Guru’s return revives talk of McGrath future
It’s going to take more than the second coming of John McGrath’s “motivational guru” Shane Smollen — who returned to the McGrath real estate business on Thursday — to restore the embattled company PLUS the death of a celebrity divorce lawyer who had some of Sydney’s richest as clients.
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It’s going to take more than the second coming of John McGrath’s “motivational guru” Shane Smollen — who returned to the McGrath real estate business on Thursday — to restore the embattled company.
Smollen’s appointment to the McGrath board and the recruitment last week of new CEO Eddie Law come after former CEO Geoff Lucas resigned amid fresh rumours of a fallout with company founder McGrath over the dismissal of veteran agent Adrian Bo in December.
Bo was sacked in December after being accused of sexual harassment by a junior male staff member who alleged Bo asked him “how many c....s he had sucked”.
In the days following Bo’s departure, Sydney media outlets published a string of other alleged complaints involving Bo from former staffers.
One woman told the Sydney Morning Herald Bo allegedly asked her in 2015 if she preferred “circumcised or uncircumcised dicks”. She later lost her job and took her complaint to the Human Rights Commission.
A second woman alleged Bo asked her if she flossed her teeth with her husband’s penis.
At the time insiders claimed McGrath asked his harassed staff to ignore Bo’s bad behaviour and allow him to personally deal with it lest the ensuing scandal ruin company “momentum”.
McGrath did not offer any comment to the claims at the time.
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Bo, who denied the accusation concerning the young male, left the business — though not quickly enough for some.
CEO Lucas, meanwhile, was accused of sitting on his hands over the matter.
Last week an insider told this column in reality Lucas had been frozen out by McGrath when the allegations about Bo, described by some as “McGrath’s best friend”, came to light last year.
“McGrath would not have sacked Bo,” one said on Friday.
The Bo issue put McGrath’s relationship with his CEO under new strain.
Lucas’s public assurances the company board had “zero tolerance for inappropriate workplace behaviour” and would implement “a range of measures and programs to remind all employees of their responsibilities” prompted not one but two internal investigations.
The first of these concerned Bo.
A second, as this column has learned, examined the historic and pervading “boy’s club culture” at the agency.
A McGrath spokesman yesterday refused to be drawn on the second investigation: “McGrath will not be responding to rumours,” Tim Allerton said, shutting down further questions.
Such an investigation would have been a conflict for Lucas who for years thrived in the culture at McGrath. In the super-charged market that existed in the decade prior to 2016, the year Lucas first left the company following the agency’s disastrous ASX float, he had prospered.
Allerton yesterday maintained Lucas and McGrath recently parted “on good terms”.
With Lucas now gone, would any investigation into McGrath and its company culture be shelved? “No further comment,” said Allerton.
Meanwhile the return of Smollen to the business has revived talk he and McGrath will move quickly to reprivatise the struggling agency. Smollen — who made $52 million selling McGrath’s north shore agencies back to him prior to the December 2015 float — was, along with McGrath and Lucas, a champion of the float.
Also raising eyebrows at the company is new CEO Eddie Law.
It turns out Law, a Scot who spent 12 years as the head of institutional property at ANZ, has a healthy interest in race horses – something he shares with fellow Scottish-Australian, McGrath, who, as revealed in 2018, has something of a punting problem, as evidenced by a $17 million bookmaker debt. McGrath denied the sum.
In addition to now managing the McGrath business, Law, coincidentally, is the manager of racehorse syndicate Capital Stack Racing and owns or partly owns about a dozen horses, among them 2020 Golden Slipper runner Mamaragan, ReelEm in Ruby, Fituese and youngster Embeller.
We’re betting the two men — who are yet to go shares in a racehorse — will get on like a house on fire.
BLUE CHIP COUPLES MOURN DIVORCE LAWYER’S PASSING
SOME of Sydney’s wealthiest divorcees — and future divorcees — were last week in mourning following the untimely death of lawyer John Barkus, a long-time partner of Sydney family law firm Barkus Doolan Kelly.
The no-nonsense and discreet Barkus, 71, died on August 25 following illness.
He was, during his remarkable career, in huge demand as a family lawyer to some of Sydney’s prominent divorcing couples.
Among his clients are said to have been James and Erica Packer, John and Julie Singleton, and half of Sydney’s “blue chip” celebrity couples and divorcees.
Many were often in consultation with Barkus before tying the knot — on the ugly matter of prenups — and all the way to family court, where custody battles can drag out for years.
Barkus is survived by his wife Victoria, four children and five stepchildren.
Due to COVID-19, numbers are restricted at his Tuesday funeral at Macquarie Park Crematorium.
Mourners are encouraged to contact info@liferitesfunerals.com for an invitation to the live stream.
annette.sharp@news.com.au Twitter: InSharprelief