Alex Malley, is the former chief executive of

CPA Australia CPA Australia ("Certified Practising Accountant") is a professional accounting body in Australia founded in 1886. As of 31 December 2020, it has 168,736 members working in 150 countries and regions around the world. CPA Australia currently has 1 ...

. He was removed by the CPA board of directors in late June 2017 after months of controversy regarding his excessive salary and the use of CPA funds for self-promotion of his book and

TV program Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication Media (communication), medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of Transmission (telecommunications), television tra ...

Career

Malley began his career working at the

Commonwealth Bank of Australia The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), or CommBank, is an Australian multinational bank with businesses across New Zealand, Asia, the United States and the United Kingdom. It provides a variety of financial services including retail, busine ...

. He quit the job and began working at the

University of Western Sydney Western Sydney University, formerly the University of Western Sydney, is an Australian multi-campus university in the Greater Western region of Sydney, Australia. The university in its current form was founded in 1989 as a federated network u ...

. He began as an accounting academic at

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a public research university based in Sydney, Australia, in the suburb of Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of S ...

in 1993 and his employment was terminated for allegedly giving extra grading points for students signing up for his wife's training courses. In 2007 he was elected president of the professional accounting body in 2007. Within a year, he stepped down as President and became the CEO of the organisation in 2008.

CPA Australia

As CEO of CPA Australia, Malley came under significant criticism in the media and from CPA members in 2017 for his A$1.8 million annual salary and for the significant amounts of CPA funds going towards promoting Malley and his personal interests, such as a paid television show and Malley's autobiography. The scandal surrounding Malley, combined with broader member discontent over executive changes that made the board unaccountable and debts accrued from the establishment of a financial planning arm, led to the resignation of the CPA president and two board members by June 2017. The two resigning board members, Richard Alston and Kerry Ryan, cited the presence of "board allies of chief executive Alex Malley" refusing to "allow a wide-ranging review of Mr Malley and the organisation" as their main reason. On 15 June, a further three directors resigned due to the expanding scandal surrounding Malley and the remaining board initiated an "independent review" of all claims made against CPA and its CEO, to be chaired by former chief of the Australian Defence Force, Sir Angus Houston. However, even the decision to create the review came under criticism when it was revealed that Houston had appeared as guest on Malley's TV program and had written a glowing foreword in Malley's book. Houston later resigned his post in favour of former Commonwealth Auditor-General, Ian McPhee. Facing a significant swelling of discontent amongst CPA members, on 23 June 2017 it was announced that the CPA board had terminated the contract of Malley, resulting in CPA paying out the remainder of his contract to the sum of A$4.9 million. The subsequent review report released in September 2017 found that the "chief executive was overpaid, PA Australiahad lost touch with its members and provided questionable value for money for the services it rendered." In addition to CPA's "over-emphasis on marketing and brand building activities that centred on the former CEO", the review in particular noted the excessive CEO's salary, with its many increases over several years not being justified by organisational growth. In January 2019 Malley and three previous directors were stripped by the CPA of their Life Memberships.

References

Published works

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Malley, Alex Australian accountants Australian television presenters Australian people of Greek descent Australian people of Maltese descent Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Macquarie University faculty Australian chief executives Australian corporate directors People educated at Trinity Grammar School (New South Wales) University of New South Wales alumni