Julie Romero, the woman who led a boardroom revolt that split the Holman Barnes Group – the majority owners of the Wests Tigers – was on Tuesday night deposed as chair of the organisation.
Romero was voted out and replaced by Western Suburbs District Rugby League Football Club chairman Dennis Burgess. Romero will remain on the board.
Former Holman Barnes Group chair Tony Andreacchio with the new chair Dennis Burgess back in 2021.Credit: SMH
The ascension of Burgess to the chairman’s position at the HBG – which oversees the cashed-up Wests Ashfield leagues club – will raise eyebrows at the Wests Tigers, a joint-venture club formed through the merging of Balmain and the Western Suburbs.
Burgess allegedly told Wests Tigers director and Balmain chairman Danny Stapleton at a game last year, “We’re bringing back the Wests Magpies”.
That conversation led to Wests Tigers chairman Barry O’Farrell raising concerns with ARL Commission chairman boss Peter V’landys.
Romero led a coup in March last year that overthrew Tony Andreacchio from the helm of the HBG board, and also took action against fellow directors Rick Wayde and Dave Gilbert that led to their departures from the board over the summer.
The banning of Andreacchio, Wayde and Gilbert related to a range of alleged misdemeanours dating back several years, including “a number of whistle-blower disclosures and complaints”, according to the disciplinary committee findings obtained by this masthead.
Romero was also opposed to an independent review commissioned last year by the HBG – and conducted by Tony Crawford and Gary Barnier – after the Wests Tigers won the wooden spoon for a third successive year.
She resisted some of the changes recommended by the review that have since been implemented under Wests Tigers chief executive Shane Richardson.
Romero and Burgess replaced Andreacchio and Wayde at the helm of the powerful club in March last year with the backing of fellow directors Stephen Montgomery and Vincent Tropiano.
The HBG has over 27,000 members. The board consists of seven members, two of whom are elected by general members and five of whom are elected by the remaining 18 living debenture holders. The constitution makes it difficult to effect significant change at a board level.
Burgess and Montgomery are also on the Wests Tigers board, which recently added three new independent directors as per the recommendations of the Crawford-Barnier report that saw former chief executive Justin Pascoe and chairman Lee Hagipantelis depart the Tigers.
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