Treasury Wine Estates has brought forward the pending departure of its chief financial & strategy officer, with deputy CFO Justin Pipito set to take on the responsibilities temporarily.
Almost three months ago, the Penfolds owner confirmed that Stuart Boxer had notified the group of his intention to retire later this year. The move had been scheduled to take effect on 30 September, although Treasury said today (26 May) that Boxer will step aside on 30 June, coinciding with the end of the group’s financial year.
When announcing Boxer’s retirement, Treasury also commenced what it called at the time a “comprehensive internal and external search for a successor”. In today’s stock exchange filing, the company said the process is “progressing well”, with deputy CFO Justin Pipito (below) lined up to assume the chief financial & strategy officer position “on an interim basis”.
Pipito’s entire career has been spent in financial departments – the executive started as an accountant at Coopers & Lybrand in Melbourne 22 years ago – taking in ten years (from 2005 to 2015) as senior finance manager at Carlton & United Breweries. He joined Treasury in late 2016 as CFO of operations in Australia and New Zealand before heading to Asia for five years. He returned to headquarters in Melbourne to become deputy CFO in October 2023.
Last month, former group COO Robert Foye submitted proposals to Treasury that he maintained would increase the company’s “equity value … by 50%-to-100% over time”. Despite rebuffing the suggestions at the time, Treasury has since confirmed a reversion to a regional structure, which also formed part of Foye’s proposals.
