Decline and fall guys

WHAT do Greg Paramor, Paul Oneile and John Stewart have in common? Of late, each has delivered some unattractive numbers. And each has walked the plank.

The order may vary, but the outcome is the same. We think we're starting to see a pattern.

Consider: Mirvac's Paramor cut his distribution and issued a profit warning. Then he walked.

Oneile shuffled off from Aristocrat this week. A day later the company issued a profit warning.

And then, after last Friday's disastrous NAB writedowns, John Stewart walked.

But don't start thinking there's any cause and effect.

Paramor's replacement, Nick Collishaw: "The two events are not linked in any way."

Oneile's chairman David Simpson: "That is a coincidence. I know people are trying to read stuff into it, but it is purely a coincidence"

Stewart: "The decision last week made no difference."

It's such a relief. We no longer have to bite our nails about Eddy Groves's future after yet another profit warning yesterday from ABC Learning.

And we can be completely relaxed about how Singapore Inc's Temasek views the chief learning-block head after recently lifting its stake.

And our fears about GPT's Nic Lyons have now also been addressed.

We were a tad nervous the 27 per cent cut in forecast profit and the complete lack of market confidence in the senior leadership might have led to an exit.

Now we know better.

Strategic exits

Seats are tough to find in the CEO departure lounge. Among company kahunas riding into the sunset: IAG's Michael Hawker, Centro's Andrew Scott, Allco's David Coe, Foster's Trevor O'Hoy, Qantas's Geoff Dixon, Aristocrat's Paul Oneile, Macquarie's Allan Moss, Westpac's David Morgan, Mirvac's Greg Paramor and now NAB's John Stewart.

And then there are those who are scaling back their activities - part-time Ten boss Nick Falloon and Flight Centre's "Scroo" Turner, just taking a break from looking after shareholder interests.

Shark cagey

John Stewart will no doubt enjoy his $3 million kiss-off from NAB with some sailing early next year. His replacement, Cameron Clyne, however, has more serious issues. Having been based across the dutch in recent years looking after NAB's Kiwi operations, the Australian's six-year-old speaks with a Kiwi accent. Worse still, he supports the All Blacks. Still, it's good to know Clyne has been practising for his new role.

Each year he enters the Rottnest Island 12-mile swim off Perth. In a shark cage? "Without a shark cage. You don't have to be the fastest swimmer, you just need to be faster than the slowest swimmer," he mused. Perhaps now he's swimming in the big league he may go for the cage.

Hub hubba hubba

John Stewart was a touch busy yesterday to attend a prior engagement and couldn't make it to a high-powered brainstorming session with the PM, Kevin Rudd, about making Australia a financial services hub.

Among attendees were Ric Battellino (RBA), Paul Binsted (Lazard), Tony D'Aloisio (corporate plod), Michael D'Ascenzo (tax man), Goldman SachsJB Were boss Craig Drummond, John Edwards (Treasury), Angus James (ABN Amro), John Laker (APRA), Rob Priestley (JPMorgan), Graeme Samuel (ACCC), Richard Sheppard (Macquarie) and Mike Wilkins (IAG). Another NAB bod, Ahmed Fahour, was due to attend. Odd, our spy couldn't see him. Rudd told the throng "you are the future" on making us a financial services hub. "We're up for it so long as you blokes are. I mean blokes in the generic sense."

Short changes

Trevor Rowe, chairman of the Macquarie-and-Leighton-backed tollroad operator BrisConnections that made a fine debut yesterday, blamed retail traders for the stock's day one slump, questioning if there was a bit of short-selling too.

Given his other directorship on the ASX, we wonder if a market crackdown on short-selling beckons.

Storming Citadel

Owen Hegarty has taken his first post since leaving Oxiana in the tie-up with Zinifex, emerging as an adviser to Citadel Resource Group. Hegarty raised a few eyebrows as Citadel's major project is the Jabal Sayid copper mine in Saudi Arabia. Still, he was a pioneer in exploring mining opportunities in Laos. No details on Hegarty's pay , although we guess it is less than the $10.7 million he missed out on his payout from the marriage of OZ.

Scoop moves on

Phil Beard has called it a day at Citigroup as probably the longest-serving Aussie stockbroker in London. He started there 23 years ago at then Potts West Trumble before joining County, as it then was 17 years ago. He is a London legend, known as "Scoop" in homage to his days as a finance journalist in Australia. Questions remain over whether he will be able to stay out of the business.

Seek options

James Packer appears pleased with things at Seek. The online jobs mob announced plans to give founders and co-bosses Paul Bassat and Andrew Bassat more than 1 million stock options each as an extension of an existing options plan. Packer is Seek's non-executive chairman and controls 27 per cent of the company. Each Bassatt brother owns 13.35 million shares and 2.25 million options.

Fence sitting

Straddling a fence is an important skill in corporate PR. On Wednesday, Solly Lew's advisers sought a correction from news outlet mergermarket after a report on Lew's takeover ambitions for Just Group. Mergermarket reported a "source familiar with the situation" as claiming Lew would reach 50 per cent of acceptances. Lew's team rejected that, with inquiries to be directed to Ross Thornton of FD Third Person. Meanwhile, yesterday's financial press carried an ad about a coming mergermarket conference. Among speakers? FD Third Person's John Mangos and Ross Thornton.