
‘The Future of Football 2020+’ reform process was initiated and has achieved everything we had set out to achieve by ‘lowering the cost of the game’, ‘delivering better services’, ‘connecting competitions’, delivering ‘best practice governance’ and ‘one voice’ for football. We recruited a new CEO, Robert Cavallucci, and embarked on a journey of change together to deliver upon the objectives set within the strategic plan. In my first year as President, we developed a new strategic plan with a vision to unite football in Queensland. I had to make many decisions for the ‘good of the game’ that were seen as unpopular by some but absolutely necessary to change an antiquated statewide model of governance and administration. My role as President of Football Queensland has been one of the most challenging times of my life. I was excited yet apprehensive as I wanted to do my very best for the organisation and all its stakeholders, but more importantly to ensure we could provide better opportunities for all the boys and girls who were already involved within the game or were yet to fall in love with it as I once had. This was both an honour and an incredible responsibility. The then incoming CEO had an unenviable challenge of initiating a ‘cultural change’ program in what were incredibly difficult circumstances.įast forward to February 2019, I was elected as Chair of the Board of Football Queensland by my fellow directors, becoming the fourth President within 12 months following a period of instability. The initial opportunity to effect change came with the recruitment of a marketing executive, a first for football in Queensland and an investment that the business hadn’t wanted to make at that time, but with pressure from the Board, it allowed me the opportunity to recruit someone who is still with the organisation today and who has done the most wonderful job in transforming the look and feel of football in Queensland both inside and out.įollowing the success of this recruitment process, the Board then supported me to undertake a ‘cultural review’ of the organisation that ultimately led to the recruitment of a new CEO in 2017. It took me some time to understand the various board dynamics, and to start to see the enormous opportunities more broadly for football in Queensland. What I hadn’t anticipated was what I was walking into at the time, an archaic organisation, with individuals throughout the game trying to maintain fiefdoms of perceived power.

I was thrilled to have been given the opportunity to join the Board back in 2015 as a 35-year-old English Australian with a passion for business, a love for the game and a belief that ‘anything is possible’. Success being measured on almost every level of performance over the last eight years which I’ll talk to shortly. It is with mixed emotion that I reflect on what has been an incredible journey of change, hope, adversity, and unquestionable success for our game here in Queensland and more broadly in Australia. I write this on the eve of my final days as your President of Football Queensland.
