4 who told Guthrie to go
It was a 4 person delegate who visited ABC managing director at around 9am Monday. By 9:55am a press release went out.
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie was given her marching orders early on Monday morning according to the latest Fairfax report into the sorry saga.
That’s despite PM Scott Morrison telling media he was told by Communications Minister Mitch Fifield on Sunday night.
Guthrie was visited by a 4 person delegate at around 9am Monday by (former) Chairman Justin Milne, the staff-elected director Jane Connors, company secretary Pamela Longstaff, and director of people and culture Rebekah Donaldson from the ABC Leadership Team.
By 9:55am Monday ABC sent out a press release announcing her exit.
Four weeks ago, tensions between Guthrie and the board came to a head. The board provided Guthrie with a “very serious letter” specifying a “range of issues in relation to her leadership”, Milne said. He has declined to go into detail, citing the need to “avoid being damaging and create litigation”.
There have also been reports that Guthrie and the board came close to striking a deal late last week for a stage-managed departure towards the end of this year, in which her exit would have been depicted as voluntary.
Sources aligned with Guthrie have disputed this.
2 Responses
What is a “director of people and culture”? Is that what previously would have been called the head of HR?
Yep, when Mark Scott joined the ABC as MD in 2006, the HR department was in such a mess that he ordered a review. The result was a change in name to “People & Learning”. Then for a while I think it was just “People”, then “People & Culture”. Only the names have been changed to protect the guilty!