Off and running: Meet the new boss of Brisbane’s 2032 Olympics

Cindy Hook’s face will become as familiar to the people of Brisbane as Vegemite by the time the host city’s Olympics and Paralympic Games open in July 2032.

The former Californian, now named chief executive officer of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, is the consummate business professional.

Former Deloitte chief executive Cindy Hook is the new face of Brisbane’s 2032 Games as the chief executive of the Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.Credit: Tony Moore/Brisbane Times

Hook, who moved to Australia with her family in 2009, served as chief executive of Deloitte Australia before her more recent role as chief executive of Deloitte Asia Pacific, and recently won an Australian Design Award for business auditing and leveraging analytics.

She’s a runner, a skier and a hiker.

And so keen is she to take up her new role, for which she will move to Brisbane with her husband and two sons, she has jogged around the Brisbane River and the cliffs at Kangaroo Point.

Hook has some tough jobs ahead over the next 10 years.

The first is raising $1.7 billion in sponsorship.

But, friendly and relaxed with the media interest, says she is up for it.

In a broad Californian accent, she described Australia as “her adopted homeland since 2009” and said she was feeling proud at being chosen from 50 executives.

“The idea of being able to create the vision, to create the team, set the strategies, and ultimately build up to delivering a smooth and successful Games is very appealing to me,” Hook said.

Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games president Andrew Liveris (left), Hook, and International Olympic Committee board member John Coates in Brisbane, where Hook’s role was announced.Credit: Tony Moore

She understood the role would be “equal parts challenging and rewarding”.

“But for me, this is a dream job.”

Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games president Andrew Liveris said Hook had extensive experience in managing 4000 executives and raising revenue for Deloitte in Australia and in the South Pacific.

“I have dealt with a lot of global executives over my time, and I am just gobsmacked that we have managed to attract someone like Cindy. She understands what is required to turn Brisbane 2032 into a global household name.”

Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner said he was impressed with Hook after a recent conversation with her.

“It’s no accident that both key roles have been filled by globally experienced business leaders - it was a very deliberate choice,” Schrinner said.

“Athletes, sports administrators, local industry leaders and representatives from the different levels of government make up the bulk of the Brisbane 2032 board but the leadership of Andrew and Cindy is going to be critical.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s IOC representative on BOCOG, John Coates, said he had no concerns about the infrastructure delivery timeline for the 2032 Games.

“They have taken me through the project timelines for every one of the venues that remains to be done,” Coates said.

“Remember we have 84 per cent, 85 per cent, of the venues already in place.”

He said aside from the Gabba redevelopment and Brisbane Live over Roma Street Station, most of the remaining venues were in the scale of “$120 million to $150 million community sports halls”.

He agreed the Queensland government’s Brisbane Live was a major project, but said for Olympics and Paralympic purposes in 2032, it was a “drop-in swimming pool”.

“We have done that in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games. We used drop-in pools in Perth when they held the world championships, Los Angeles [1984] was a drop-in pool at the University of Southern California.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told journalists at the announcement that news about the Gabba redevelopment would be made in the “near future”.