Over the past ten years I have built a highly successful leadership practice, designCEO, working with CEOs and their Executive Leadership Teams.

The designCEO work builds on the concept that leadership is the defining characteristic of every great organisation or team. No organisation can outperform its leadership.

I have worked with the CEOs and leadership teams of major companies such as ANZ, John Holland Group (JHG), Servier and L’Oreal, as well as sporting organisations such as the Carlton Football Club, Western United Football Club (A-League Champions), Football Victoria and Cricket Victoria.

The designCEO leadership programs and mentoring utilise frameworks and methodologies heavily influenced by high-performance sport, ensuring commitment and accountability to a team-based ethos, at all times focusing on the organisation’s leadership, in particular the CEO, Board and Executive Leadership Teams and leadership pipeline.

I work with leaders to create environments that not only achieve strong performance outcomes, but also establish high levels of trust and emotional well-being for those who align their careers and lives to the cultures leaders build.

The designCEO leadership programs are a deep personal learning experience, ensuring leaders have the means to lead with authenticity, the key to establishing high levels of personal leadership trust.

We develop leaders who can navigate complexity as a strategic priority - and, when done well, a competitive advantage. Beyond developing capability, we must develop leaders with consciousness, courage, humility and compassion.

At the time of my appointment, Melbourne was facing major short-term profit and cash issues and was carrying over $5m of debt.

A cumulative lack of infrastructure investment meant high business risk, wastage, and compromised future growth. The club had a deceptively small supporter base, league low membership and stadium return, weak and disassociated corporate network, non-performing assets, poor brand and no community alignment.

The team was non-competitive, finishing last and winning only three games.

I led a committed and considered process to stabilise the business with the club posting a profit, effectively a $3m turnaround in just 12 months. This was achieved despite the team again finishing last on the ladder.

That year, we also committed to a strategic plan titled 'The Red and Blueprint'.

Over the next four years, significantly improved profitability plus a number of important deals created an asset base of over $15m. Revenue grew by 60%, despite embedded strategic constraints, with vital investment in infrastructure including the establishment of excellent training, administration and community facilities at AAMI Park and Casey Fields, which removed a 30-year competitive disadvantage.

Despite this being a very difficult and disrupted period for the club, its vastly improved profit-model enabled the club to invest in building capabilities in list management, recruiting and sports-science, taking a longer-term strategic view for the first time in many years. This investment appears to be bearing fruit. The club is now considered strongly positioned with a properly resourced football department guiding a talented and well-structured playing list.

The club also assumed leadership for the development of woman's football, previously ignored for decades. This included the first National Woman's Draft and Exhibition Game in 2013. The success of these initiatives built the momentum for the establishment of the AFLW in 2017.

As CEO, the Fremantle Football Club was transformed from a loss making, debt laden club that had never placed higher than 12th on the Premiership Ladder, to regular finalist and ranked in the top three AFL clubs in terms of profitability and resources.

Based on a committed and integrated strategy, the club was fully restructured and repositioned, building on its many unique qualities and local football heritage to differentiate itself from its powerful cross-state rival, the West Coast Eagles whilst building a National presence.

The 'Purple Haze' became a powerful force, with a key focus on creating a highly involved match-day experience.

Recruiting and retaining playing talent was a key component, something the club had been unable to achieve to this point in its young life. This ensured a highly competitive, finals bound team that gave a burgeoning supporter base hope and expectation for the first time in the club's history.

Not only would the club soon be operating profitably, within five years it would be at capacity, both membership and corporate.

Revenue increased by 320%, $8m of debt repaid with an overall balance sheet improvement of $13m as well as significant investment in building organisational capability, including the development of competition leading community initiatives.

Fremantle was soon considered an AFL success story after initially struggling to transition into the AFL.

The club has continued to build on this platform, both on and off the field. In 2013, the club reached the Grand Final for the first time and were minor Premiers in 2015. In 2017 they moved into a $109 million elite training and community facility in the City of Cockburn, and in 2018 commenced playing at the new 60,000 seat Perth Stadium.

During the 1996 year, the talk of the AFL world was dominated by the agreement of the Boards of the Melbourne and Hawthorn Football Clubs to amalgamate the two clubs.

The merger did not proceed. Hawthorn members rallied against the proposal, led by club legend Don Scott. Melbourne members, whilst bitterly divided, voted narrowly in favour of the proposal.

This was arguably the most dramatic and divisive period in the history of the Melbourne Football Club. One of the responses was to recruit a new CEO, hence my appointment.

As CEO, the key objective was to unify the club, which had been fractured emotionally and organisationally into pro and anti-merger factions, including the compromised Board itself under the leadership of new President Joe Gutnick.

In my view, this required a focus on the club's on-field fortunes to rebuild spirit, hope and a sense of shared purpose. In this regard, much was achieved.

Whilst not surprisingly finishing last the next year, the following season (1998) Melbourne reached the Preliminary Final under first-year coach Neale Daniher, supported by a new football structure and personnel. Two years later Melbourne made the Grand Final and was finalists in three of next five years.

During this period, a number of key people would be given their first positions in AFL coaching and management. These included Alastair Clarkson, Chris Fagan and Mark Evans, all of whom would play key roles in the great success era of the Hawthorn Football Club, and remain in highly influential roles in the AFL.

The club also operated profitably, mainly as a result of 65% attendance growth and similar improvement in corporate support.

The club however remained deeply divided and unstable with many changes to key off-field personnel and Board. The club would have eight CEO's and five Presidents in the 10 year period post the near merger.

Appointed at age 24, the youngest person to hold this position in AFL history.

Richmond was in disarray. With a seemingly insurmountable debt following seven years of accumulated losses, it was facing the real prospect of relocation, merge or liquidation. The club finished last on the ladder the previous year (1987), the first of the National Competition.

All of this represented a major fall from grace. Less than a decade earlier, Richmond was the competition's most influential and successful club.

In my first year as GM, the club recorded a small profit, a significant and confidence building achievement. However, with the recent introduction of drafting, the football rebuild was going to take some time.

Richmond was profitable in every financial year I held the position, despite poor on-field results.

The Club however, was heavily encumbered and burdened by its debt, which threatened it's very existence at a time of record-high interest rates.

I recommended to the Board that our desperate situation be fully communicated, and the Tiger faithful be given the opportunity to save the club. The result, an initiative called 'Save Our Skin' (SOS). It was a great success, extinguishing almost $2m of debt and effectively saving the club, almost exclusively via thousands of small donations by a mobilised and invigorated supporter base.

Whilst the SOS campaign was developed and executed by myself, it was led brilliantly by Tiger legends, President Neville Crowe and Coach Kevin Bartlett.

In 2008, when celebrating it's Centennial, the SOS campaign was nominated as Richmond's 'Defining moment of the Century'.

In 1995, the team made finals for the first time in 13 years under coach John Northey and a restructured football department. Whilst only coaching for one year, and unable to continue as coach due to ill-health, legend coach Allan Jeans played a key role in establishing standards and building expectations of a very young and inexperienced playing group.

Started as office boy at age 18 straight from school. Within a couple of years, the role evolved into full time recruiting, later titled Recruiting Manager.

I had the great fortune of working closely with AFL legend coach Ron Barassi during this formative time, forging a lifetime friendship. I was only 20 years of age when I started in recruiting and I was one of the first full-time recruiters in the league.

In 1987, the team made the finals for the first time in 24 years, reaching the Preliminary Final, losing as a result of the famous Gary Buckenara kick after the siren at Waverley Park. We were Grand Finalists the following season and finalists in seven of the next 11 years. I recruited most of the players in these teams.

These included future Club Captains, All-Australians, Best and Fairest winners, Team of the Century players as well as Brownlow and Coleman Medallists.