With many Annual General Meetings (AGM) scheduled to be held in the coming two months, some companies are taking the opportunity to shuffle directors around. Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) has today announced that Chairman Kevin McCann will retire from the company and be replaced by board member Gordon Cairns following the upcoming AGM on 23 October.
In announcing that Mr McCann was retiring, Origin credited the outgoing chairman, who has held the office since 2000, with presiding over Origin's growth in market capitalisation from $900 million to $15.8 billion.
Also announced today was news from pooling and logistics firm Brambles (ASX: BXB) that the chairman of SEEK (ASX: SEK) and Virgin Australia (ASX: VAH), Mr Neil Chatfield, and Ms Tahira Hassan, who is currently a director of Brambles, will both be joining the board of the soon-to-be-demerged document management division Recall Holdings.
Brambles also took the opportunity in announcing the appointments to reconfirm that the company is still aiming to complete the demerger of Recall by the end of December 2013.
Foolish takeaway
As billionaire investor Warren Buffett will tell you, bad management can destroy a business. That's why Buffett places such a high emphasis on investing in companies run by outstanding board members and managers.
Outstanding management teams can ultimately deliver higher profits and higher dividends to a shareholder, which goes to the heart of why an investor buys stocks. Interested in our #1 dividend-paying stock? Discover The Motley Fool's favourite income idea for 2013-2014 in our brand-new, FREE research report, including a full investment analysis! Simply click here for your FREE copy of "The Motley Fool's Top Dividend Stock for 2013-2014."
More reading
Motley Fool contributor Tim McArthur owns shares in Origin Energy.
