By Stephen Mayne

In this era of continuous disclosure by listed companies, one aspect which needs to be clarified is the reporting of health issues of boards and CEOs.

Take the suicide death of Ansell chairman Dr Ed Tweddell as an example. Ansell shareholders were never told that Dr Tweddell’s health had deteriorated and still to this day have not been advised what happened.

There was Dr Tweddell announcing a new director on July 25, yet ten days later he had taken his own life due to a health-related issue. You can check out sequence of announcements here.

When IAG and Woolworths chairman James Strong had a quadruple heart by-pass operations in early 2003, he was off work for several weeks yet no public statement was ever issued.

Compare that with the amount of times that poor health is evoked as a reason for a retirement or departure when in fact it was other issues that drove the decision.

Isn’t it time for boards to simply start telling us what is going on.

The biggest no vote against a News Corp directors was received by Aatos Erko in 2002, as you can see here.