Heads to roll at Colonial

Very few of Colonial’s senior management have survived the post-merger shake-out by Commonwealth Bank.

Very few of Colonial’s senior management have survived the post-merger shake-out by Commonwealth Bank.

The winners in the new management line-up, announced internally last week, are Colonial First State and International Financial Services (IFS) where Colonial staff have kept their positions.

In other areas, such as distribution, very few Colonial senior management will be retained.

Money Management has learnt that only four or five executives out of the original 20 who reported to either former managing director Peter Smedley or Australian Financial Services (AFS) managing director Stuart James have survived.

Apart from James, who has joined Smedley at Mayne Nickless, other Colonial senior management who are leaving include group chief information officer Warwick Foster, who is joining AMP, AFS chief operating officer Terry Jay, group general manger business integration Peter Jenkins, group general manager public affairs Matthew Percival and chief financial officer Tim Wade.

A spokesman for Commonwealth said managers who hadn’t been successful in the second reporting tier appointments last week would be offered other jobs in the next tier of reporting, which will be announced at the end of July.

However, Money Management understands that only 15 per cent of former Colonial managers will be staying.

In the 19 positions within the Commonwealth chief executive group, only two former Colonial managers have been appointed. Of the team leaders reporting direct to CEO David Murray, only Colonial First State managing director Peter Polson and IFS managing director Rob Garnsworthy have survived.

In AFS, the distribution arm of Colonial, only two managers have survived out of the 11 and in Customer Services, again only two former Colonial people have been appointed out of the 10.