As the man himself admitted to The Australian Financial Review yesterday, there have been lots of rumours about Nine chief executive Hugh Marks having relationships with multiple female staff.
And as with so many resignations, Marks appears to have come a cropper courtesy of the cover-up rather than the original sin.
Once the relationship with direct report Alexi Baker had commenced “a couple of months ago”, Marks should have informed the full Nine board. Instead, he didn’t tell them until last week, even though Baker resigned from the business with approving quotes from Marks provided to the AFR back on October 1.
I had no idea about any of this when lodging this written question at the Nine annual general meeting (AGM) last Thursday:
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The Sunday Telegraph published a story last May which seemed to suggest that our CEO was now in a relationship with an employee of Nine. Is this correct?
If so, how were the obvious sensitivities of this situation managed internally and is the chairman comfortable with the situation?
As you can see 55 minutes into this webcast, chairman Peter Costello was not at all comfortable responding to this question about Marks’ still-denied relationship with his then executive assistant, Jane Routledge, and said the following:
Is this correct? Well, it is correct that it was published, yes. I obviously saw the article.
As a result of what was published and my own inquiries I don’t believe that there is anything that has breached the company’s policies or its code and I don’t believe it warrants any further engagement.
This provided some fodder for The Australian’s Margin Call column on Friday. It also prompted an insider to lob an anonymous email into my inbox claiming Marks was now in a different relationship with the former head of strategy.
I hadn’t seen Andrew Hornery’s piece in The Sydney Morning Herald on Saturday quoting Marks confirming the Alexi Baker relationship before sending this email to three female Nine executives — the head of media, the head of investor relations and the general counsel — at 8.30am on Saturday morning.
Hi Nola, Victoria and Rachel,
I’m not particularly interested in causing trouble for Hugh Marks and Nine but after asking that question about The Sunday Tele piece at the AGM, the following email tip came through to me:
Hi Stephen,
Bravo on your question regarding Hugh and Jane’s affair at yesterday’s Nine AGM. Costello’s response was disappointing but thoroughly unsurprising.
For your background only …
You may be surprised to learn Hugh has moved on from Jane to another one of his direct reports, the head of strategy. [SIGNIFICANT DETAIL REDACTED]
… They plan to come out as a couple once she’s an ex-employee. They don’t realise half the company knows.
You’d think the chairman of the Future Fund would value his reputation more highly. But clearly he doesn’t understand 2020 standards or the basics of governance.
Toxic.
Name Withheld
Given that you all work for Hugh, could I ask that you forward this email to both Peter and Hugh so that they can work up an on-the-record response, presumably after consulting some of the other independent directors.
I only intend to report the truth, whatever that may be, but do note that QBE has removed its last two CEOs over relationships with employees.
There’s no rush with this but would appreciate a response by the middle of next week if that is okay as I intend to write a story on this for Crikey on Thursday or Friday next week, once the facts are fully established. Would also be happy to be informed of the situation by way of background over the phone if that is preferable.
Regards,
Stephen Mayne
According to reports, an online board meeting of the non-executive directors was convened at midday on Saturday with chair Costello dealing directly and separately with Hugh Marks.
The CEO has very much been trying to control the narrative ever since as he emailed all Nine staff at 3.22pm on Saturday with news of his resignation that did not reference any of these relationship issues.
Annette Sharp from The Sunday Telegraph was also pressuring the company ahead of writing a story. This first became evident in this package on Channel Seven’s 6pm bulletin on Saturday.
Marks then made himself available to multiple journalists for on-the-record discussions on Sunday, once again attempting to control the narrative that it was his decision, that most of the rumours were rubbish and that everything was above board.
It wasn’t until 8.30am on Monday that Nine itself finally put out a statement via the ASX announcements. Given all that has been written, surely chairman Costello should have said more than just one paragraph singing the praises of his CEO.
As it stands, the Nine directors have no public position on the issue of their CEO having at least one relationship with a staff member who reported directly to him.
People like Jeff Kennett have come out swinging saying Marks shouldn’t have lost his job, but if he was planning on leaving in the next 12 months anyway, then resignation was appropriate — particularly given that it won’t take effect until the successor is appointed.
Marks clearly shouldn’t have commenced a relationship with a direct report and once this did happen, he should have promptly told the full board. Failing on both these scores was enough to warrant his departure.
This once again proves that corporate Australia’s has far greater accountability standards than our politicians, given that Alan Tudge and Christian Porter remain in their jobs with no penalty or inquiry seven days after Four Corners told the world about their various escapades.
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Tell me, how come adult women at executive level have so lost control of their bodies that they fall under the odious thrall of their older more senior male counterparts and fall into affairs. Has it occurred to anyone that they, the women, might have chosen to have a fling? Have women lost agency in their lives and sexuality?
Unless there is abuse or harassment (and there is too much of that) what consenting adults get up to is a matter for them. And certainly is none of our business. The scent of prudery is in the air.
That rarely happens, it is almost always the male boss that comes onto the woman. However in the rare case where a female subordinate initiates the relationship then it incumbent on her boss to say NO.
He has the power not her, it is therefore up to him to set the standards.
If a boss has a relationship with a subordinate then the error is always with the boss and it is the boss that bust leave. The subordinate must keep their job. That must be the standard.
By the way if a female boss has an affair with a male subordinate then it is the female boss that must leave.
The same applies to same sex relationships, the boss must leave, not the subordinate.
This does not stop relationships commencing at work; e.g if both are at the same level, or there is no boss/subordinate situation then that is different. It is the power imbalance that is the issue.
It’s the business of the other employees. If a collesague has a secret close connection to the boss, it creates all sorts of conflicts – that’s one reason the subordinate often loses her job.
This subject would be better covered by an insider, with the courage to remain anonymous, willing to undertake such an unenviable and daunting task.
Fortunately Crikey has an editor with the courage to undertake the unenviable and daunting task of publishing it.
Crikey didn’t really expect anything else did they? Costello has always been a boot kicking yes man and has been dining out on his legacy of massive handouts to corporate Australia since his time in parliament. Many libs and labs have followed and more to come. Fitzgibbon comes to mind.
..umm,”..boot licking“?
Oops, slip o’ the finger and can’t edit comments here.
Bref, I forgot to add STET to ‘boot kicking’ as the Smirk was STB once a bit of a head kicker,so long as the victim was already down.
Having worked in a large law firm for quite some years, many years ago, its the nature of the culture of a lot of these types of thest work environments, these people work long hours & spend more time at work than they do with their families at home..
Most people keep these affairs well hidden, but some unfortunately don’t..
From what I’ve seen these people that find themselves in these types of situations find very inventive approaches to having sexual interactions, in lifts & toilet areas, are just two of the choices that were regularly made..
Unknown to those involved the sexual liaison’s in the lifts they had camera’s so the security people often got a lot of interesting images on their screens…
Costello always raced best in blinkers.
I think he needs to ditch the panic sunglasses, you know the ones that turn completely black as soon as there is something he really doesn’t need to see.
We have all moved on since the 80’s.