived News for Executives and Senior Management

The Sydney Opera House Trust has announced Louise Herron as the Trust's new Chief Executive Officer, commencing 6 August.

Ms Herron will take the position after chairing the Australia Council's Major Performing Arts Board and chairing the Belvoir St Threatre for a decade.

“Louise brings significant and diverse business experience and a demonstrated passion for, and leadership in, the arts. Her skills will be a perfect complement to the existing executive team. She is well known to our resident companies, through her recent role as Chair of the Major Performing Arts Board. We couldn’t be more pleased with this appointment," Trust Chairman Kim Williams said.

Law to strengthen director tax obligations passes Parliament

The Federal Government has passed tax reform legislation through Parliament that will strengthen the director penalty regime and protects workers' superannuation entitlements and amendments to the taxation of financial arrangements and consolidation regimes.

Pay cuts loom at troubled Perpetual

Investment group Perpetual has announced plans to significantly cut its executive remuneration deals, significantly restructure the company and to put a halt to ongoing losses.

Renewable Energy Agency appointments announced

The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson has announced the final board appointments and the chief executive officer to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Trainor joins BESydney board

Business Events Sydney has announced the appointment of Gabrielle Trainor as the company's new independent Director on the Board.

Treadwell to head APS innovation body

The Federal Government has announced the appointment of Jane Treadewell as Chief Executive Officer to lead the newly established Centre for Excellence in Public Sector Design.

Leckie to step down as Seven's CEO

This week’s turmoil of the country’s media landscape continues after David Leckie announced his retirement from the role of Chief Executive Officer of Seven West Media to transition to a new position as Executive Director, Media for Seven Group Holdings.

David Jones appoints new company secretary

David Jones has announced the appointment of Susan Leppinus as Company Secretary and General Counsel, effective from 10 July 2012.

Warning to auditors who ignore company safety culture

Accountants and auditors should recognise that a company's culture and 'tone at the top' can have a profound impact on operational safety, risk-taking, and ultimately, financial position, according to Professor Russell Craig, Head of Victoria University's School of Accounting and Finance, and his co-researchers.

In a paper published in the New York State Society of CPAs in the CPA Journal, Professor Craig, Professor Joel Amernic (University of Toronto), and Professor Dennis Tourish (Royal Holloway, University of London), argue that a company's corporate culture – and its impact on safety operations – must be assessed and given due acknowledgement if audited financial statements are to be fair and accurate.

Using BP's 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill as a case in point, the researchers say that auditors should broaden the notion of what an audit is, so that operational risks generated from a company's culture and management tone are factored into potential liabilities.

The researchers present evidence to suggest that BP's 'tone at the top' and corporate culture (and consequently its management and operational systems) were dysfunctional. Not only did the company have a poor safety record, but another disaster appeared almost inevitable.

"A close examination of BP's tone at the top and consequent culture reveals a high likelihood that a major man-made safety-related disaster would befall BP every few years...[Yet] no acknowledgement of the company's susceptibility to disaster was included in the company's financial reports or was identified by conventional auditing procedures," the paper notes.

"In such circumstances, in the interests of fairness of presentation, we submit that a provision for disaster should have in fact been made in the accounts."

The absence of a "provision for disaster" in BP's financial statements – one that would take into account the array of environmental and legal costs that would follow a future major disaster – meant that BP's audited financial statements did not comply with the "fairness of "presentation" objective outlined in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the researchers argue.

Professor Craig said that while it would have been impossible for BP to predict which of its operations would be the site of a future disaster, "there was a strong case that a liability existed and was growing by the year".

If financial statements are to be the fair presentations that they claim to be, he said, auditors needed to take a more holistic approach and scrutinise more than just the numbers.

"These things have an impact -- a corporate culture that over-values cost-cutting to the detriment of safety will more than likely have financial consequences down the line -- so they should be taken into account by auditors if the provision of fair and accurate financial statements is the goal," Professor Craig said.