BEST FRENEMIES
After her Macavity the Mystery Cat performance as chair of the Australian Open – nowhere to be seen during the Novak Djokovic fiasco – Jayne Hrdlicka is once again putting her head cautiously above the parapet.
There was a benign interview on the weekend in Another Newspaper where Hrdlicka’s relationship with her former boss and now rival at Qantas, Alan Joyce, was described as “one of the most intriguing relationships in corporate Australia. Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka and Qantas boss Alan Joyce somehow maintain a close friendship despite their fierce professional rivalry”.
Former colleagues Alan Joyce and Jane Hrdlicka in 2013.Credit:Jamie Freed
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims has described phone calls between the two as “unusual” but according to Hrdlicka it’s two friends and former workmates catching up.
Well … CBD hears that in reality relations between the pair are rather more Sicilian.
So much so that one surprised reader of the article was none other than Joyce himself. That might have something to do with Hrdlicka’s penchant for launching cross-border raiders on her bigger rival in attempts to poach QF execs (efforts that are ongoing).
The most rancorous was when Virgin hired Jetstar Japan’s Nick Rohrlach to run Virgin’s frequent flyer program, Velocity. Rohrlach had accepted a senior role in Qantas Loyalty, Qantas hit the roof, claiming Rohrlach had access to commercially sensitive information.
The court fight over The Man Who Knew Too Much ranged across two jurisdictions (New South Wales and Singapore) and Qantas won a nine-month restraint period before Rohrlach could start work. Oh, and he was fined $26,000 for breaching court orders not to have contact with Virgin during that period.
Relations are described as “strained” and the two chief executives – who do both have seats on the Nation Brand Advisory Council board – rarely speak.
And Qantas had been so exercised by the affair that they asked the Singaporean judge to jail Rohrlach (which she declined to do). As they say in The Godfather, take the cannoli.
COMEBACK KID
Jens Monsees has bounced back.
The former chief executive of marketing comms group WPP AUNZ has just been appointed chief executive of locally listed car parts and digital services company Infomedia. The salary is $600,000 and there’s a $450,000 sign on bonus. Wow.
Infomedia said Monsees “led a transformation to drive significant improvement in profitability” at WPP AUNZ .
Ahem. As we wrote before, the size, scale and quality of the executive exodus from WPP AUNZ after Monsees joined meant he was either clearing out the old guard or running a complete clown show.
Former CEO of WPP AU Jens Monsees has just been appointed chief executive of Infomedia.Credit:Rhett Wyman
There is a familiar, recently arrived face on the Infomedia board: non-executive director Kim Anderson, who was on the WPP AUNZ board and helped to bring Monsees to the company.
But Monsees’s pay packet is not as sweet as his WPP AUNZ deal: a fixed salary of $1.5 million, a one-off $250,000 payment and the right to bill the business up to $250,000 annually for his children’s education and annual family trip back to Germany.
WPP AUNZ was Australian’s biggest locally owned ad shop and housed John Singleton’s famed advertising agency STW. Pre Monsees it was home to industry legends including John Steedman, who left after 45 years and Kieran Moore, who left after 17 years.
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Source: Philippines Alive
