Incoming AMP CEO Alexis George (Image: AAP/Lukas Coch)

It was always going to be a woman who took the reins at corporate basket case AMP. Scandals have a way of clearing the decks, and AMP has had plenty of them. But the decks often seem to be cleared in a particular way: the men head for the exits while the women stay and clean up the mess. 

It’s a scenario that has played out over and over again, including at AMP. It was former chairwoman Catherine Brenner who took the brunt of the fallout from the company’s blistering appearance at the Hayne royal commission, even though the fees-for-no-service scandal had been brewing long before her appointment. She all but disappeared from public view, even as her male counterparts landed top jobs at other boardrooms.

Now it’s Alexis George’s turn. It remains to be seen whether the new CEO, who starts today, will be able to somehow miraculously turn AMP, which has also faced its own sexual harassment reckoning, around from the dumpster fire that it is. But with the corporate regulator now suing the company over the fees-for-no-service scandal, she also risks taking the blame for problems that her predominantly male predecessors may have set in motion.

A long history 

Helen Coonan has found herself in a similar situation. The Crown Resorts chairwoman has become the public face of Crown’s ugly downfall. As she cops the fallout from the latest inquiry into the casino giant, many of Crown’s male directors who presided over the misconduct are nowhere to be seen. Of course Coonan is no saint herself, having spent nine years on the board during much of the time in which Crown’s misconduct occurred. But she is now having to answer for the misconduct alone, while her male counterparts disappear into the sunset.

Ironically the appointment of women to top corporate roles — even when they are walking right into a scandal — is often celebrated. Brenner’s appointment was hailed as the end of the “blokey directors’ club”. But what she ended up being was the fall guy for the blokes.

Just months after her appointment, the fees-for-no-service scandal blew up, a scandal that would claim her job as well as those of many others. But the reputational damage seemed to be magnified for Brenner. She was forced not only to step down from the AMP board but her role at Coca-Cola Amatil. Compare that to AMP director and former chairman Simon McKeon, who left the company in 2016 with no explanation, and now sits on the boards of Rio Tinto and NAB. 

According to the AFR, Australia is one of only three countries globally where women occupy more than 30% of big company board seats, even in the absence of quotas. But despite a growing number of women being appointed to boards, women still face a hurdle when it comes to reaching the roles of CEO or chairperson. But it seems this final glass ceiling is more easily broken when the company in question is in trouble. 

Meredith Hellicar took the reins of James Hardie in 2004 just as the company was facing a brutal public reckoning over its deadly asbestos products. One of the first things she did in the role was apologise to asbestos victims, despite having no hand in the company’s dark past. It didn’t stop her name from being tied to one of the biggest corporate scandals in Australian history, perhaps more than her male counterparts.

Christine Holgate had a similar entry into Australia Post, long before her public stouch with Scott Morrison over the Cartier watches affair. She was brought in to lead the government business amid a media storm over former CEO Ahmed Fahour’s pay packet. Ironically, while she was brought in on a lower salary to clean up the mess left by Fahour, it will be her name that the public thinks of when it comes to Australia Post’s corporate misbehaviour. 

These women’s names have stuck like glue to scandals, when many men have been able to walk away and start again. Perhaps before we lament the lack of female talent in corporate Australia, we should reflect on what kind of treatment awaits them at the top.