The Board of petrol giant Ampol Limited has appointed interim chief executive Matthew Halliday to the permanent position of managing director and CEO of the business, formerly known as Caltex.
Halliday joined the company in April 2019 as chief financial officer and was appointed as the interim CEO in March. He was previously with Rio Tinto for 20 year as senior finance and commercial roles.
“The Board believes it is the right time to make this permanent appointment, having formed a view that Matthew is the right person to lead Ampol into the future. Matthew has done an outstanding job as Interim CEO through a period of unprecedented disruption and demand destruction following the onset of COVID-19, taking strong action to protect our assets and market-leading position, optimise cashflows and ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of our business for employees and customers,” said Ampol chairman, Steven Gregg.
Halliday, who will take up the role immediately, will receive a base salary of $1.65 million and can earn short and long term incentive payments.
He said it is “an honour to be appointed to lead this great Australian company on a permanent basis”.
“When we emerge from COVID-19 we will be well positioned to leverage our market-leading assets and strong balance sheet to continue the successful execution of our strategy and find new opportunities to deliver value to shareholders,” he said.
Caltex changed its name to Ampol in May. The first Ampol sites will open in Sydney and Melbourne towards the end of the year, with a national rollout in 2021.
The new logo uses its original red and blue bands, with a new leaning “A” that it said symbolises its “forward momentum with the striking and simple symbol to be a beacon for customers when on the road”.
The transition from Caltex to Ampol will be finalised by the end of 2022.
