James Packer’s quiet reshuffle reveals some surprise departures

Following a turbulent few years, reclusive billionaire James Packer has embarked on a significant downsizing of his inner circle, resulting in the surprise departure of his most trusted lieutenants, including former right-hand man Ben Tilley.

The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can reveal that Guy Jalland has left his position as chief executive of Consolidated Press Holdings, Packer’s multibillion-dollar private investment company, bringing to an end a 35-year business relationship spanning generations of the powerful Packer family.

Big changes for Packer: Guy Jalland, Ben Tilley and Michael Johnston have all left their roles. Credit: Bohdan Warchomij; Instagram; Getty.

Also leaving after 20 years’ service is CPH finance director Mike Johnston, who was described by Packer in his biography as “a good friend” who had shown “complete loyalty to me and my family.”

Both Jalland and Johnston were key figures in the 2020 Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority’s (ILGA’s) probity inquiry into Packer’s $6 billion Crown Resorts casino group. Over 36 days of hearings it laid bare how Crown went into business with alleged members of Asian crime syndicates, failed to stop money laundering at its casinos, and how its thirst for profit led to 19 employees being arrested and jailed in China.

Perhaps most surprising of all is the departure of Packer’s long-time personal assistant and former Cranbrook school friend Ben Tilley, who has inhabited the Packer family orbit for nearly half a century.

Close knit: Gonzalo Pieres, Ben Tilley, James Packer and Karl Stefanovic in Aspen when Packer was dating Mariah Carey.Credit: Instagram

Packer and the others did not respond to queries about the departures on Tuesday, but multiple sources with knowledge of the changes said Tilley and Packer remained good friends and had parted company amicably.

Most recently Tilley project-managed the construction of Packer’s lavish $50 million estate in the Mexican luxury resort of Cabo San Lucas, on the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

For years Tilley has been a constant by the billionaire’s side, often sighted on board Packer’s $250 million superyacht IJE, which regularly hosts wealthy and famous Packer associates.

In June 2021 Tilley spent $8.9 million on a luxurious 170 square metre apartment in the Crown Sydney tower, just a few floors above Packer’s palatial pad.

Wherever Packer went, Tilley was sure to follow, from the billionaire’s chateau in Aspen, to his sprawling mansion in Los Angeles or his polo compound in Argentina. Such loyalty came at great personal cost to Tilley, whose 20-year marriage to glamorous Sydney socialite Tiffany Tilley, with whom he shares two sons, fell apart.

Before assuming his status within James Packer’s inner sanctum, Tilley, a former Double Bay debt collector, forged a close bond with the late Kerry Packer, becoming a poker buddy and a regular on the media mogul’s yacht Arctic P for months at a time.

The changes within the Packer camp follow the billionaire’s retreat from the Australian business landscape, and coincide with the increasing influence of Canadian business figure Daniel Nadler, who holds a PhD from Harvard and was described by Forbes magazine as a “fast-talking” polymath whose work encompasses “math, poetry, and ancient Greek philosophy.”

Robert De Niro and James Packer aboard the billionaire’s $250 million superyacht in 2022, after revealing they were building a resort together.

In June 2022, Packer, flush with a $3.3 billion windfall following the sale of his 37 per cent stake in Crown Resorts to global investment giant Blackstone, set up an “investment committee” to work out where to spend the money.

So far, he has invested money in a variety of ventures, including a multimillion-dollar stake in Alan Jones’ fledgling online media company ADH TV.

In 2022 Packer revealed he was building a resort in Barbuda with Hollywood star Robert De Niro. Jalland was among those appointed to the investment committee. At the time company records showed Jalland had changed his residential address to Monte Carlo, calling the upmarket Le Palmier apartment building home, where two-bedroom flats rent for €14,000 ($22,873) per month.

Packer also appointed former Magellan Financial Group founder, the charismatic Hamish Douglass, to the committee, however, his role is being reduced.

The fellow billionaire forged strong personal ties with Packer, having weathered his own turbulent personal period of negative headlines after being forced to sell 13 million shares in Magellan to help settle a financial separation from his wife.

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