Meet Anthony Bell — the numbers man behind Michael Clarke, Karl Stefanovic, Grant Hackett and more stars
HE’S built an accountancy firm worth $50 million and manages the money for Michael Clarke and Karl Stefanovic. Not bad for a bloke who had to repeat Year 12.
TEST cricket captain Michael Clarke rates him one of 10 people he can truly trust. He’s skippered a winning yacht in the Sydney to Hobart, raising a fortune for charity along the way. And the accountancy firm he started is now worth $50 million — on par with his property portfolio.
Not bad for a bloke who had to repeat Year 12.
Meet Anthony Bell — the numbers man behind some of the most successful names in Australian sport, entertainment and business — who has built an empire on being more than a masterful manager of money.
He’s a mate.
“You hear people say, ‘never do business with friends’. If that statement was true I wouldn’t have an accounting firm,” Bell, 44, says. “I live by a different credo: ‘All things being equal you should do business with friends. All things not being equal, you should still do business with friends’.”
Bell is standing in the kitchen of his Sydney Harbour-front home, bought for $12.6 million two years ago. His perfect-looking family is getting ready for photographs to go with this story.
Life is good, even great. But before today, only those close to Bell have known of the literally heartbreaking battle it took to get here.
Bell’s wife, Kelly Landry — a former model and TV presenter — was consigned to hospital for the final four months of her pregnancy with their youngest child Thea, who turned one last month.
Kelly, 35, has the rare genetic heart disease left ventricular non-compaction, diagnosed while she was carrying their firstborn, Charlize, now 3.
She was treated at the world-renowned Mayo Clinic in the US. Back here, a defibrillator was inserted then removed due to complications.
The Mayo Clinic advised it was safe to have another baby.
“The Americans got it wrong,” Bell says. Kelly’s heart got “smashed”.
Yet there are no regrets — or talk of recriminations. What matters is that Kelly is well and they have Thea.
“This is not a ‘poor us’ story,” Bell says, several times. “We are grateful.”
Kelly says: “Everyone has challenges. The joy is learning how to conquer them. It makes you a stronger person.”
That goes for Bell, too.
“He’s had to focus running a company, managing things at home, being a husband and a support system,” Kelly says. “I can’t imagine what that must be like.”
“Kelly and Belly”, as they are known, were set up on a blind date by mutual friend Natalie Gruzlewski, who, like Kelly, was a presenter on Nine’s Getaway.
It was May 2010, the day Jessica Watson was sailing into Sydney as the youngest person to circumnavigate the world. Gruzlewski and others were hitting the harbour aboard Bell’s $10 million yacht, Ghost. It was 10am on a Saturday.
Kelly recalls: “I saw all the people on the back of the boat and rang Nat and said ‘I’m not coming’. I’m just a simple girl from Geelong.”
Gruzlewski said have one glass of champagne. Kelly agreed and got talking to Bell.
“We just hit it off,” she says.
The group stopped at the Fish Markets for lunch, then had dinner together and danced till 2am.
He picked her up on the Sunday. They began their second date with bloody Marys then a foreign film, one of only two he’s seen.
“We spoke about getting married in the first week,” she remembers. Within four months they were engaged and married in eight.
“They are an extremely strong couple,” Michael Clarke, Australia’s test cricket captain, tells me. Clarke is Charlize’s godfather and one of Bell’s closest friends.
He, too, only sees the positives from their recent struggle: “It shows their resilience … Thea is a miracle.”
Clarke became a client after his parents met Bell.
“Straight away, they both really liked Anthony.
“He treats my money like it’s his own. He’s made me money but he’s helped to protect my money too. I’ve had a lot of people throw things in front of me.
“Belly is one of 10 people in my life I completely trust.
“He’s had a huge impact on my life.”
The pair talk most days. Bell says: “As amazing a sportsperson as he is, Clarkey is just an amazing business thinker. When (cricket) is all over, he will go on.”
Clarke says Bell has helped with tough personal decisions. Neither will discuss details, but one imagines leaving Lara Bingle in 2010 must be among them.
With some sports-star clients, Bell has intervened with the assistance of radio broadcaster and ex-Wallabies coach Alan Jones, who he describes as a mentor.
Bell has been influenced by Jones’s “pick and stick” philosophy. Jones cites Bell-client Grant Hackett as an example.
“Grant got in a hole,” Jones says. “What do we do? Abandon the bloke?”
“Pick and stick means you are not a fairweather friend.”
Bell says he loves being called on in tough times.
In June 2007, the call came from NSW rugby league fullback and client Anthony Minichiello.
Bell recalls: “Mini said, ‘mate, can you come to the (team) hotel? I’ve got a major decision to make’.”
Bell drove straight to the Crowne Plaza at Coogee. Minichiello told him his back injury had flared up. Should he pull out?
After talking to Bell for hours, he withdrew. Bell says: “I remember thinking at the time, ‘this is more than being a financial adviser’.”
Asked why he rang Bell, Minichiello now says: “I needed someone who could see both sides — the pros and cons.”
Bell says: “I love the reliance on me … clients should be able to count on us when the going gets tough.”
Minichiello, 34, quit league last year, armed with plans and skills Bell helped him develop.
“That’s why I’m enjoying my retirement now,” he says.
The sports star part of the firm took off more than a decade ago while Bell was playing “all grades” of rugby union at Randwick. Phil Kearns, who would go on to captain the Wallabies, asked him to look at his family’s tax. Kearns and other ex-Wallabies such as Phil Waugh are still on the books.
Bell’s greatest personal sporting success has come on the water, winning the 2011 Sydney to Hobart. In a way, he — and countless sick children — have Waugh to thank.
In 2008 Bell was talking to Waugh, who had attended a charity auction the night before. Waugh was still playing for Australia. At the auction one of his jerseys sold for $300. In 2003, one had fetched $10,000.
Bell recalls: “Waughie said ‘charity has changed’.”
They discussed trying to raise money by climbing Mt Everest before Bell had the idea of competing in the Sydney to Hobart.
He found a yacht and professional crew, then enlisted celebrity clients including boxer Danny Green, Hackett, Kearns, Waugh and TV host Larry Emdur. High-end bankers Investec gave $200,000 for naming rights.
Since then Bell’s Loyal Foundation has raised more than $3 million to buy medical equipment for ill kids.
Bell’s very first sports star client was English Channel swimmer Des Renford, who he met while working for his accountant father, Donald.
“It made my profession interesting,” says Bell.
He stumbled into accountancy after flunking the Higher School Certificate. His marks were too poor to get in to university. His mother, Shirley, told him to go see his father (they divorced when Anthony was two). His dad told him he’d have to do Year 12 again.
“Or Year 13, as I call it,” Bell jokes. So back to Waverley College he went, studied hard and scraped in to the commerce degree at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga.
In his mid 20s, Bell went out on his own. Eighteen years on, Bell Partners is worth about $50 million.
High-profile clients comprise just five per cent of the business, Bell says, which is perhaps why he so dislikes being referred to as the “celebrity accountant”.
What about “Mr Sydney”?
He says he couldn’t be Mr Sydney: “I don’t do drugs.”
Plus, his ambitions are not limited to the Harbour City.
Were they, he might have accepted the “good offer” to sell that came across his table last September.
Bell wants to expand beyond NSW. Already he’s established a Brisbane office and is in the throes expanding to Melbourne.
“I don’t think I’ve finished the job. The firm has to be national.”
Some of Anthony Bell’s high-profile clients
Cricket
Michael Clarke
David Warner
Shane Watson
Mitchell Starc
Rugby
Phil Waugh
Phil Kearns
Simon Poidevin
League
Anthony Minichiello
Luke Ricketson
Boxing
Danny Green
Swimming
Grant Hackett
Television
Karl Stefanovic
Larry Emdur
Business
John McGrath
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