18 August 2020

The chair of Parliament's economics committee, Tim Wilson, has suggested the positions of senior AMP executives may be untenable as politicians from both sides of the aisle called for the wealth manager to take action over cultural problems and sexual harassment allegations.

AMP’s board was locked in meetings [...] where the position of the firm's second most senior executive, Boe Pahari, was discussed.

The company's chief executive Francesco De Ferrari is expected to appear before the House of Representatives' economics committee chaired by Mr Wilson next month to face questions about its culture and handling of sexual harassment complaints.

[...]

AMP promoted Mr Pahari to lead AMP Capital in June after he was penalised $500,000 – or one quarter of his annual bonus – for breaching the bank's code of conduct after sexual harassment complaints were made by a female subordinate, Julia Szlakowski, in 2017.

The details of the case – including allegations Mr Pahari changed Ms Szlakowski's London hotel booking and repeatedly contacted her after 3am – were heard by the board when deciding which employee should lead the $198 billion division.

AMP chief executive Francesco De Ferrari said he and the board had "examined this matter at length" in the decision to promote Mr Pahari.

[...]

Mr De Ferrari has said addressing AMP's cultural problems is now his number one priority but refused to comment on whether this involved sexual harassment. Senator O'Neill said it was clear there had been a mismatch between "rhetoric and action" and called on the CEO to sack key executives.

[...]