Well, this is awkward. Just days after former Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry boss Paul Guerra was announced as the new chair of the Melbourne Market Authority, his appointment may have been the catalyst for an almighty upheaval of the board.
Acting chair Angie Bradbury confirmed on Monday she had quit the board after being overlooked for the role. She had been acting chair since May this year.
In what looks very much like a revolt, her fellow board members Margaret Burdeu and Emma Germano, the former president of the Victorian Farmers Federation, have also quit.
Bradbury, Burdeu and Germano’s resignations take effect on Thursday (October 29). Are you keeping up?
The Market Authority’s acting chief executive Keith Louie is, according to the ABC, also departing. The Age attempted to contact Burdeu, Germano and Louie without success. Guerra will begin as chair on Friday.
Bradbury says, having thrown her hat into the ring for the chair role, she was disappointed at missing out.
“I thought I had done a really good job in the (acting) role in some very challenging times and stabilised the organisation [and] recruited the new CEO and I didn’t get the role and I wasn’t really afforded with any compelling reasons as to why not from the government,” Bradbury said.
“I wanted to do the job and I didn’t want to just step to the side and continue to serve on the board under somebody else’s leadership.
“I make no bones about it; I wanted the job. I worked hard in the job to establish the relationships and build trust with the board amongst the market community and I’m really disappointed that I didn’t get it, so, I chose to step down.”
Bradbury said her fellow board members had acted under their own steam when deciding to resign.
“I did not ask for anybody to follow, it was not meant to be a coup, but there we are, that is what the other directors have decided to do,” she told CBD.
Agriculture Minister Michaela Settle said Guerra brought experienced leadership to the “vital work” of getting Victorians their vegies.
“Paul knows what it takes to lead a major market from his time chairing Queen Victoria Market, and I look forward to seeing him lead Melbourne Market into its next chapter,” she said.
Bradbury, a former chair of Wine Victoria, said her decision had nothing to do with Guerra personally, as the Victorian government made the appointment.
“I know Paul well. He was the CEO of the Royal Agricultural Society. I was the chair of the wine show committee at the time. I was chairing Wine Victoria when he was serving as the CEO of VCCI,” she said.
“This is not about Paul. It’s about the fact that I wanted the job and that’s not the way that it played out, so I decided to step down.”
Guerra was announced as the Market Authority chair following a competitive recruitment process.
Guerra has found himself on a wild rollercoaster ride this year, having been sacked as chief executive of the Melbourne Football Club in April after seven months in the gig.
In August, he launched an unfair dismissal claim in the Federal Court against the Demons.
The brouhaha pushes the market further into the spotlight heading into the state election with the opposition pledging to privatise it if it wins the November poll.
Opposition spokesman James Newbury described the saga as emblematic of an “end-of-days” government.
“When experienced board members would rather resign than endorse Labor’s decision, it shows just how badly this government has undermined confidence in merit-based appointments,” he said.
The government was contacted for comment.