(17 September 2004 – Australia) Commonwealth Bank has announced that chairman John Ralph will retire at this year’s annual general meeting in November to be replaced by John Schubert.Ralph has been on the CBA board since 1985 and has served as chairman since 1999. Schubert has been deputy chairman since 2000, after joining the board in 1991. He currently chairs the bank’s audit committee and is a member of the risk and nominations committee.
Schubert is a director of BHP Billiton and Qantas and is chairman of Worley Group.
The bank became fully privatised during Ralph’s tenure as chairman and consolidated its position as the country’s largest retail bank.
He said the industry had gone through significant change during his time as chairman.
“The bank also undertook the largest financial services merger in Australia’s history with Colonial Ltd and in 2003 embarked on the Which new Bank program, the most important change for the bank since privatisation,” Ralph said.