5 questions lodged at 2025 Suncorp hybrid AGM

Q1. The retirement of Christine McLoughlin after today's meeting will mean that the largest 30 companies on the ASX by market capitalisation will all be chaired by a man. Having just successfully chaired an ASX30 company, could Christine please comment on why Australia has one of the worst records globally in terms of women rising to chair our largest public companies. Also, thank you for pioneering AGM best practice with hybrid meetings, early proxy disclosure & extra voting data. Does Duncan West commit to continuing this next year?

Answer: The chair said she would "love to be able to change the world" and "some things in this country", hinting at her frustrations with this situation. She also cited some data on good diversity at Suncorp and committed Duncan to continuing to follow AGM best practice after she is gone. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q2. What process did we run to select Duncan West as our next chair? Was a head hunting firm involved and did we interview any external candidates? Were there multiple internal candidates competing for the position with a formal pitch and vote or was this a long term succession plan which was only subject to Duncan winning the trust of his colleagues since joining the board 4 years ago? Was he recruited at the time as a potential future chair?

Answer: The chair Christine McLoughlin said the process was handled internally without a headhunter with Lindsay Tanner leading it, although Lindsay declined to add anything to her response, which was that no external candidates were canvassed because the board unanimously believed this wasn't required. This is best practice because a good board has multiple viable internal successors already on the board when the chair goes. She didn't answer the bit as to whether it was a contest with a formal vote. It's fine not to name any unsuccessful candidate for embarrassment reasons. Normally in these situations, leadership contenders take "soundings" but don't push for a formal vote if they haven't got the numbers, which is probably what happened here. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q3. Sally Herman is a nominee director of Premier Investments on the Breville board. Looking at her board portfolio, could Sally please comment on whether she has any regrets about the way she and her colleagues on the Premier Investments board played the Myer situation, as it all went a bit pear-shaped at Myer this week. Please don't say we can only talk about Suncorp matters today when Sally is seeking re-election. Director CVs matter for shareholders particularly because index investing and compulsory super effectively forces millions of Australian investors to be exposed to the performance of all ASX200 companies.

Answer: The chair Christine McLoughlin effectively went with the old "CVs don't matter for directors" defence in refusing to invite Sally Herman to respond, but at least the question was read out in full with no editing as would not have occurred at many other companies. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q4. Ian Hammond re-election question: I'm puzzled why there was a modest 7.9% vote against Ian Hammond's re-election on the proxies, which were commendably disclosed early so such a question can be asked. Did one of the proxy advisers recommend against Ian's re-election and, if so, what grounds did they cite? Did Ian or the chair engage directly with any of the owners of the $1 billion-plus worth of shares which were voted against his re-election today in order to understand their concerns and persuade them to change their vote?

Answer: The chair Christine McLoughlin made it sound like there was no protest vote against Ian Hammond, so why did David Whiteing get 99.1% support when Ian Hammond was on less than 92%? Suspect it might have been concern over the lack any competitive tender for the audit since 2017-18, or perhaps the size of non-audit fees, but this is just speculation as the chair either didn't know or chose not to disclose the issue. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

Q5. How long has KPMG been our external auditor? When did they last face a full competitive tender and how many competitive tenders were run during Christine's time on the board? When is the external audit next scheduled to be tendered?

Answer: The chair Christine McLoughlin said KPMG was first appointed in 1996 and the last tender was 2017-18, which was the only tender conducted during her 10 year run on the board, the last 7 of which she was chair. Suspect they'll do a full tender early in the term of new chair Duncan West because 1 tender in 30 years is not good enough. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.

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