C is for Chancellor, F is for Fail

I got three emails today ("Dear colleague/Dear student/Dear alumnus/whatever") letting me know who the new UQ Chancellor is...

I am pleased to announce that the Senate has elected Mr John Story as UQ’s new Chancellor.

John is a highly-experienced corporate lawyer and leader, a UQ alumnus, a Senator since May 2006 and formerly an Adjunct Professor.

His paternal grandfather, John Douglas (‘JD’) Story, was our first full-time Vice-Chancellor in days when the position was honorary.

[...]

Hmmm... 'JD' Story, he of the JD Story Building, perhaps that's why the name John Story is so familiar?

Wait, there's more!

He has deep and broad corporate experience, being Chairman of Suncorp-Metway, Tabcorp Holdings and the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a Director of CSR, and a member of the Queensland Public Service Commission.

Ahhh, that's why the name is so familiar!

The SMH on Story:

So Suncorp CEO John Mulcahy is gone. His chairman, John Story, should not be far behind him.

With a slashed dividend and $900 million capital raising, Suncorp is finally starting to admit the reality it's been denying since its annual results presentation back in August.

What the board and management achieved over the past six months is the alienation of a significant proportion of their shareholders and the loss of the company's credibility in the market. Now that the company's real performance is being admitted, it's a safe bet a great many more shareholders will want those responsible to take responsibility for the mess.

Suncorp began to stink in the market when its declared annual results were just a little too good to be true. It stank a little more when John Mulcahy confirmed an amazingly rosy outlook on September 18. It was really on the nose when, at the last minute, the Federal Government's bank guarantee saved it from being taken over in October.

By the AGM a fortnight later, many shareholders wore pegs on the nose because of the smell and voiced their opinion with a hefty one-third "against'' vote on the obnoxious remuneration report. (As recently as December, chairman Story publicly claimed the negative vote was only so high because the share price was down - he apparently has no idea of how out of touch he and his board have become.)

Well, maybe that piece is just the result of some nasty vendetta that some vicious little Fairfax hack has against Story. Maybe The Australian will give the new UQ Chancellor's 'experience' as Chairman of Suncorp Metway a fair shake?

FOR a bit more than a week last October Suncorp seemed ready to bite the bullet and sell its banking and wealth management business.

Then along came the federal Government with its bank guarantees and Suncorp chairman John Story decided the need to make a deal had conveniently evaporated.

The chairman, it turns out, was probably wrong. Today the only people happy about that decision would surely be the likes of ANZ Bank, Commonwealth and NAB, which were rumoured to be at the front of the queue to acquire Metway.

[...]

Little wonder, then, that Suncorp presaged its capital management announcement with news that chief executive John Mulcahy and Story had agreed on a leadership transition. The trouble is, Mulcahy is going, not Story.

Given the setbacks Story has overseen since Suncorp's Promina acquisition in 2007, it would seem more appropriate that he goes now and the privilege of selecting Mulcahy's replacement should fall instead to a new chairman.

Ouch!

Looks like UQ is giving an old mate a last chance to polish up his tarnished resume before he fades into retirement, more than anything. Maybe touting Story's 'experience' as Suncorp-Metway Chairman might have worked if he was being sold to, I don't know, a bunch of illiterates who've been living in a dark, remote cave for the last 6 months or so. Thankfully, I believe the role of Chancellor is largely ceremonial (despite the man probably getting to collect a fat cheque for occupying the position).