Jayne Hrdlicka to resign as CEO

[Saab34]

Spicy.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/leadership/why-virgin-australias-new-owner-became-the-bain-of-jayne-hrdlickas-career/news-story/73dd80025c4207d816ef01f020c0bfd0?amp&nk=7edcc3a682bb4c4a7f2ebbade3e45eb9-1708425957

 

[anat0l]

Spicy.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/leadership/why-virgin-australias-new-owner-became-the-bain-of-jayne-hrdlickas-career/news-story/73dd80025c4207d816ef01f020c0bfd0?amp&nk=7edcc3a682bb4c4a7f2ebbade3e45eb9-1708425957

The paywall unfortunately limits me to the simple "it was a marriage doomed from the start; the divorce inevitable".

Of course media outlets are going to release the wind up pieces now...

 

[Quickstatus]

Is AJoyce available? I heard he was back in town

 

[MARTINE]

Keep in mind she is staying on with no known exit date, yet.
It will be interesting to see who her replacement is and their experience.

AJ?!

 

[MARTINE]

@Quickstatus - snap!

Of course we Aus Open attendees can look forward to her dulcet tones in 2025. Fantaaaaaaaaaaaaaaastic!!

 

[JohnK]

When your company is ready to float, you no longer need a CEO who does heavy lifting.

I'm certainly no expert but why are they allowed to float yet again?

 

[moa999]

bunch of Bain plants have now been moved on, they missed all their windows (and hefty bonuses!).

Interesting.

Equally by moving on JH would normally miss out on any private equity carry, which would normally be quite remunerative for a CEO in charge of a profitable investment for a PE company.

 

[jase05]

About to fall off my chair at the lack of any feedback of her tenure relative to other CEOs in the industry. The VA crowd is fiercely loyal…much respect

I’ll be honest and think she has been pretty poor after initially seeming to start well. The last few months have been a disaster for VA under her watch

 

[moa999]

but why are they allowed to float yet again

No limit on the number of times a company can be bought or sold, or float.
Note that technically this company is New, as it bought much of Old Virgin off the administrators.

 

[33kft]

If you want to sell an investment property which was making good money, having a minimum price in mind, but you didn't really have to sell it now, would you offer it into a falling market? Or hang onto it?

To make that analogy fit it might need to be the investment property with the reverse mortgage, cross-collateralised with other investment properties and with the land subdivided, sold to another invester and leased back.

 

[HS-TQE]

A quote from the paywall

Her departure now buys Bain time to find a new boss to take Virgin back to the public markets with assurances the new CEO will be in for the long haul. It’s understood that Bain has not yet approached anyone about the role.

Rightio... Very likely whoever the 'cornerstone' investor (i.e 20% or more stake) in the post IPO will want their own person as CEO with their teams and won't likely want any "Bain leftovers" once Bain start to sell down, whenever that may be.

 

[pauly7]

I’ll be honest and think she has been pretty poor after initially seeming to start well. The last few months have been a disaster for VA under her watch

I think missing their desired IPO window due to many reasons was bell number one then I agree with you, bell number two was the the ‘disaster’ as you say of VA actually operating as a functioning airline.

I also suspect we will hear some more stories about JH’s time at VA (and previous companies) leak out especially in relation to her style of management and the court cases brought against her and the entity….

The next CEO will also be a ‘Bain pick’, they are still the majority owner after all and they still need to extract a return from the VA business, but clearly they need a different style of manager stronger with ‘101 operations’ than the previous team and CEO.

 

[pauly7]

Equally by moving on JH would normally miss out on any private equity carry, which would normally be quite remunerative for a CEO in charge of a profitable investment for a PE company.

Quite remunerative - Absolutely . Also though time bound, so then what… and now we have this.

And that applied to a lot of the people who have left.

 

[Edge]

Just a customer, but in my opinion she's done a decent job of getting it back off the ground

Have had no bad experiences with VA over the last four years

 

[kpc]

My inside source tells me that all Va's profit from last year went to paying for staff wàge increases and they are in no postion to list on the stock market for now....

 

[BAM1748]

I’ll be honest and think she has been pretty poor after initially seeming to start well. The last few months have been a disaster for VA under her watch

I'd be guessing, but a falling out with the Board seems likely. But the Board should always have someone in mind to replace the CEO/MD which in this instance the Board seems to have fallen down.

 

[jase05]

The chatter at work today is all about which current or former QF staffer is going to get the gig. Been some interesting nominees so far

 

[HS-TQE]

I'd be guessing, but a falling out with the Board seems likely. But the Board should always have someone in mind to replace the CEO/MD which in this instance the Board seems to have fallen down.

As mentioned in another post, if JH had a falling out with Bain she would've been leaving immediately with the acting CEO already named and already positioned in her office as they start their search for their next hand picked CEO

 

[Quickstatus]

might need to be

With bit of transfer pricing perhaps

 

[RooFlyer]

Just a customer, but in my opinion she's done a decent job of getting it back off the ground

Have had no bad experiences with VA over the last four years

I've had one - as it happens, the very first trip I did with them after deciding to switch domestic flying from Qantas, early last year. In that case, the post flight service recovery was excellent. Another time, there was a post push-back mechanical on the tarmac at Hobart that caused a 2 hour delay from memory.

Most of my flights are in or out of HBA, but I do quite a bit of, say BNE-MEL and MEL-ADL connecting too. Hand on heart, never had a cancellation or significant delay in dozens of flights (I avoid SYD as much as possible). The issues are mainly on the well-traversed SYD-MEL route.

Rightio... Very likely whoever the 'cornerstone' investor (i.e 20% or more stake) in the post IPO will want their own person as CEO with their teams and won't likely want any "Bain leftovers" once Bain start to sell down, whenever that may be.

Looks like it. May be a clue that there won't be any airline with controlling (in Corps Law definition) shareholding post float, as they would possibly want their own person there. Or maybe the selection panel will include some "external people" . Or maybe the contract will have a termination + good payout clause after certain 'defined events'.