So Phil Britt is stepping down as Group CEO and he's not wasting any time in doing it as he's finishing on 28 Feb. This was a bit of a fear - I'm going to say 18 months ago - when Phil returned from prolonged leave and acknowledged that he had been considering his future. Although he recommitted at the time, I can speak from personal experience that once you start considering that there might be someplace else you want to be, it's very hard to stay focused on where you are.

Had he resigned back then I don't think the market would have reacted to the announcement as benignly as it appears to so far today. That probably reflects the fact the market wasn't that surprised at the announcement. Also, Phil will stay on as a NED, with a special advisor role contracted for the next two years. It also helps that his natural successor, Aussie-brand CEO and ex-CFO, will take over the top job. I'm not a huge lover of seeing CFO's take over the top job, but that's probably my internal prejudice. To be honest, if they'd just done it and not announced it I'm not sure anyone would have noticed, as the two of them could have been separated at birth.

Also, Phil probably lost some bark in the whole failed Superloop deal thing, and also the loss of Origin as a white label customer. He may have lost a bit of his halo from those stumbles and so perhaps the market wasn't as sorry to see him depart as they once would have been.

According to the release he will be instead pursuing a community-focused venture in Gippsland, where he was born and Aussie still operates from today.