Amcor’s Ken Mackenzie will retire at the end of the financial year after a 10 year stint as its CEO and managing director, effective end 2015 financial year, in news that saw the $10bn company’s share price plummet by 4.5 per cent. Amcor will appoint current CFO Ron Delia, 43, who has been in that role with Amcor since 2011, as its new CEO. Speaking with Australian Printer today Mackenzie says he wants to hand over the top job to ‘spend more time with his family,’ and the success of the company means the ‘time is right to hand over the leadership’. Mackenzie says the selection process of the new appointment was ‘rigorous’. However, Delia says he was told about his appointment only a few days ago. Delia says he is ‘excited about the future’ and wants to focus the company’s attention to innovation and taking it further. While Delia insists that ‘nothing is broken’ with the company, he says there is room for improvement and there is work that needs to be done. “I’m not going to compare strategies with Ken because we have a shared philosophy, but there is always room for improvement,” Delia says.
Ron Delia Amcor CEO elect.
Delia was vice president of Amcor’s Rigid Plastics Latin America operations from 2008-2011 and executive vice president Corporate Operations from 2005 – 2008. He says Amcor’s success over the past decade has been built on the strength of the ‘talented team’ of people. “The business has developed a focused portfolio, built a unique operating model for the packaging industry, and established a clear understanding of shareholder value creation,” Delia says. “These components will remain the foundations of the company going forward.” Under Mackenzie’s role as the CEO since 2005, the company’s profits grew dramatically. In June 2005, the company’s profit after tax was $443m, by June 2014, the profit had reached $737m, and this did not include the figures from Orora which was spun out of the business as a separate entity. Unsurprisingly the news of the new CEO proved unhealthy for Amcor as its shares plummeted in the market by 4.5 per cent on the announcement of Mackenzie’s departure, given his ten year reign and stellar performance.
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter