Billabong CEO Launa Inman has announced she will step down from the troubled surf retail maker, seeing the number of female CEOs on the ASX drop even further.
Inman will leave after just 13 months in the role, with Scott Olivet expected to take on the CEO position following a major refinancing deal worth $294 million announced with Altamont Consortium. She’s expected to depart with $4.6 million, including her $1.3 million base salary, incentives and termination agreement.
Inman told the Sydney Morning Herald that she’s known for six months that if she could get the deal with Altamont over the line, she would be moving on, with Altamont making it clear Olivet would take the role.
She said she’s sad to leave Billabong but knows it’s the “right thing for the company”.
“My most important job was to make sure that this company had a future as a going concern and we’ve achieved that” she said.
In May 2012 Inman replaced Derek O’Neill in the job, promising to ask leaders, customers, middle management and sales stuff across the world what could be done to help the company which, at the time, had suffered a massive fall in net profit and continued flat sales.
Last year she told Women’s Agenda sister publication Leading Company that there is no right or wrong answer to handling leadership when an organisation in distress. “A leader is about getting in there and really understanding what is happening in the business,” she said.
Inman previously served leadership roles with Target, where she rose up the organisation to be appointed managing director.