“[There is] no crystal ball on it,but obviously we will move very quickly,” she said.
Ms Coonan will be paid an extra $1.8 million a year to take on Crown’s top management role,bringing her annual salary to $2.5 million. However said she did not expect to be in the role for long,with a global hunt for a new CEO already under way.
She would not be drawn on whether she would stay on as chairman beyond that or would need to leave the board as part of Crown’s governance overhaul,given she has spent nine years as a Crown director during a period of corporate dysfunction.
Defending her position,Ms Coonan said responsibility for scandals includingmoney laundering and the arrest of Crown staff in China in 2016 lay with executives and had been “well and truly acknowledged by me” during the Bergin Inquiry.
“The Commissioner[Patricia Bergin] identified me as someone suitable to be able to take Crown on the path to suitability,” she said. “I am totally committed to seeing through the reform agenda that we have outlined.”