BoQ hit by fifth executive departure in a year

afr.com:

Bank of Queensland has lost its fifth executive since Patrick Allaway stepped in to stabilise the company’s senior management a year ago.

The exit of chief people and customer officer Martine Jager from BoQ, where she earned $1.04 million last year, was announced internally on Friday.

Mr Allaway, the bank’s chief executive, said he and Ms Jager had “jointly concluded that, after almost three years of service, Martine will leave… to pursue her next career opportunity”.

BoQ chief executive Patrick Allaway.  Dan Peled

Ms Jager’s departure was not a shock. She was a close associate of former chief executive George Frazis; they had worked together previously at Westpac, and he was godfather to her child.

Mr Frazis was spectacularly forced out in November last year following boardroom tensions and then-chairman Mr Allaway stepped in to the top job. At the 147-branch bank’s annual general meeting the next month, investors asked about high executive turnover during Mr Frazis’s reign.

“The reason I’ve stepped in as executive chair is to attempt to achieve stability in that team,” Mr Allaway said at the time.

“And that’s very, very important. I’ve spoken to all our executive committee as a group and individually, and we will look to retain our team, we’ve got some really skilled bankers, and hoping to retain stability going forward.”

BoQ declined to comment on Friday. In the staff memo, Mr Allaway thanked Ms Jager for her work, including initially running its retail banking arm.

“Martine has been a passionate voice for our customers and people,” he said.

Mark Hunter will become the chief customer officer and BoQ has commenced a search for a new executive to run people and culture.

Chief operations officer Paul Newham retired in