Whilst Australian political elections are usually hotly contested affairs, the same can’t be said for corporate elections where 99.99% of incumbents are re-elected every three years without a contest.

Having run unsuccessfully for 29 public company boards and copped more than $250 billion in against votes, I know how hard it is to crack the club. Therefore, it is always good to welcome other outsiders into the ASX elections game and next week it’s a man called Robert Reeves, who is neither a serial pest like me or a serial candidate like Merv Vogt, the Telstra employee who ran for the Telstra board eight years in a row.

Reeves is the former ANZ executive trying to crack the ANZ board at next week’s AGM in Perth. Check out his hard hitting platform in the notice of meeting. 

Reeves was once deputy secretary of the Victorian Treasury and was also finance controller of the listed Grand Hotel Group. He was also the BHP executive who put together the foreign currency funding arrangements to buy Utah, which ultimately delivered the bonanza that is Escondida today.

Reeves won a legal settlement this year with ANZ over his termination in 2003 but has run for the board to make a statement about the bank’s shoddy governance and whistleblowers policies. As part of his claim, Reeves produced a credible independent whistleblower, to defend his record with this powerful affidavit.

All the detail of the battle is laid out on Reeves’ campaign website.

Interestingly, one of the people criticised by Reeves, Shane Freeman, was last month moved by new CEO Mike Smith from running ANZ’s global human resources operation to a post in Bangalore leading a team of 2000 people.

Not surprisingly, the ANZ has a different view with spindoctor Paul Edwards claiming Reeves was a “mid-level manager” who was made redundant, sued and then settled for a fraction of what he claimed for, but still wants to box on in what has now been a four year campaign. In relation to governance, Edwards says:

ANZ has followed proper process in respect of Mr Reeves complaints and so far as it is concerned his acceptance of the Bank’s offer was meant to bring closure to his complaints. They do not give rise to any broader issues of internal governance.

Well, ANZ would say that. Being an outside candidate is never easy but Australian boards need more credible candidates to stand up for better standards and transparency so let’s hope Reeves cracks 10% in Perth next week.