3 questions lodged at 2025 Hansen Technology virtual AGM
December 1, 2025
Below is the text of the 3 written questions submitted at the 32 minute Hansen Technology (HSN) 11am virtual AGM Melb time on November 20, 2025. Market cap is $1.2b after a recent recovery. See 5 questions asked at 2022 AGM. See notice of meeting and voting results. The proxies were disclosed early in the formal addresses with no protest votes. I lodged the questions just before it started then attended another meeting and only caught up with the AGM webcast on December 1.
Q1. We've had a stable leadership team of chair David Trude and CEO Andrew Hansen for a number of years now. Which of our chair-CEO team is likely to retire first and is succession for both roles being actively managed?
Answer: CEO Andrew Hansen is a strong personality and dominated most of the Q&A. On this one he said “succession planning is part of Hansenisation” whilst adding that he'd be “very disappointed” if anyone “suggested the dynamic duo be broken up”. Chair David Trude was more circumspect, saying the board discusses it. Watch video of exchange via Twitter. They sure do like long service at Hansen. The company was started by Andrew's late father and Andrew has been CEO since the IPO in 2000. He's now 65. David Trude, 77, joined the board as chair in 2011 and has had a 14 year run which should end when his current term expires at the 2026 AGM. He suffered a 23.3% protest vote in 2023. Bruce Adams retired as a non-executive director at the 2025 AGM after 25 years of service and David Osborne, 75, retired as a NED at the 2024 AGM after an 18 year run on the board, on top of some service prior to the IPO. Andrew Hansen, Bruce Adams and David Osborne have a joint share in 20.7m shares or 10.2% which was worth $121 million in December 2025. Unlike most companies, Hansen commendably disclose the age of directors in the annual report and it certainly skews old with audit committee chair Don Rankin being 73 and remuneration committee chair David Howell being 67, although neither has served 10 years on the board, being mature age appointees when they joined.
Q2. Well done for disclosing the proxies early with the formal addresses and also for achieving strong voting support on all resolutions. This is a good sign and different from the material protest votes of years gone by. What are the major changes that we've made to win over the proxy advisers and institutional investors, including on resolutions like this LTI grant?
Answer: Surprised Hansen Technology chair David Trude left all the talking to CEO Andrew Hansen when it came to responding to this question. The CEO was very pleased about the support although no specifics on any changes to the structure were offered up.
Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Q3. When disclosing the outcome of voting on all resolutions today, please advise the ASX how many shareholders voted for and against each item, similar to with a scheme of arrangement? This will provide a better gauge of retail shareholder sentiment on all resolutions and insight into the chronically low retail shareholder participation rate. Also, please make sure a copy of the full AGM webcast is published online for the benefit of shareholders unable to watch live?
Answer: They didn't deliver head count data in these poll results but here is the 32 minute AGM webcast. Watch video of exchange via Twitter.
Meanwhile, one of the problem with virtual AGMs is that the director elections can be treated as a bit of a joke. Hansen published nothing about candidate Lisa Pendlebury in the Notice of Meeting, she didn't give a speech and didn't appear on camera. Was she even at the 32 minute meeting? The two blokes dominated as you see in this video via Twitter.
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