Make or break: the savagery behind the AOC curtain

Amid the brawl for control of the AOC, figures within Olympic sport are stunned at savagery of John Coates’s attack.

Danielle Roche is challenging AOC president John Coates for the position. Picture: James Croucher

John Coates made Fiona de Jong. He supported her for 10 years in a senior Australian Olympic Committee position and sent her to Harvard to further her education. When the time came for a new chief executive, he endorsed her promotion without anyone else being interviewed.

Coates has now broken her. She is no longer employed by the AOC and, if other sports organisations believe what Coates had to say on the ABC’s 7.30 program this week, she won’t get another job any time soon.

Even within the context of a bare-knuckle brawl for control of the Australian Olympic Committee, senior figures within Olympic sport have been left stunned at the savagery of his attack.

In an interview timed for maximum impact before today’s secret ballot of sports to decide the AOC president and make-up of the AOC board, Coates cast de Jong as incompetent. He defended his own exorbitant consultancy fee on the grounds that he had to do part of her work as well as his.

He cited as an example his decis­ion to take back from de Jong management responsibility for the AOC’s media and sponsorship ­activities. And he denied tolerating a culture of bullying and ­intim­idation within the AOC.

The Weekend Australian has obtained internal AOC emails that document why Coates took back media and sponsorship from de Jong. The decision appears to have nothing to do with her compet­ency. Rather, it demonstrates Coates’s determination to protect his most trusted ally, AOC media director Mike Tancred, and contentious sponsorship arrangements that have emerged as an election issue.

Inside the AOC’s harbourside headquarters, Coates and his ­directors attended an uneventful final board meeting yesterday, the dull before the storm.

Sharing a taxi from Sydney airport to the meeting, directors Andrew­ Plympton, Nicole Living­stone and Danielle Woodward were distraught at what they had seen on television the night before.

De Jong has quit the AOC, lodged a bullying complaint against Tancred and exposed a toxic workplace culture. The three directors issued a joint statement of support for de Jong and condemnation of Coates.

“Fiona de Jong is a great leader; innovative, courageous and strong,’’ they said. “She is an encourager­ and enabler of all people­, men and women. At no point in the last four years as AOC executive members did we doubt her ability to the job of CEO or her contribution to the AOC.

“We always felt confident in having her there as our CEO. We knew she had a decent moral compass of what is right and wrong. At no stage do we recall the executive president ever raising concerns to the executive about Fiona’s performance. Fiona should hold her head high.

“We are disappointed that the executive president has chosen to publicly denigrate someone who has contributed so much to Australia’s Olympic movement. All delegates voting in tomorrow’s elections should consider what kind of AOC they want.’’

Claudia Mackie, a former AOC lawyer who quit amid her own concerns about workplace culture, described de Jong as an outstanding mentor. “She was intelligent, passionate and very inspiring,’’ she said. “Fiona always worked incredibly hard to achieve the best outcome she could for others.’’

In June 2015, within a month of de Jong being appointed chief executive, an employee came to her with concerns about Tancred’s behaviour. She described him as rude and unprofessional. De Jong learned that the employ­ee had been reduced to tears more than once in her dealings with Tancred.

In August 2015, following ­another run-in between Tancred and the employee, de Jong decided to intervene. She knew enough about AOC politics to first raise it with Coates. Her “dear John’’ email was the beginning of the end of her time at the AOC.

“We speak a lot about the culture of our Olympic teams and I’m working hard to ensure the culture of our organisation is aligned with the Olympic values,’’ she wrote.

“But that requires everyone to play and I’m all for calling people on it when they don’t. That include­s Mike.’’

Coates’s reply, sent half an hour later, made his position clear: “Mike is passionate about the AOC and his work and while I ­accept you’ve tried to manage, if you’re finding that difficult, I would prefer to take back media rather than risk you calling him, as you say, and he resigning.

“I spent a lot of time with Kitty today and she volunteered how appreciative she is of Mike and how much she relies on him.’’

He added that if the AOC lost Tancred, “so far as I’m concerned, (it) would be a disaster’’.

Coates’s message to de Jong; if you take on Mike, understand that Kitty Chiller and I have his back.

Coates made good on his threat to take back the media portfolio, including­ direct responsibility for Tancred, in November 2015.

He sent an email to all members of the AOC board announcing he had assumed responsibility for media, brand protection and sponsorship. No mention of de Jong’s performance.

De Jong was in Lausanne at an IOC meeting when she learnt she had been stripped of some her executive responsibilities.

On her return to Australia, she went to see Coates.

He was furious that she was trying to unpick an aspect of the AOC’s long-existing sponsorship arrangement with SMAM, a sports marketing company, covering the fitout of team uniforms for the Rio Olympics.

De Jong knew from her 10 years as the AOC director of sport that some sports found it difficult dealing with SMAM, a company of which Coates was a founding director­ prior to his ascension as AOC president.

She questioned whether the AOC would be better hiring someone in-house to do the outfitting.

Coates was outraged at the challenge to a sponsorship ­arrange­ment he helped negotiate.

He has promised that, if he is elected, he will become a non-executive president and accept a pay cut. In his 7.30 interview, he said he’d been an executive president because he didn’t have faith in the previous chief executives who’d worked for him, including de Jong.

The Weekend Australian has traced the history of Coates’s remuneratio­n to the moment his consultancy fee was first approved. The year was 1993 and Juan Anton­io Samaranch had announced Sydney as the host city for the 2000 Games.

In the euphoria that followed, Coates adopted largely unnoticed the title of executive president.

In the 24 years since, while a procession of qualified, talented chief administrators have come and gone, Coates has not relinquished his title, his remuneration, or his control over the AOC.