Don Voelte

IN a capital-starved world those businesses that continue to invest stand out more than ever before.

Woodside Petroleum expects to treble production from its Pluto LNG project at the Burrup Peninsula by 2014, after formally starting front end engineering and design work for two additional production trains at the site.

Woodside Petroleum chief executive Don Voelte said the company had suggested a range of exit options to its wavering partners in the $30 billion Browse LNG venture to facilitate the timely delivery of the massive project off the Kimberley coast.

Woodside has stepped up its commitment to the Fremantle Football Club by signing a three-year major sponsorship deal.

THE global financial crisis was a tough time for most businesses, none more so than sporting clubs that discovered the risks of choosing the wrong sponsor.

Woodside Petroleum boss Don Voelte has given a subtle warning to major domestic gas customers, such as Alcoa, that the days of cheap gas are over following Woodside's landmark price settlement with Alinta.

Woodside Petroleum has deferred a final decision on expansion of its Pluto gas project, but the company's chief executive Don Voelte has still talked up its development record, saying it was five years ahead of industry rival Chevron.

Woodside Petroleum chief executive officer Don Voelte has sold 40,000 of his shares in the company valued at $1.7 million.

Woodside chairman Michael Chaney expects a "good slate of candidates" to put their hand up for the top job of Australia's premier oil and gas producer, in the wake of chief executive Don Voelte's decision to retire in the middle of next year.

Australia’s resources-led economic recovery has had a major impact on the pay of WA-based executives, with a big rise in the number of million dollar pay packets as share prices bounced back from GFC lows.

THE landscape has changed for Western Australians who want to be on the boards of national companies, according to some of the state’s leading directors.

Woodside Petroleum has announced ExxonMobil executive Peter Coleman as the successor to departing chief executive Don Voelte.

Colin Barnett’s Liberal-National team increasingly looks like a government unable to make the big decisions.

As Woodside Petroleum grapples with challenges at its three growth projects, a fourth option could provide an answer.

Executive remuneration is a hot political issue but the controversy does not seem to have slowed growth in pay packets at WA companies.

Five years of WA salary surveys show some chief executives appear to be remarkably well paid relative to the size of their business and the returns they have delivered, while others offer great value for money.

Changing global markets and local community pressures are crimping the growth prospects for big gas projects but the industry is still in a boom.

Everyone thought the resources takeover of the media was going to come via Gina Rinehart’s move on Fairfax.Instead, it has come from a different angle: the appointment of Don Voelte as CEO of Seven West Media.

WHEN Don Voelte stepped down as Woodside Petroleum CEO last year there was little indication he planned to do much more than use his board membership at Seven West Media as an excuse to regularly visit Perth, a city he admitted he had grown fond of.

WITH some experienced campaigners suggesting the current mergers and acquisitions market is the worst they have ever seen, there is plenty of finger pointing to overly exuberant deals of the past few years as the reason for reluctance in the current environment.

Seven West Media has reported a large rise in its reported profit but pro forma accounts that adjust for last year’s merger of West Australian Newspapers and Seven Media Group show a downturn in the group’s performance.

IT has been a big week of‘giving’ by Australian directors, with former WorleyParsons CEO John Grill giving $20 million to the University of Sydney and revelations that Rams Home Loans founder John Kinghorn has given at least $300 million to charity.

Seven West Media shares jumped 21 per cent  today following strong words from managing director Don Voelte about his commitment to slash costs in order to maintain last year's $226.9 million net profit.

The shale gas industry doesn’t stack up commercially and companies that have invested in the sector are following a herd mentality, Woodside managing director Peter Coleman said today.

Don Voelte has been appointed as chief executive officer of Seven Group Holdings, the Sydney-based investment group that holds a 38% stake in Seven West Media, and owns industrial equipment supplier WesTrac.

The new-found restraint characterising chief executive salaries has not extended to Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group Holdings, which has announced that new boss Don Voelte could earn $7.2 million each year.

Westrac is on the lookout for a new chief executive, after the long-serving Jim Walker announced his retirement today.Mr Walker joined Westrac in 1989 and has been chief executive for the past 13 years.

Calibre Group and Seven Group Holdings have appointed new chief financial officers today, with both being former executives at engineering contractor Downer EDI.

FEATURE: Salaries have come under huge pressure during the past year as widespread cost cutting takes its toll on executives’ take-home pay.

Mining services company Boart Longyear has taken the unusual step of awarding its recently appointed chief executive Richard O’Brien a US$5 million cash grant.

Seven Group Holdings chief executive Don Voelte has stepped down from his role as chairman of oil and gas junior Nexus Energy, saying the position was no longer appropriate as Seven Group eyes opportunities in the oil and gas sector.

Seven Group Holdings has lodged a 42 per cent reduction in revenue for the first half of the 2014 financial year, as a difficult and challenging market for its industrial services divisions took its toll on the company’s earnings.

Business leader Kerry Stokes says the Western Australian economy is heading for its toughest period in two decades, but expects the state will resume healthy growth within a couple of years.

Following the money is always the best way to see what interests a rich man because it tells you two things – what he likes as an investment for future growth, and what he sees as having reached the limits of growth.

Seven West Media has made four new board appointments including former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett and iiNet founder Michael Malone.

When newly appointed managing directors agree to work for nothing, it’s a sure sign the cost pressures facing listed companies are getting more acute.

Woodside Petroleum has spent the past 60 years focused on the development of its own projects in Australia, but in the space of one year, two major takeover deals collectively worth $15 billion look set to reshape the Perth-based energy giant.