Woodside Petroleum Ltd chief executive and managing director Don Voelte will be able to stay in the job for longer, after company chairman Charles Goode announced today that the fixed term element of Voelte's contract had been removed.
When Mr Voelte joined the company in February 2004, his employment agreement specified a term of 4 years and 360 days. That term was set as a result of the onerous taxation provisions which applied at that time to expatriate employees on their fifth anniversary of Australian employment.
Recent changes to the Taxation Act removed that provision. Accordingly, the Board and Mr Voelte agreed to amend the contract by removing its fixed term.
Consequential amendments have been made to Mr Voelte's termination provisions. In the previous contract, termination of employment by Woodside prior to completion of the contract term gave rise to a termination payment of the lesser of the Fixed Annual Reward for 18 months or for the period to the expiry of the contract. Termination as a result of the expiry of the contract would have given rise to no termination payment. Mr Voelte is now entitled to a termination payment of 12 months' Fixed Annual Reward where his employment is terminated by the company.
Mr Goode said the amendment to Mr Voelte's contract was in line with modern governance practice among Australian listed companies.
"The change removes the end date from Mr Voelte's contract and thus provides greater stability in the management for the longer term planning required in the company," Mr Goode said.
Mr Voelte was recently named by WA Business News as one of the most powerful chief executives in Western Australia, and in the top ten most powerful people in the state.
Woodside is the state's largest company by market value, the part ownder and operator of Australia's biggest resource project, the North West Shelf Venture, and is spending billions of dollars in expanding its operations with investments in Mauritania, Libya nd the Gulf of Mexico.
Mr Voelte was also recently appointed to the board of the University of Western Australia's Business School.
