Why new chief at exclusive Brisbane Club stayed over at rival Tattersalls

The new Brisbane Club chief exec recently found comfortable digs at rival Tattersalls Club.

While he was searching for an apartment to rent, the new Brisbane Club chief executive Ted Stewart (pictured, left) found comfortable digs at rival Tattersalls Club.

Moreover, the room they gave him at Tatts had his father’s name embossed on the door. Ted’s father was Sir Edward Stewart, a prominent businessman and a Tattersall’s Club president. Rooms at Tatts bear the names of club elders from the past.

Ted, from the Sunshine Coast hinterland, has been a long-time member at both clubs and came to the CEO role almost by accident.

Brisbane Club CEO Ted Stewart.

Because of his family background in hotels, he was asked by the board to help find a cellarmaster.

“While that was happening, they suddenly approached me to take on the CEO role,” he said.

“We have 4000 members, some elderly and not very active. But we have a hardcore of active members who use the club regularly.

“The club has to survive into the next generation and beyond. We have been successful in attracting a lot of new younger members.’’

The Brisbane Club was the first club to accept women as full members with voting rights. That was 25 years ago. Now women make up a third of the members and their numbers are growing. It’s a similar story at the Tattersalls Club with 4726 members, 650 of them women.

Stewart was born in 1960 and educated at Gregory Terrace before taking a law degree at QUT (then QIT) and practising in commercial and property law while helping to run the family hotel business. The family owned 12 hotels and 23 bottle shops in southeast Queensland and sold the lot to Woolworths in 2004.

Stewart said the Brisbane Club was in good health financially.