Q1. Sure, there were a few curly questions from the floor at last year's AGM in Sydney, but why have you moved the AGM to Melbourne this year? Thank you for continuing with the excellent hybrid AGM format but can we have less marketing and more focus on governance, voting and shareholder questions at next year's AGM, please?
Answer: The CEO Toby Hanoch announced that they had decided to rotate between Melbourne and Sydney. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q2. At last year's AGM there was 5 protest votes ranging between 12.14% and 21.6% on the remuneration report. Have we fared any better this year, including on this remuneration report item? Which of the proxy advisers issued voting recommendations this year and have we seen the reports? Were there any against recommendations, including on this remuneration report item?
Answer: The chair David Perimutter simply refused to comment. What a joke! Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. You've suffered a 29% remuneration strike. What happened? Why are the shareholders revolting like this?
Answer: Gave the Weebit Nano chair David Perimutter a second opportunity to explain proxy adviser concerns and the 29% remuneration strike and once again he offered up nothing. Earlier, we had an hour of marketing guff, but on this important AGM governance disclosure…nothing. Not good enough, sir. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q4. Ashley Krongold and David Perimutter have both served 9 years on the board, which is much longer than average. Are both candidates intending to serve a full 3 year term and can they confirm that they won't be seeking re-election for a 5th term in November 2028? In other words, is this their last 3 year term on the board?
Answer: Deputy chair Anne Templeman-Jones took this one and served up governance platitudes without offering either candidate an opportunity to respond. Ashley Krongold didn't even give a stump speech to sing for his supper. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q5. Which recruitment firm did we use to help secure the services of Anne Templeman-Jones on this board and could Anne comment on what governance changes she has successfully implemented since joining the board as lead independent director and deputy chair on August 5? Does Anne agree that we need to add 1 or 2 additional independent directors to get the governance balance right on this board ahead of the 2026 AGM? Is she pushing for that?
Answer: Anne said it was an independent recruitment process run by an external firm and then through the board, including the CEO. In terms of additional independent directors, she straight batted that saying it was a matter for the board that would be addressed as required. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q6a. As Anne knows from her time on the CBA board, best governance practice is for independent directors to be paid in cash and not have any form of management-style incentive arrangements. Given that we've got $90m of cash in the bank, why is Anne getting into the incentive game rather than being paid in cash?
Answer: This was lodged too late to get through the Computershare system in time, so reworked it for the later similar resolution proposing an incentive grant to fellow independent director Naomi Simson as follows:
Q6b. As Naomi should know, along with Anne from her time on the CBA board, best governance practice is for independent directors to be paid in cash and not have any form of management-style incentive arrangements. Given that we've got $90m of cash in the bank, why is Naomi getting into the incentive game rather than being paid in cash?
Answer: The chair David Perimutter said they were paying this way during the start-up and ramp up phase of the business and one of the female directors responded but couldn't tell if it was Anne or Naomi. There was a nearly 10% protest vote on the proxies against these NED incentive grants. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
In terms of other videos of the meeting...
With 9 items of business to deal with at the Weebit Nano AGM, was puzzled why the board let CEO Coby Hanoch riff for so long about how exciting everything is? Much prefer sober business like AGMs with less marketing and hype.
Here is the Weebit Nano CEO Coby Hanoch excitedly introducing the new CFO, a former PWC partner. Revenues cracked $4m in latest half.
Here is the chair closing the meeting after the last item without calling for final general questions.
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