Dissent against director: Woodside 2025 AGM

The Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) is commenting on the results of Woodside Energy Group’s Annual General Meeting (AGM), at which:

• 19.45% of shareholders voted against the re-election of Ann Pickard - Sustainability Committee chair since 2017, who had oversight of the two climate plans which received successive record-breaking votes against^[1]
• 15.31% of shareholders voted against Adoption of the Remuneration Report.

ACCR filed members’ statements dissenting against the re-election of all three directors, saying Woodside’s entire Board shares collective responsibility for the company’s failings, which include Woodside’s chronically poor shareholder returns and its ongoing failure to manage climate risk.

Commenting on the results, Alex Hillman, Lead Analyst of the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) said:

“This is the worst vote on record against a Committee Chair for Woodside and the second worst vote ever against a Woodside director.

“It comes off the back of Woodside receiving the world’s highest vote against a company climate plan – twice.

“This persistent pattern of investor dissent and Woodside’s failure to adequately respond shows this is a company with a major governance problem.

“It is time for Ann Pickard to step aside as Chair of the Sustainability Committee – not only does she not have the support of nearly 20% of investors but she has overseen two climate plans that have failed to win the support of investors.

“Alarmingly though, looking at the current board it is hard to see a director sufficiently qualified to take on this critical leadership role as Sustainability Committee Chair – which speaks to the weakness of this Woodside board on managing climate risk.

“If Woodside received qualified audit reports, serious questions would be asked of the Audit and Risk Committee Chair, and the same principle should apply to Ms Pickard. She has overseen the world’s two worst votes against a company’s climate plan and has now received a significant vote against her re-election.

“Despite chronic underperformance and a strategy that’s been rejected by investors, Woodside persists with allocating most of its capex to new high-cost fossil fuel projects in an industry that is in structural decline.

“It is well past time for a strategic re-set, yet Woodside has not demonstrated it realises it has a problem, let alone knows how to fix it.”

Background

At Woodside’s 2023 AGM, 34.81% voted against Ian Macfarlane; 13.43% against Larry Archibald; and 10% against Swee Chen Goh.

At Woodside’s 2024 AGM:

• 16.61% voted against the re-election of Chair Richard Goyder.
• 58% voted against the Climate Transition Action plan (CTAP)

At Woodside’s 2022 AGM, 49% voted against the Climate Report