CBD

Taxing farewell for Mirvac boss

The outgoing chairman of Mirvac, James Mackenzie, made sure he made an impression at his last annual meeting at Melbourne's RACV Club. In a new move, the group decided to introduce shareholders to whizz-bang technology, in the form of hand-held smart devices with which to record votes electronically for the 10 resolutions.

To ensure everyone over 20 could use them, the new chairman John Mulcahy followed Computershare's example (CBD, Thursday) and did a test run.

The question was: "Did Hawthorn deserve to win the 2013 AFL grand final?"

Mackenzie is a mad-keen Hawks fan - he was even touted as a potential successor to president Ian Dicker during the club's dark days in the mid 2000s - and CBD's spies at the meeting detected a Rudd-esque smile from the diminutive director as 95 per cent of attendees voted yes.

But perhaps in need of a stretch after sitting still for two hours, after the meeting Mackenzie was in no mood to answer questions about a tussle with the Tax Office. He hip-and-shouldered past the assembled media and charged straight out the door for an end-of-game Gatorade.

Hacking cough

Eric Beecher's Crikey empire may have no budget to pay yartz scribes at spin-off website The Daily Review (see CBD Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday), but it appears parent company Private Media has found the pennies to employ a chief operating officer.

The job ad, fresh on seek.com.au on Thursday morning, doesn't give a pay range but a bit of fiddling with the website's search engine shows it attracts between $120,000 and $150,000 a year. For that, the successful applicant gets to be "part of a growing digital media company with a focus on conscious capitalism and purpose driven business principles".

More importantly, the new position will surely give CEO Marina Go more time to protect her Twitter account from evil hackers. "Just been informed my twitter account was hacked yesterday," she tweeted on Wednesday. "Apologies if you received spam from me. Also three tweets missing ... spooky."

In what is no doubt a complete coincidence, one of those missing tweets appears to be one in which Go disparaged CBD as a "cadet".

Discovering Nik

If he ever gets sick of selling exotic financial products, Boost ETP's Nik Bienkowski has a career in male modelling ahead of him. The hirsute co-CEO has been turning heads in the financial world with his starring turn in a promotional video for clothes label Hogan.

Following in the footsteps of Derek Zoolander, Bienkowski gives blue steel to the camera, waxes lyrical about his "more European" business attire and boasts of getting up at 6am every day to hit the gym "before other people get out of bed", making it into the office by 7.

"Yes, I do get to work or the gym before most people," he told CBD. "My body seems to switch on the minute the skies start to lighten."

The early rising seems to be working - Boost ETP only started two years ago but already has 52 exchange traded funds, listed in London and Italy.

CBD's spies say it's not Bienkowski's first foray into the fashion world - in the early '90s he he had a short-lived label, Haus of Nik, that specialised in clubwear.

Tender mercies

Everyone knows brewers droop, but did you know they cry too?

Booze industry types need cuddles and hand-holding, according to Food Standards Australia New Zealand.

The standards body has a tender out, offering up to $45,000 for someone to do a cost-benefit analysis of a proposal to make it compulsory for labels on alcoholic beverages to show how many kilojoules are inside.

"A sensitive approach to consultation with stakeholders will be required," FSANZ cautions. "There is potential for confusion of this project with other government and industry initiatives in alcohol labelling."

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bbutler@fairfaxmedia.com.au