Ron Walker’s death a loss for Victoria, writes Terry McCrann

RON WALKER was never a conventional “corporation man”, writes Terry McCrann, and he devoted much of his life to making Victoria great.

Ron Walker. Picture: David Caird.

RON — he was always Ron not Ronald — Walker went from building blocks of fairly basic flats across Melbourne to building the city into the events capital of the country and cementing its claim to sports domination.

In his way he was a classic, if idiosyncratic entrepreneur — doing his own thing, which evolved from “doing it” for himself into “doing it” for the community as he almost single-handedly developed the “major events” strategy.

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Ron Walker was committed to doing his best for Victoria. Picture: Cameron Tandy

That came first under Labor premier Joan Kirner, then continued of course with personal friend Jeff Kennett, but was sustained back to Labor’s Steve Bracks.

It wasn’t just that Walker was “too well connected” for Labor to replace him, it reflected both his personality and his absolute commitment to doing it for Victoria. And he maintained those bipartisan relationships while remaining a key backroom figure, and money man, for the Liberal Party.

He was never a conventional “corporation man”; he never worked for a BHP or a National Australia Bank. He did not spring from the “old” Melbourne establishment.

He became one of the central figures of the “new” business establishment that developed from the 1980s — of billionaires like Lindsay Fox and Solomon Lew and of course, Lloyd Williams.

The two great business partnerships which defined his personal style and business technique were Williams, in their Hudson Conway partnership from flats to Crown Casino; and with Bernie Ecclestone, the driving force and absolute dictator of Formula One.

He was always a great but not aggressive networker. His greatest appeal and arguably also his greatest weakness was a certain softness.

Not for him the aggressive confrontations that are usually the mark of sustained business success.

That and his switch to focusing on what became effectively work as an unpaid full-time public servant for Victoria from around 1990 undoubtedly cost him real money.

Walker was both a unique contributor to Victoria over nearly half a century and also part of the changing face of the state over that time.