Fixing Crown Resorts ‘not rocket science,’ says new chairman Ziggy Switkowski

Crown Resorts’ new chairman Ziggy Switkowski is confident his decades of corporate experience will help him restore the casino group to its past glories.

A royal commission is currently investigating whether Crown Resorts is suitable to operate its Perth casino. Picture: Tony McDonough

Incoming Crown Resorts chairman Ziggy Switkowski, a veteran company executive and nuclear physicist, has declared reforming the troubled casino group is “not rocket science”, comparing its plight to the other company he chairs – NBN Co.

Giving evidence at Western Australia’s royal commission into Crown on Monday, Dr Switkowski said the fallout following the loss of Crown’s NSW casino licence reminded him of the state of the NBNwhen he became its executive chair in 2013.

“When I joined the board, about that time, it had a board composition of three … the CEO had resigned and then over a period of time about half the executive team left in short order,” Dr Switkowski said in reference to NBN’s mass boardroom resignation following the election of the Abbott government.

“It sort of underpins my belief that most of what is required to be done at Crown to make it operate in the way that the community expects it to is doable.

“It’s not rocket science. There’s a lot of work to be done, but the momentum is there.”

The commission is investigating whether Crown Resorts is suitable to operate its Perth casino, the only one in the state. It is due to report in March.

But Crown’s focus this week remains near-term, with the Victorian government set to release its own royal commission’s report into whether Crown is suitable to run its Melbourne casino on Tuesday morning. 

A number of Crown’s executives and directors will also have to front up to the WA commission this week, with reclusive 37 per cent shareholder James Packer set to appear on Friday.

Dr Switkowski – who has previously held roles as CEO of Telstra, chairman of Suncorp and Chancellor of RMIT University – said he accepted the challenge of chairing Crown after being approached by former executive chair Helen Coonan earlier this year.

“It was an exciting corporate opportunity that caught me at the right time,” he said.

Incoming Crown Resorts chairman Dr Ziggy Switkowski, left, gives evidence to Commissioner Neville Owen of WA’s Royal Commission into Crown Resorts on Monday October 25.

He told counsel assisting Patricia Cahill SC that when he receives clearance from various state gaming regulators to take up the top job he will go out of his way to ensure good governance by attending the board meetings of Crown’s Sydney, Perth and Melbourne subsidiary boards “ex officio”.

“I propose to attend the board meetings of the subsidiaries, I also propose to attend all subcommittee meetings – now that’s a bit ambitious because there’s quite a lot of subcommittees, I’m discovering, at Crown,” he said.

“Through regular interactions with subcommittee members, board members and the CEO, and having the benefit now of reporting processes that are being put in place, I should be very well aware of what’s going on.”

Dr Switkowski also revealed he would endeavour to increase the Crown Resorts board from the six current and planned directors to eight “by the middle of next year,” with a preference for candidates in Sydney or Perth with financial management skills.

He said he remained open to rewriting a planned charter for Crown Perth’s subsidiary board and incorporating an additional independent director, but shifted at Ms Cahill’s proposition that it have a “modicum of autonomy” in its operation of the Perth casino.

“I‘m not comfortable with the word autonomy, but I’m very comfortable with where you’re going,” he said.

As a director of Tabcorp when it was hit by a record-breaking $45m fine from financial crimes regulator AUSTRAC over anti money laundering (AML) breaches, Dr Switkowski told the commission he helped oversee a “scaled down version” of Crown’s efforts to remediate its own well-publicised problems with AML compliance.

When asked where he saw Crown in a year’s time, Dr Switkowski said he hoped the group would have restored trust with regulators – but added that was contingent on the outcome of both royal commissions.

“I’m assuming that we will get the opportunity to put into action many of the things we talked about this afternoon,” he said.

“We may know more tomorrow, and then after your commission reports in a few months time.”

The commission will resume tomorrow to hear evidence from Crown’s CEO Steve McCann.