Former real estate giant James Dack takes role with Magnis Energy
When real estate mogul James Dack sold his stake in McGrath in 2014, he burned all his business suits. But, six years on, a new role in a completely different industry has enticed him back into the boardroom, Annette Sharp reveals.
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Six years after James Dack stunned Sydney and members of his own family by walking away from a hugely successful 27-year partnership with estate agent John McGrath and the company they founded, McGrath, Mr Dack is making an audacious return to big business with a renewable energy operation.
On Friday, battery manufacturing company Magnis Energy Technologies advised the ASX Mr Dack had taken up a position as executive director of future lithium-ion battery manufacturing company that plans to mass produce battery cells at gigawatt scale in Australia and America.
The appointment sees the return of Mr Dack to Sydney’s business landscape six years after he cashed out of McGrath Real Estate ahead of its controversial and troubled 2015 stock market listing.
Speaking exclusively to The Sunday Telegraph about his new role, Mr Dack, who burned all of his business suits when he quit McGrath and has bought new ones ahead of his first day in the Magnis office on Monday, said he regarded his new job to be his “legacy play”.
“I’ve been fairly selective in my career — about what I’m prepared to get involved in. What appeals to me about Magnis is that it is an Australian company that deals in clean energy and that it has a passionate and optimistic board. There is a genuine belief in the company – and a good group of people – that was what got me over the line,” said Mr Dack, who sees himself playing a key role as executive director in getting the battery technology into production and onto the market.
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Having forged one of Sydney’s most successful partnerships with McGrath, albeit one in which he largely working behind the scenes as sales director and sales force manager to McGrath’s glamorous frontman spruiker, Dack will now be front and centre in the new energy venture with Magnis chairman Frank Poullas thrilled to take a back seat.
With a background in technology and investment, Poullas has been driving Magnis for a decade and hopes that with Dack on board the men can take their batteries all the way to the top of an international tech sector currently dominated by Tesla, Panasonic, LG, Samsung and CATL.
“We’re looking to be a major player in that space with a battery that’s greener and cheaper to produce,” said Poullas.
Also on the Magnis Board is British-American chemist Professor M Stanley Whittingham who in 2019 was awarded the Nobel prize in Chemistry for his role in developing the lithium-ion battery and who in January was appointed to an electric vehicle technology taskforce convened by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to drive transformation of New York’s transportation network and cut carbon emissions.
Prof Whittingham’s association with the project, and also that of tech designer and former US Department of Energy Frontier Research Centre member Shailesh Upreti, has led to Magnis identifying a potential battery manufacturing plant in upstate New York that will be available in 2021.
Among Mr Dack’s roles as he pushes ahead with an ambitious target of producing and distributing the new Magnis battery within 12 months will be to identify a potential location for a manufacturing plant within Australia. Townsville is currently favoured.
Mr Dack, who established his own private investment vehicle, Sunshine, before leaving McGrath, said Magnis presented a unique opportunity for him to make his children and family proud.
At age 59, the position, which brings with it a $300,000 salary package, $380,000 sign-on fee and 20,000,000 company shares, was too good to pass up.
“From my kids’ perspective, with some of the investments I’ve made, when they’ve seen it sitting on my desk – sometimes just a prospectus I might be considering – (my kids) have asked ‘What does that do for anybody?’ ” he said.
“It got me thinking that I would really love to get involved in something that was genuinely good for society. Something I could help move from concept to production. I don’t really want to be remembered for my real estate career although I have great respect for those people in it.
“I want to (be involved with) something that will make me happy … (and renewable energy) is probably one of the most important issues for the survival of the planet.”