Page 13: James Packer’s pep talk for former Domain chief Catalano
A FRIENDSHIP was formed on the white slopes of Aspen between former Domain chief Antony Catalano and embattled fat cat James Packer.
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A FRIENDSHIP was formed on the white slopes of Aspen between former Domain chief Antony Catalano and embattled fat cat James Packer.
Barely a month later, Packer would be telling the media he was resigning from the Crown Resorts board for mental health reasons.
The billionaire might have been fighting his own demons at the intimate Aspen dinner but was full of advice for Catalano, who abruptly resigned as Domain CEO.
SHARES FALL AS JAMES PACKER STEPS DOWN FROM CROWN RESORTS
Nevertheless, new friendships are helped by mutual dislike and the two were fixated on Fairfax and Domain chairman Nick Falloon.
Falloon had called Catalano in to his office late last year, demanding answers to questions of alleged unsavoury work practices at Domain.
The Cat told him where he could park his inquiries and as Bob Dylan sang, it was where the sun don’t shine.
The enmity between Falloon and Packer came from their spectacular fallout over an investment in One.Tel, made when Falloon was head of Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd and Packer showed Falloon the door.
EXPLOSIVE ALLEGATIONS AGAINST FORMER DOMAIN BOSS ANTONY CATALANO
DOMAIN LOSES $320M IN MARKET VALUE AS CHIEF QUITS
Back in Melbourne, at a swanky opening in Richmond for Cafe Brass (in which Catalano, rich-lister Alex Waislitz and banker Sam Street have invested), the Cat told Page 13 he was surprised at the number of people who had reached out to him.
“They thought I had been given appalling treatment, largely because they had been treated badly in the past. They understood that one minute they are heroes and then they are villains,” Catalano, who is set to join the board of artificial intelligence company Daisee, said.
The Cat obviously listened to the Aspen pep talk, purring that he is taking his family on a three-month sojourn to Europe.
“It will take some logistics to get all eight children there ... some are in preschool, some are in university,” he laughed.
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