Thursday 4 August 2022 04:16 AM John Barilaro New York trade job: How three top businesswomen were drawn into ... trends now
The scandal surrounding the appointment of John Barilaro to a New York trade role has dragged in three high-flying female executives and destroyed a friendship between two of them.
The public servant in charge of hiring for the job, Investment NSW executive Amy Brown, told a parliamentary inquiry looking into the recruitment process on Wednesday that the experience had been a 'confusing' and 'disheartening' one.
The political drama has also drawn in highly accomplished businesswoman Kimberley Cole and former NSW Investment executive Jenny West, once a friend of Ms Brown's.
Investment NSW chief executive gave her second session of evidence before a parliamentary inquiry looking into how former deputy premier John Barilaro was appointed to a plum New York trade ambassador role
Ms Brown outlined the processes that saw two high-flying women passed over for trade role that eventually went to former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro
Both lost out to former NSW deputy premier Mr Barilaro for the New York role even after Ms West received a text, complete with champagne and Statue of Liberty emojis, from Ms Brown that she had job before seeing it ripped away in 2021.
The job was readvertised this year and Ms Cole was the preferred candidate after interviews but failed to impress trade minister Stuart Ayres after being given just 12 minutes to chat with him over video link.
The job eventually went to Mr Barilaro, who signed a contact in June but stepped down last month after public outcry.
Ms Brown detailed to the inquiry on Wednesday how the hopes of the two business women were dashed.
KIMBERLEY COLE
Ms Brown told the inquiry that after the second set of candidates were interviewed in March she told Mr Ayres there were two standout candidates - Ms Cole and Mr Barilaro.
'I actually said to the minister: there are two candidates who both performed really well at the interview, they have very different offerings in terms of their characteristics and experience and ability to do the job,' Ms Brown told the inquiry.
Kimberley Cole was placed behind Mr Barilaro as the preferred candidate after she apparently failed to impress Mr Ayres in their 12-minute meeting
Ms Brown said there was a preference to hire a women as other trade commissioner roles had all gone to men.
However, she worried Ms Cole might not be able to mix well with politicians.
To prove herself, Ms Cole was allowed just a 12-minute Microsoft Teams meeting with Mr Ayres.
Ms Brown defended the interview method, saying she had often briefed ministers using Teams and 'you don't have a lot of time with ministers'.
Award-winning Australian businesswoman Kimberley Cole was given a 12-minute Microsoft Teams session to impress Mr Ayres
'I think she was given a good opportunity to pitch herself' Ms Brown said.
During her testimony, Ms Brown directly contradicted the claim by Mr Ayres that he kept at 'arm's length' from the recruitment process.
'In my view, he (Mr Ayres) was not arm's length from the process, there were multiple intersections throughout,' she said.
'A lot of it was actually initiated by me, because I felt the need that I had to keep checking, partly because of this grey area that we were in around public service or ministerial (appointments).
'Broadly speaking, I wanted to make sure he was comfortable.'
Stuart Ayres (pictured) resigned as a minister in the NSW Government in the wake of the John Barilaro US trade envoy job scandal
Ms Brown admitted to being nervous about her eventual selection of Mr Barilaro.
'I was nervous about it because he had some history with the NSW government that would make it difficult to take up the role without media and public controversy,' she said.
JENNY WEST AND AMY BROWN
Despite sending Ms West the text congratulating her on getting the job in August 2021, Ms Brown was adamant that the deal was not sealed.
'I want to reiterate my previous evidence that, by the end of the first recruitment process, no suitable candidate had been found,' Ms Brown told the inquiry.
'A number of factors had changed that resulted in both Ms West and the other candidate being determined by me alone to be no longer
