Club Mgmt. Board of Directors as led by President Dave Barham

[Lore]

Spoiler: Timeline of events

• 15/8: President, Paul Brasher resigns, replaced by Dave Barham who foreshadows external review
  • Votes for Brasher: Peter Allen, Simon Madden, Sean Wellman
    Sean Wellman

    Age

    50

    Ht

    193cm

    Wt

    90kg

    Pos.

    Def

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    14.1

    4star

    K

    9.7

    4star

    HB

    4.5

    3star

    M

    4.5

    4star

    T

    1.0

    3star

    No current season stats available

    D

    8.0

    2star

    K

    4.4

    2star

    HB

    3.6

    3star

    M

    2.6

    3star

    T

    0.8

    3star

  • Votes for Barham: Andrew Muir, Dorothy Hisgrove, Melissa Green, Kate O’Sullivan, Kevin Sheedy
• 21/8: Senior Coach, Ben Rutten
  Ben Rutten

  Age

  41

  Ht

  190cm

  Wt

  98kg

  Pos.

  Def

  Career

  Season

  Last 5

  D

  13.4

  3star

  K

  6.3

  2star

  HB

  7.0

  4star

  M

  5.3

  5star

  T

  1.3

  3star

  No current season stats available

  D

  10.6

  3star

  K

  6.2

  3star

  HB

  4.4

  4star

  M

  3.6

  4star

  T

  1.0

  3star

  sacked
• 24/8: CEO, Xavier Campbell resigns
• 24/8: Directors to resign
  • Paul Brasher, immediately
  • Simon Madden, immediately
  • Sean Wellman, after new football director is appointed
  • Peter Allen, after AGM & finance portfolio handover in December
• 26/8: Details of coaching selection committee appointment
  • Sub-committee of 6: Josh Mahoney
    Josh Mahoney

    Age

    47

    Ht

    180cm

    Wt

    83kg

    Pos.

    Fwd

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    11.3

    3star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    4.5

    3star

    M

    3.5

    4star

    T

    1.6

    4star

    G

    0.9

    4star

    No current season stats available

    D

    9.2

    3star

    K

    5.4

    2star

    HB

    3.8

    3star

    M

    2.2

    3star

    T

    1.6

    4star

    G

    0.4

    3star

    (Chair, GM-Footy), Robert Walls, Jordan Lewis
    Jordan Lewis

    Age

    38

    Ht

    186cm

    Wt

    86kg

    Pos.

    D/M

    Career

    Season

    Last 5

    D

    23.5

    5star

    K

    12.1

    4star

    HB

    11.5

    5star

    M

    5.5

    5star

    T

    2.7

    4star

    MG

    310.5

    4star

    No current season stats available

    D

    15.0

    4star

    K

    6.8

    3star

    HB

    8.2

    5star

    M

    4.8

    5star

    T

    2.8

    5star

    , Simone McKinnis OAM, Andrew Thorburn and Dorothy Hisgrove (board member).
• 26/8: Details of external review process
  • Ernst & Young to coordinate with support from Andrew Thorburn, working closely with Nick Ryan (Acting CEO) & Dorothy Hisgrove (board member)
  • Focusing on four areas: (1) Board effectiveness & composition, (2) a review of leadership, operations and culture including the footy department, (3) the senior coach appointment and (4) the new CEO appointment.
• 26/9: Andrew Welsh appointed to the board of directors, replacing Simon Madden
• 29/9: Brad Scott appointed as Senior Coach
• 30/9: Kevin Sheedy claims decision to appoint Brad Scott was 6-1 against him
• 3/10: Andrew Thorburn appointed as CEO - alternative link
• 3/10: “External review to be handed to the board next week”: Andrew Thorburn, Crichton Medal Address
• 4/10: Andrew Thorburn resigns as CEO
• 11/10: External review preliminary findings
• 24/10: External review preliminary findings II
• 2/11: Dan McPherson appointed as General Manager of Performance & Cam Roberts as Head of Development
• 11/11: Dean Rioli appointed to the board of directors, replacing Paul Brasher
• 14/11: Tim Roberts & David Wills appointed to the board of directors, replacing Sean Wellman and Paul Allen respectively
• 28/11: Dorothy Hisgrove announced as first female vice-president (at the Essendon Women's Best and Fairest night)
• 1/12: Craig Vozzo appointed as CEO
• 13/12: Board director election results: Andrew Welsh and Andrew Muir elected
• 15/5: The club's First Nations Advisory Council established, to be led by Dean Rioli (chair, Indigenous board member), and including: Leanne Brooke (EFC EGM – Community & The Long Walk. Essendon FC), Dorothy Hisgrove (EFC VP and National Manager Partner KPMG), Kane Ellis (CEO of Illawarra Aboriginal Medical Service), John Evans (Pro Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement at Swinburne) and Che Cockatoo-Collins (EM, Indigenous Affairs NBN, EFC Past Player)
• 16/5: Board of Directors declare support for the First Nations Voice to Parliament, after consultation with the new First Nations Advisory Council
• 28/8: EGM - Football, Josh Mahoney has accepted a role as GM Football Operations at the AFL
• 10/10: GM - Performance Daniel McPherson, and Head of AFLW/AFL Operations Manager Aysha Ward have been elevated to the club executive as joint leaders of the club's football department, as GM-AFL and GM-AFLW respectively

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Yeah I'm not really sure about this. Basically resigned in disgrace from his last gig. Then was doing the external review and CEO search and then suddenly becomes a candidate?

Reeks of all not quite being right.

Anyway, he's here now. Good luck.

 

[DonsRule]

Will be interesting to see how he goes. I do feel slightly uncomfortable about him being part of the review process (albeit I get he excluded himself along the way for the CEO search)
Hopefully he does well.

 

[citizen-erased]

well...we have a coach and CEO now
how about that Norf

 

[Nifft]

So in a few hours we'll hear what Sheedy thinks I guess?

 

[GUMBLETRON]

Andrew's great integrity and exceptional vison at NAB culminated in him being run out of town by the banking Royal Commission.

 

[BomberFan355]

Good appointment?

 

[Don Won]

I can understand people being uncomfortable with him being part of the review then being offered the job, but it happens a bit when using consultants. You see How they operate and realise they have everything you are looking for.

I didn’t follow the extent of his culpability in the banking Royal Commission so don’t know if he fell on his sword or was the key culprit, but he took responsibility which is something.

 

[Petrify]

Keep him away from anything to do with on field stuff and don't send us broke. If he does those two things he'll be perfect

 

[BrunoV]

So you can add:

6. Appointing former CBA CEO as our CEO

to my running list. Talk about a big fish.

 

[iDon]

Keep him away from anything to do with on field stuff and don't send us broke. If he does those two things he'll be perfect

So what will he do?

 

[The Donners]

I suppose as far as CEO’s go, they don’t come more qualified.

As others have said about being uncomfortable that he was on the coaching sub committee I agree. I only agree given that it’s Essendon otherwise I would expect professionalism and integrity.

I think there’s a certain board member that needs to vacate his position and then I personally will feel as comfortable with the direction of the club as I have in a decade or more.

 

[jmoo wan]

So what will he do?

hopefully get us back into eSports, and NFTs

 

[TheGreatBarryB]

Andrew's great integrity and exceptional vison at NAB culminated in him being run out of town by the banking Royal Commission.

Yeah he did cop it. Achieved a bit there nonetheless…

 

[boncer34]

So you can add:

6. Appointing former CBA CEO as our CEO

to my running list. Talk about a big fish.

cough NAB cough

 

[Lore]

Yeah he did cop it. Achieved a bit there nonetheless…

View attachment 1524802

Yep these are the things I find interesting. The idea that he is intensely focused on what the core business of the organisation actually is – in their case, Australian banking, in ours, football – and honing in on that, restructuring the organisation to put that at the centre of everything you're doing.

I don't mind that he was part of the external review. At the time he was appointed he was external, he's not reviewing his own decisions.

I also don't think it's particularly problematic that someone who now has an intimate knowledge of the club is the one charged with actioning the recommendations either. At least we know he's not going to throw the recommendations out, or be selective about which ones to implement.


The Banking Royal Commission stuff is yuck though. I didn't follow it closely at the time but I do hope we don't start charging membership fees to people who have died (we probably already do tbh, that's kind of how having your credit card set to automatic rollover works, at least until the card is cancelled).

 

[windyhill]

Sheedy.....” **** ! I didn’t vote for him either”

 

[GUMBLETRON]

I do hope we don't start charging membership fees to people who have died

Worse, we give them seats on the board.

 

[BrunoV]

I suppose as far as CEO’s go, they don’t come more qualified.

As others have said about being uncomfortable that he was on the coaching sub committee I agree. I only agree given that it’s Essendon otherwise I would expect professionalism and integrity.

I think there’s a certain board member that needs to vacate his position and then I personally will feel as comfortable with the direction of the club as I have in a decade or more.

Why would this be a negative? Even if it was just head hunting him.

I haven't followed closely enough to know whether he interviewed for the job.

He's a former big 4 bank CEO. We've seen him in action, at least partially, for the last month. I suspect culture was a big focus of the thinking during the coaching interviews. That will be a big part of his role as the finances seem to run themselves. Maybe we can divest into running hedge funds.

The footy side of things is looking quite strong now. You've got Mahoney who still has the glow of being part of Melbourne's build and a proven 10 year coach who has a pretty diverse range of skills (having been underresourced while previously in the job and then working in operations at the AFL).

The need for a footy CEO isn't that great now. If Rutten was still there it would be different. I'm not sure we get rejected by anyone in the next few years because the guy who used to run NAB is at the helm.

 

[BrunoV]

cough NAB cough

What's that expression? Same shit, different smell.

 

[baz_machine]

Let's be honest, he is massively over qualified and this is a retirement gig for him instead of tending to the garden.
He'll be a million times better than the former CEO

 

[andleanback]

Who was your preferred alternative?

Anyone who has worked in the front office of the afl industry and a well respected individual who knows how to lead a football club not just a business, also a guy who didn’t resign in disgrace due to the banking royal commission.

 

[frodos gardener]

I’m not a huge fan (of Thorburn) but I can see what Barham is up to - he wants a bit of campaigner back in the place and is starting to fill roles with people who have some grunt. It will start to feel like a different place pretty quickly at this rate.

 

[baz_machine]

He'll know what a Risk Committee is, that's for sure

 

[DonsRule]

NAB’s low-profile CEO pick, Andrew Thorburn, surprises market

Andrew Thorburn, the incoming CEO of National Australia Bank, is described as an energetic banker able to motivate staff despite his low profile running BNZ.

www.afr.com

He is an Essendon supporter at least

NAB’s low-profile CEO pick, Andrew Thorburn, surprises market​

James Eyers | Joyce Moullakis | Georgia Wilkins
Updated Apr 3, 2014 – 9.25pm, first published at 10.27am



Andrew Thorburn , the incoming chief executive of National Australia Bank , is described as an energetic banker able to motivate staff, but someone who has kept a low profile during his six years running NAB’s New Zealand operations.
A dual Australian-New Zealand citizen (his mother is a Kiwi), Thorburn and Cameron Clyne – who he will succeed as CEO in August – are close friends.
It’s not the first time Mr Thorburn has filled outgoing boss Cameron Clyne’s shoes. Following a two-year stint at St George , he joined NAB in 2005 within months of Clyne, and eventually took over from Mr Clyne in the top job at the company’s Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) business in 2008.

AFR AFR
Thorburn, who is a committed Christian, has been married to his wife, Kathryn, for 27 years, and has three children, aged 18, 21 and 23, at university. Born in Melbourne, Thorburn is a mad supporter of Essendon in the AFL. But when watching rugby union, he barracks for the All Blacks.
Thorburn, who also plays the drums, has been a banker for 27 years. Before assuming the NAB reins in New Zealand in 2008, he ran NAB’s retail bank in Australia for three years, after being hired by CEO John Stewart and Ahmed Fahour. It was a tough time for NAB’s retail operations, which lost market share after writing low-quality loans but Thorburn is credited with lifting performance.



Thorburn began his managerial career as a regional head of ASB Bank , owned by Commonwealth Bank of Australia , in Auckland in 1986, where he worked under Ralph Norris , who was running ASB at the time.
He studied an MBA at Durham University in the United Kingdom before Norris sent him to Sydney, where he worked at CBA under Gail Kelly. There, he won her respect by turning around the bank’s regional NSW operations. He also worked as head of CBA’s marketing communications division and was sent by Kelly to Western Australia, which had also been an underperformer. When Kelly moved to St George, she brought Thorburn across with her in 2002. But there was said to be a wedge driven between Kelly and Thorburn when he left for NAB, not long after a reorganisation of St George’s retail banking division.
While he had already defected to NAB, he was also in the running to take over from Kelly when she left St George to take the reins at Westpac. Paul Fegan became the chief executive of St George, but only briefly, as Westpac soon lobbed a bid for Australia’s then fifth largest bank.
During his tenure in New Zealand with NAB, Thorburn has largely focused on keeping costs under control.
NAB chairman Michael Chaney pointed to Thorburn’s “superb job" building BNZ’s cash earnings by more than 40 per cent and “developing a strong leadership culture". But one analyst, who asked not to be identified, said Thorburn’s performance in New Zealand had been underwhelming, pointing to reduced margins in the business as it was forced to chase deposits to maintain its funding ratios.
During this time, he oversaw a lengthy tax dispute with New Zealand tax authorities along with the other big four banks over a series of highly profitable ‘‘repo’’ deals. It led to a combined settlement of $1.7 billion. The case exposed NAB to heavy write-downs at a time when it was battling rising bad debts and slowing credit growth following the global financial crisis.

Thorburn has also been responsible for NAB’s Asian and United States operations. Outside the bank, he has played a leading role in the Trans-Tasman Business Circle.
A banking insider noted Thorburn was viewed as a “safe pair of hands" and the best among the existing bench to take the top job. He is described as a people person and has less of a “mechanical style" than Clyne.
A former colleague said Thorburn introduced uniforms into NAB’s branch network and also instituted a new system of employee rewards and incentives.
After joining NAB, Thorburn told The Australian Financial Review he wanted to cut in half the number of customers per relationship manager.

 

[Lore]

The need for a footy CEO isn't that great now. If Rutten was still there is would be different. I'm not sure we get rejected by anyone in the next few years because the guy who used to run NAB is at the helm.

Coupled with Mahoney appearing to be a good operator and Scott being given "autonomy over the football department", as long as the CEO stays out of the ****ing way and provides support, funding, and general oversight as necessary (in terms of governance, not whether we should kick it to Redman) that's all you really need from him.

Thorburn should be tailoring the rest of the joint around being a professional football club though. According to the email, focusing on our members and football.

No idea what that's going to look like specifically, making the facilities more member-friendly? Making the bombershop more member-friendly?

Players have to do one appearance per week for the club during the season, which can be like radio interviews, podcast, club functions, school visits, etc.

Over the last few years we hardly see or hear from any of them except to have 5 radio interviews directly after we win the odd game, Merrett doing AFL360 every couple of weeks and the club's Rish & Rath and Bonnie T & Maddy P podcasts. Plus Draper's own podcast which I guess must be something he's been allowed to do. Some of what they're doing is also like the player sponsorship night mid-year as well, I assume there are more private events like that during the year where they'll appear.

Then in the last two weeks Kelly was in the grand final sprint, Draper in the longest kick over the Yarra, and Merrett also did some sort of grand final week function as well (the one where he commented on Hird not being a good fit as our next coach).

So I kinda wonder if that might become more of a thing too. Obviously they're not all going to be public appearances or public speaking as it depends what they're comfortable with but having like open training where they do a signing session for half an hour afterwards would also tick the box, though it would be better for most people if it was on a weekend.