Former premier Gladys Berejiklian has landed a new board gig at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Just don’t ask her about the time she has spent in public office and how she parlayed that into a career post-politics.
Well, at least that’s what our colleagues on Macquarie Street were told when they were alerted to news of the appointment this week and were offered an interview with the former Liberal leader, who continues to work as an executive at Optus, where she’s spent the past four years.
They were asked to provide examples of some of the things they’d want to talk to Berejiklian about in the interview pegged to her new role.
As pleased as we’re sure Barrenjoey chairman Matthew Grounds was to get Berejiklian’s pandemic-era bona fides on the non-profit board he chairs, our colleagues were more interested in other things.
Like, for instance, the current state of the Liberal Party; not to mention Berejiklian’s views about the Minns government heading into the next election, and the future of the state’s infrastructure pipeline, including Metro rail, along with her reflections on her career in politics and post-politics.
But sadly, no dice. “A quick note to let you know we won’t be proceeding with an interview at this stage. Thank you for your interest,” a spokeswoman for the institute shot back.
Altman is Comyn
The conga line of Australian corporates riding the AI hype wave continues to dance through Sydney.
The latest to get a piece of the action is Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn, who is set to put on a show for guests at – where else? – the ICC in Darling Harbour. And Comyn couldn’t have asked for better timing.
Enter OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, who’s billed as a headline guest and will talk with Comyn about how AI is “reshaping global industries”. But there’s a catch. Altman is not there in person but will beam into the ICC virtually.
Setting aside the bore that exchange shapes up to be, Comyn will no doubt be tingling with excitement over his proximity to the supreme leader of the AI boom.
The upside for Comyn is twofold. Altman’s appearance comes fresh on the heels of a high-profile legal win over Elon Musk. It will also take place just days after The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had enlisted bankers to take the company public as soon as September.
This, we can only guess, is why Altman wasn’t able (or interested) to make the trip to Australia in the flesh. Commonwealth Bank declined to comment on why Altman couldn’t make the trip.
An OpenAI spokeswoman said Altman had a scheduling conflict, but Australia remains an important market for OpenAI and Altman has a strong personal affection for the country. Which we sort of believe, given his partner Oliver Mulherin is from Melbourne.
Despite all the questions raised about OpenAI’s finances, a public offering would be a blockbuster affair. No doubt Comyn – and, for that matter, the Albanese government – will be keen to keep the bromance alive.
From Playboy bunny scandal to C-suite
All the headlines around the leadership change at Ticketek this week have largely focused on the abrupt departure of Brad Banducci, who stood down as CEO after just a year in the role.
But here at CBD we were more interested in who the private equity-backed ticketing giant had picked to replace the former Woolworths boss.
Ticketek’s new chief executive, Cameron Hoy, has spent the past 20-odd years in relative obscurity, working his way up through the ranks at the company until he bagged the job this week, after spending the past three years as the group’s chief operating officer. We can only guess he was enjoying the low profile.
After all, this is the same Cameron Hoy who this masthead in 2007 reported was “ceremoniously dumped” by his then-boss Kerry Packer, for whom Hoy was working as a marketing exec at ACP Magazines, following a series of events involving the late former Playboy bunny Anna Nicole Smith.
At the time, Hoy, whose taut face could well look even more youthful today than it did back then, denied being dismissed. But raking over reporting from the time makes for tantalising reading, whichever way you cut the parting of ways.
In 2005, The Age reported that Hoy, described then as a “debonair”, had been “Anna Nicoled” while the famous Hollywood personality was on a paid trip to Australia to make an appearance at an Oscars party hosted by the magazine NW at Paddington Town Hall.
Hoy was reportedly hosting a table of influential media buyers. After being rebuffed by Jamie Durie, Smith reportedly turned her attention to Hoy. The pair left the party together and were said to be the talk of the crowd afterward.
Said one eyewitness: “It was pretty hot. She was trying to get his shirt off at one stage.” No surprise to read then that the bosses weren’t pleased Hoy had abandoned his media buyers, then responsible for directing the media industry’s rivers of gold, to run off with one of the most famous pin-up girls of the early oughties.
Two years later, the Herald wrote: “[Hoy] was not the first Australian at the NW party to brush lips with the former Playboy playmate.”
At the time, Hoy denied he drank Cristal champagne at the restaurant and later denied there was anything to the rumours circulating. He also pointed out he had a steady girlfriend.
What a redemption arc! We reached out to Ticketek to get a sense of what Hoy has learnt in the decades since the high-profile scandal and whether he had anything to say about it some 20 years later. But the company was not in the mood to play along.
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John Buckley is a CBD columnist for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via email.