Crown’s Helen Coonan finds room with a view

Illustration: Rod Clement

Even before any official promotion to executive chair, word is Crown’s Helen Coonan hasn’t been wasting any time in getting settled and fitting out her new digs to match any potential flashy new role.

Margin Call hears there’s been some extra construction going on inside Crown’s monolith at Barangaroo for the past few months, including what we hear is a plum corner office for Coonan herself.

With sweeping views over the Harbour Bridge and Opera House on one side, and over Darling Harbour on the other, it would seem there is no better backdrop against which to plot the clean-out of the company.

She was, after all, the only one in the company to receive glowing praise from commissioner Patricia Bergin in her report.

The suitability review noted that her “character, honesty and integrity has not been and could not be called into question”, and that the authority would be justified in accepting any personal commitment or undertaking from Coonan herself.

No mention there of humble.

The company is no stranger to the executive chair’s role — the same post was held by John Alexanderin the wake of the China arrests and the exit of Rob Rankin and Rowen Craigie in 2017, even despite the board recognising the inherent conflict of independence.

If Alexander’s former salary is anything to go by, Coonan is sure in for a pay rise too.

JA, the trusted long-time Packer family lieutenant, took home a total package of $4.47m in financial year 2019, his final full year in the top job, well above Coonan’s pay cheque of $437,000 last year.

Good work if you can get it and with a few vacancies on the board’s people, remuneration and nomination committee (chaired by Harold Mitchell), at least there’s a few less votes to count.

No word yet though on how any new executive duties might be able to be juggled alongside Coonan’s already jam-packed calendar.

Along with the top job at Crown, she is also chair of the Minerals Council, Financial Complaints Authority, PR outfit GRACosway, investment fund Supervised Investments and the Advisory Committee of Placemaking NSW (whatever that might entail).

Perhaps time for her to do a little clear out herself.

Hired hand

The overhaul continues at James Packer’s Crown Resorts, and with just five of the usual nine board members remaining, the last few are looking more like a hit list than a collection of the savviest business minds.

As the crisis meetings continue and the NSW regulator demands actions, both its West Australian and Victorian counterparts are holding fire to ramp up their own offensives.

Good thing Crown has some of the nation’s best media advisers and lobbyists on its team.

Those in Barangaroo circles of late might have noticed a familiar face drop in over the past week, none other than government relations guru Ian Smith, married to former senator Natasha Stott Despoja, of Adelaide-based outfit Bespoke Approach.

Then again, with the former journo and government adviser’s accommodation in a plush Crown suite said to be included as part of his contract, there’s really no need to leave Crown’s orbit at all.

Word is his services, described as “discreet, strategic, corporate and political advice” are costing the listed casino group north of $50,000 a month.

Smith is no stranger to the casino group, which has tapped his services several times for advice over the years.

Crown be hoping it gets its full money’s worth, no doubt.

Spin team

No discussion of Crown’s web is complete without a nod to its internal representatives — with well-thought-out ties to the powers that be across each of its state jurisdictions.

On the east coast, and most in focus, is recent hire Tanya Baini,director of corporate affairs for the casino group’s NSW operations.

Baini is most recently of Alison Watkin’s Coca-Cola Amatil where she was group head of corporate affairs, but it is her early days as a staffer in the NSW parliament that will most come in handy in her latest role.

It was there that she was a Liberal staffer with, and reportedly also got mistaken for, now Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

In her own words to the Herald in 2017, Baini said of her friend Glad, “We were the only ethnic women there, so people used to get us confused for each other”.

If only that were still the case, getting the green light for the project’s casino licence may be a little simpler.

And while the two were swapping stories of their respective Lebanese and Armenian upbringings, none other than now Crown chair Helen Coonan was making her mark as a NSW representative in the Senate, following her
10-year stint as a barrister during the same era inquiry commissioner Patricia Bergin was at the bar herself.

NSW sure is pretty small.

Meanwhile, in the south, Chris Reilly, the former right-hand man to Labor’s Dan Andrews, is doing his best to keep the Victorian regulator at bay, their own brought-forward inquiry still awaiting the announcement of a dedicated commissioner.

On the west coast, director John Poynton has the connections covered, even after this week severing his ties to Packer’s CPH.

He remains the director of the Perth casino entity, and a heavy hitting corporate adviser in West Australian circles.

While he and wife Di Bain’s donations to the Liberal ranks have reportedly dried up over the past year there is no doubt his relationships to the party run deeper than his pockets.

Cosying up to decision makers of the day has always been a strong suit for Crown — recall that Packer first linked up with then-NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell to nut out his initial vision for the Barangaroo six-star casino in 2012 — at Alan Jones’ house no less.

Still only days since the damning findings were revealed, Crown will need more than just its pollie connections to keep its head above water, with the rolodex no doubt running hot.