Departures which sent the share price plummeting

February 3, 2018

Comings and goings of directors and executives at public companies can often cause sharp share price movements.

Mark McInnes - David Jones (resigned)
David Jones shares tumbled 3.3% on June 18 2010 after the announcement that their long serving CEO had resigned because of inappropriate behaviour towards a female colleague at two separate company functions.

The Kaz Debacle - board implosion
Kaz shares dived 5c to 27c (15.6%) on 19 September 2003 after the announcement that chairman Tony Hartnell (ex ASIC boss), Michael Lillicrap and Murray Wells (independent directors) had resigned after a split emerged between the independent and executive directors over how the new CEO would be appointed. Looks like founder and major shareholder Peter Kazacos is (still) treating the company like his own.

John Fletcher - Brambles (resigned)
Brambles shares fell 10% in 2001 when his departure was announced after a disagreement with new chairman Don Argus.

Allan Moss and Nicholas Moore - Macquarie Bank (CEO handover)
The announcement on Feburary 6, 2008, that Allan Moss was retiring and Nicholas Moore taking over as CEO sent Macquarie Bank shares down 9%, although the market was off almost 2% and we also had an operational update on the day.

Phillip Bowman
- Coles Myer (fired)
Coles Myer shares fell 8% on the day when their finance director was terminated and then blew the whistle on Yannon.

Ian Cornell - Woolworths (resigned)
Cornell quit as Woolworths supermarkets boss to join Franklins on 26 November 1998 and the Woolies shares plunged 44c to $5.55 or 7.3% as $504 million was wiped off its value. Woolies has since soared as Roger Corbett proved all the critics wrong.

Peter Morgan - Perpetual Trustees (resigned)
When Morgan, senior portfolio manager, resigned from his role in September 2002, Perpetual's share price plunged 7% although it recovered some ground the next day.

Graham Bradley - Perpetual Trustees (resigned)
Managing director Bradley's resignation in May 2003 sent the share price down 4.8%.

Brian Gilbertson - BHP Billiton (resigned)
After a clash with control freak chairman Don Argus, Gilbertson's departure immediately sliced $1.5bn off BHP's market capitalisation with the share price plunging over 2%. 2002

Peter Meakin - PBL (resigned)
After Meakin's resignation from Channel 9, PBL shares dipped 2% and wiped $118m from its market capitalisation.

Michael Stefanovski - Perpetual Trustees (resigned)
Another top Perpetual exec jumps ship, this time the CFO in September 2003, pushing the share price down 69c or 1.7% to $39.21. Stefanovski is now caught up in the mess known as Allco Finance Group.

Steve Jones - Suncorp Metway (resigned)
Suncorp Metway shares fell 15c to $12.05 or 1.2% when greedy Yank CEO Steve Jones announced he was returning home early with $30 million in his backpocket.

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