There's been a lot written about this in recent times and I'm reluctant to add more but ... I was thinking about the spectrum of entrepreneurial to bureaucratic. Between Mercenary and Missionary CEO's. Between humble and hubristic.
With this in mind - is it so surprising that the larger than life, egocentric, analyst baiting, self made mining billionaire Chris Ellison at MIN turned out to be more of a rogue than you would expect from an ASX100 CEO? Probably not? Surprised that he was enriching himself at the expense of shareholders - yes, surprised and disappointed.
Is it surprising that an ex-roadie for Aus Rock royalty and self made tech billionaire like Richard White at WTC ended up with an inflated ego and believing that amassing a harem of groupies would end well? Yes, actually but the Warnie of the ASX tech index was hiding in plain sight. Warning (if not Warnie) signs were probably there from his love of the spotlight and (over) confident presentation style. Didn't see his implosion coming at all though to be honest.
So which other ASX Founder CEO types do we think are ego driven enough to let themselves down in public badly enough to ruin their reputation, their share price, or their business?
Tony Walls at OCL does not seem the type to me at all, I would be very surprised if he went down that route. Seems calm, measured, sensible. A little aggressive on the business front at times but all within the rules of capitalism.
David Dicker at DDR does worry me a bit and I suspect the recent share price weakness may be the result of some worried that the AFR might train their sights on him when they get bored of MIN. DD does tend to run the business like it's his own personal fiefdom at times (see Dividend policy) and did recently park some funds in a DDR bank account from a share sale (over year end I think?) to rack up some interest. Also dresses like he has a messiah complex and generally carries on a like a bit of an evil genius. Definitely some ego here.
Sam Hupert at PME is rumoured to frequently swan around Melbourne in his red Ferrari with the top down, when he's not kicking back in the south of France but I do not think he is on the hunt for a midlife crisis. More likely he enjoys the finer things and knows what makes him happy without having to search frantically elsewhere. I hope so anyway.
Phil Britt at ABB seems very earnest and up front. He gets a bit snarky with Telstra on his socials and was aggressive when stalking SLC but I don't see him as an ego concern.
Aidan Williams at AD8 has made some missteps recently but I don't see much of an ego on display here. He seems very much in the mould of a techie engineering type that's switched into management and maybe still finding his feet. However, it's often the quiet ones you need to worry about ....
Aidan Tudehope at MAQ seems to combine an amount of aggression in expanding the business into high growth opportunities within it's capabilities with a conservatism around appropriate debt and equity raises to fund this while building a strong customer centric culture. No big ego issues that I can spot.
Brett Kelly at KPG has me a little worried at times...
Disclaimer: If this all seems a little heavy on the accusations and light on supporting evidence, I have been reading a lot of AFR column inches on this topic recently so some of that may have rubbed off.
Who have I missed?
Disclosure: All Held