New Telstra director Maxine Brenner to be pressed on Qantas at AGM

afr.com:

Telstra shareholders will press new director Maxine Brenner to explain how she handled corporate governance issues while on Qantas’ board as she stands for election at the telecommunications group’s annual general meeting on Tuesday.

Ms Brenner, a former investment banker and corporate lawyer, is being formally elected to Telstra’s board as a non-executive director after being appointed in mid-February.

One proxy firm, Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), has opposed her election, citing the “material failures of governance, board and risk oversight and fiduciary duties” at Qantas, where Ms Brenner has been a director since August 2013.

Proxy group ISS says Telstra investors should not elect Maxine Brenner as a director due to poor corporate governance at Qantas, where she is also a director. 

ISS also singled out Ms Brenner’s directorship at Woolworths, where she is chairwoman of the remuneration committee, stating that there have been “potential problematic pay practices” at the supermarket chain, which is facing criminal charges in Victoriaover allegations it failed to pay some employees’ long service leave.

ISS’s local head of research, Vas Kolesnikoff, told The Australian Financial Review in early October that Qantas board directors should be held accountable for the turmoil that has engulfed the airline over the past few years, including the illegal firing of 1700 workers during the COVID-19 pandemic andthe competition watchdog’s allegations it sold tickets for cancelled flights.

Ms Brenner is a member of Qantas’ remuneration committee as well as its audit committee.

While other proxy groups and the Australian Shareholders Association (ASA) support Ms Brenner’s election to Telstra’s board, ASA chief executive