Another of Star’s directors goes out
SALLY Pitkin says she will resign from Star’s board by the end of the financial year, becoming the second director to publicly flag their intention to leave – with more set to follow – in the wake of damning revelations at a royal commissionstyle inquiry.
It comes after Gerard Bradley, who is also chairman of Queensland Treasury Corporation, told the inquiry on Thursday that he would step down after nine years on Star’s board.
Dr Pitkin told the inquiry – headed by Adam Bell SC to determine Star’s fitness to hold a
NSW casino licence – that there is “a recognition that a new board needs to lead the company through the reform process into the future”.
“There is a shared understanding of that at board level and I offered to my colleagues to be the first director to step down from the board. I anticipate that will happen by the end of the financial year and then other directors will leave when it’s appropriate for the company,” Dr Pitkin said.
“The board in the meantime has to be governing … in the best way it can. There are personnel changes and things that can’t happen as quickly as they would in a non-regulated entity.”
Already, most of Star’s senior management team have left the company, including chief executive Matt Bekier, chief financial officer Harry Theodore, chief legal and risk officer Paula Martin and NSW chief casino officer Greg Hawkins.
Dr Pitkin – who is also chair of Super Retail Group – said more staff are set to leave.
“The board has brought in some independent external people and put them into the organisation to oversee critical areas to manage risk,” she said.
The departures come as the inquiry heard Star disguised almost $1bn in suspicious gambling transactions on Chinese debit cards as hotel charges – misleading NAB, China Union Pay and ultimately the bank of China – during a seven-year period, and senior management “hid” material compliance breaches from directors.
Star shares rose 2.68 per cent to close at $3.07 on Friday.