AMP CIO Warwick Foster has been sacked in a boardroom decapitation festival following the company's ruthless punishment by shareholders over poor financial performance and market concerns over the company disclosure processes.
The swinging axe of Andrew Mohl, AMP's newly appointed CEO, fell on AMP's Global Information Services division on October 14 in a radical reorganisation of the troubled financial services provider's upper management, taking with it five senior executives as part of Mohl's 'Five Point Plan'.
An AMP spokesman told Computerworld the position of CIO had been "eliminated" -- although the same source grudgingly conceded that responsibility for AMP's IT systems would eventually fall to someone.
According to AMP's last annual report, Foster received an annual total remuneration package of $1.375 million for the year ending December 31, 2001 - more than AMP's CFO of $1.177 million. No severance package figures for Foster were available from AMP, although its spokesperson stressed that any payout would "not be exorbitant".
Originally an accountant, Foster joined AMP in July 2000, having previously been CIO at Colonial Limited (since taken over by CBA) and had previously held positions at Coles Myer. Foster was not available for comment.
According to an AMP press release, "a streamlined corporate IT function will form part of the strategy and development unit, working in partnership with the strengthened business unit IT functions".
The release also states that the new structure, " will form the model for the relationship between all corporate office functions and the business units".