Home builder Simonds now has two job-sharing CEO
Simonds Group has halved the pay and working time of chief executive Kelvin Ryan and appointed founder Gary Simonds’ grandson Rhett as joint chief executive under a new arrangement that will see the two men work on a rotating two-weekly basis.
Under the new joint chief executive arrangement, announced on Wednesday, Mr Ryan’s annual fixed remuneration will halve from next month to $362,500 – as will his other benefits such as short- and long-term incentives and allowances.
Mr Simonds will receive the same for his half-time role, in a move he said answered Mr Ryan’s wish to free up time to focus on other interests. It was not the start of a plan that would see Mr Ryan make way for Mr Simonds to take over, he said.
“Kelvin’s not going anywhere,” Mr Simonds told The Australian Financial Review.
“We know how it could look but it’s not what some people will speculate it to be. What it does do is free up Kelvin a bit to allow him to follow some of the other interests he’s got in the works on a personal level.”
Mr Ryan will focus on strategy of the home building business and financial performance of the company, while Mr Simonds will concentrate on sales and marketing as well as the vocational training business.
“For an industry that’s a bit old-fashioned, we’re embracing a modern management arrangement,” Mr Ryan said.
He said the decision was a response by the board and family to his request to have more time to spend on his role as a consultant to US-based company Building Services International, which provides offshore draughting, estimating and rendering services to US building companies.
Rhett Simonds has already been playing an active leadership role in the family’s various interests. A director of the listed company since 2016, he is chief executive of Simonds Consolidated, the investment vehicle of the family office.
Mr Simonds, who also acted as chief executive for a few months before Mr Ryan’s appointment, is also managing a $300 million private lending scheme modelled on Western Australia’s Keystart program targeting first home buyers.
Mr Simonds said on Wednesday the lending scheme was “still a work in progress”, and that while the federal government’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme was helping improve housing affordability, it had not had much effect on new housing creation.
“It’s certainly skewed to the apartment sector or the established sector, which hasn’t had the effect in the new house and land sector as heavily as it maybe could have, but we’re still working on that with different parties,” he said.
Gary Simonds, who now carries the title of senior adviser at the company he founded in 1949, said the change carried “the full support, trust and backing” of the Simonds family.
“I believe it is very important to retain Kelvin in the business and we welcome the joint CEO arrangement,” he said.
The shares shed 1¢, or 2.4 per cent, to 40¢.
Under Mr Ryan, the former head of building giant BGC Residential who was appointed as full-time chief executive in 2018, the once-dominant Melbourne-based home builder that only lost money for shareholders after listing in late 2014, has started a turnaround.
In August the company said revenue and profit doubled in the year to June 30, as it boosted site starts and increased its exposure to higher-value, two-storey dwellings.
