Lindsay Fox’s elder son Peter abruptly resigns as boss of trucking group

The succession plans of Melbourne’s billionaire Fox family are in disarray after Lindsay Fox’s elder son Peter abruptly resigned this week from the family-owned logistics group Linfox.

Peter Fox resigned as executive chairman on Wednesday after months of extended leave from his role with the group which is the main source of Lindsay Fox’s $5.7 billion fortune.

Peter Fox’s absence had previously been described as a voluntary “sabbatical”, with sources close to the family denying it was related to a power struggle within the family.

But staff were told on Wednesday in an email from Lindsay Fox that Peter would not be returning to an executive role. The family would “embark on a new governance model, beginning with the appointment of independent chairs for operational businesses”, according to the email reported by the Australian Financial Review.

There have been reports of family tensions and internal investigations of Peter’s conduct, and the growing role of independent directors appointed to the Linfox board including former defence secretary Dennis Richardson.

Peter has been executive chairman since the 1990s and will remain on the board.

Also on the board are Lindsay’s younger sons, Andrew Fox, who runs the Linfox property group, which owns the Phillip Island Grand Prix racetrack, and David, who runs Linfox Airports which runs Melbourne’s Avalon Airport and Essendon Fields Airport.

The Fox family has managed to avoid, until now, the succession dramas that have torn apart the Murdoch family last year, and Gina Rinehart’s family in Perth, over the family trusts that have owned and governed their respective business empires.

Lindsay, who turned 89 in April, has five living children and 17 grandchildren.

Linfox is one of the largest trucking firms in Australia, shipping goods to supermarkets and cash around the country.