McKenzie elevated to chair in AGL board shake-up

Power and gas giant AGL has appointed a new chair and overhauled its board after abandoning long-held demerger plans to split its coal-fired power stations from its retail arm.

Current director Patricia McKenzie, currently the chair of NSW Ports and the Sydney Desalination Plant, has been elevated to board chair, replacing Peter Botten who resigned after AGL’s proposed demerger plan was derailed by tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes.

AGL said in a statement on Monday that former chair of the Clean Energy Council, Miles George, will also join the board as a non-executive director, following a search for a director experienced in delivery of renewable energy projects.

Chief executive Graeme Hunt, who also resigned after the collapse of the demerger, will finish his role on September 30, with chief financial officer Damien Nicks becoming interim CEO.

In a statement to the ASX, AGL said the appointments had been made as the company gears up to present the outcomes of a strategic review launched earlier this year. AGL started the review after Cannon-Brookes forced the board to abandon its long-held plan to split off its emissions-intensive coal-fired power stations from its retailing and renewable energy assets via a controversial demerger.

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Cannon-Brookes, the co-founder of software company Atlassian and a prominent clean-energy investor, amassed an 11 per cent stake in AGL and launched a successful push to convince other shareholders to reject the demerger, which he argued would have created two smaller entities with less capacity to invest in accelerating AGL’s exit from coal.

The appointment of a new chair comes days after former Tabcorp and Healthscope chairman Paula Dwyer withdrew her nomination for the position after a revolt from shareholders, including opposition from Cannon-Brookes.

McKenzie, who was previously the chair of Essential Energy and a director of APA Group, AEMO, Macquarie Generation and Transgrid, thanked the outgoing members for their work.