Christine McLoughlin: the high flyer giving women a sporting shot
Christine McLoughlin grew up in the small town of Berrigan and it was there she learnt the power of sport.
Christine McLoughlin grew up in the small town of Berrigan and it was there she learnt the power of sport. It was playing tennis through stifling hot Riverina summers, watching Australian rules football in the biting cold and all the while seeing the way sport “bound the community and gave people a sense of purpose”.
But it was decades later in her role as chair of ANZ Stadium, she realised the elite sporting landscape was leaving some people out. At her first function at the Homebush stadium all she saw was a roomful of men.
“Where are the women?” A concerned McLoughlin asked those around her.
“From that day, every event I hosted had leading business women, leading female athletes and women community leaders alongside their male counterparts. I was quite determined to create a level playing field, and this was a start. Colleagues like Phil Kearns and John Quayle embraced that which added momentum ”
Then four years ago, following the Rio Olympics alongside a handful of senior Australian business women, McLoughlin established the Minerva Network to mentor female athletes on their transition to life after sport.
“We now have a national footprint and the impact we are having through the Minerva Network flows beyond elite athletes as these stars are household names and extraordinary role models for grassroots sport.”
The Minerva Network keeps growing stronger by the year and on Saturday will launch the Sydney Roosters & Easts Group Minerva Scholarship. It is a scholarship designed to support a sportswoman, of any discipline, through their study over five years.
“I am really excited that the Roosters have taken the lead on this and my personal aspiration is that more sports across Australia will jump on board and support and encourage our professional female athletes to build life skills necessary for their futures beyond sport,” McLoughlin said.
Sydney Roosters chief executive Joe Kelly said it was important the scholarship was open to all athletes.
“It is difficult when you are so committed to achieving sporting excellence to also fund educational pursuits, so we hope that through the formation of the scholarship program, these Minerva Star athletes get to more readily realise their educational aspirations,” Kelly said.
“As an NRL club we have a strong focus on developing rugby league pathways for girls and women. We also acknowledge the enormous efforts of all women in elite and professional sport and therefore this scholarship is available to any sporting discipline.’’
It’s McLoughlin’s leadership – shown through her “pro bono” work with Minerva, her current chairmanship of one of Australia’s biggest insurers Suncorp, as well as being a long-term director of the McGrath Foundation and soon to be Chancellor of Wollongong University – that has seen her name in the mix for one of the biggest roles in Australian sport.
The Australian has learnt she has been short-listed for the Sport Australia chair role.
When asked by The Australian if she was interested in the SA role McLoughlin said it was flattering but declined to comment further.
“More importantly we live in a time where the leadership quality of all major institutions have never been more critical,” she said. “Governance in sport has been under a spotlight in the COVID period – sport is both big and small business in Australia. I believe so many of the disciplines that are demanded of us in business are integral to creating vibrant and successful governance in sport.
“And business recognises the power of sport, as we have seen for decades through sponsorships and other endorsements. This is also evolving, for example at Suncorp we are proud of the work we are doing in supporting the Suncorp Super Netball and Team Girls initiatives, as well as having our brands on Stadiums around the country ”
Former Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath, who has had McLoughlin on his foundation’s board since 2016, said they were “so lucky” to have her leadership, noting her extensive corporate governance experience as a director of companies including financial services, resources and health insurance. Professionalism aside, McGrath also liked the fact she was a “country girl”.
“She has been brilliant,” McGrath said. “The thing I love most about Christine is she is so professional, has an amazing wealth of knowledge but also a great sense of humour. She doesn’t take herself too seriously. Something in this day and age … that’s quite rare. I probably wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Christine, she’s not shy, she’s a country girl.”
Australian cricketer Alyssa Healy, who is mentored by McLoughlin via the Minerva Network, describes the accomplished chair as a “doer”.
“Before Minerva came along, a network like this seemed like a bit of a dream, something that would have been nice to have in place but people like Christine made sure it happened,” Healy said. “She is a doer. She doesn’t just talk about it, she makes it happen.”
Former rugby league administrator John Quayle, who was on the board of Venues New South Wales chaired by McLoughlin, also praised her management style.
“She handled it brilliantly, she is very low key in the way she handles things,” Quayle said.
“I have found there is not anyone I can work for that can articulate the issues as quickly and decisively as Christine.”
While McLoughlin was the chair of Venues NSW, she now sits alongside Tony Shepherd the chair of the NSW Sport Venues Interim Advisory Board. They have been engaged by the NSW government to work out how they might get their sports infrastructure working more effectively and delivering for the whole of NSW.
It’s about bringing stadiums like ANZ Stadium, Bankwest, Newcastle and Wollongong and ideally their precincts under the same roof as the SCG and the new Sydney football stadium.
“I fully support what Premier Berejiklian is seeking to do because it will be far more efficient and effective, I think it’s really, really important that the organisation is focused on the broadest NSW constituency, rather than geographic subsets,” McLoughlin said. “The population is growing in the west and COVID has seen a shift to the regions by many Sydneysiders – so state infrastructure needs to reflect that.”
“I think bringing them all together is smart, but making sure we stay true to the broader purpose of that and what it can deliver for New South Wales as a destination is really important.”
McLoughlin has worked closely with NSW Premier Gladys Berjeklian and says she has been inspired by her leadership style.
“Watching our Premier who has been an immensely resilient leader during this incredibly tough time, I have learnt a great deal particularly in the past nine months,” McLoughlin said. “The Premier has maintained this momentum since the catastrophic bushfires which demanded everything we had for example in our Suncorp insurance business and she just kept stepping up. And still is.”
McLoughlin has the ability to network from the grassroots to the government ranks, has the ability to handle sports infrastructure issues to athletes’ needs.
McLoughlin is unwavering in making sport better for everyone. One of her sporting highlights of last year was being present for Dylan Alcott’s Wimbledon victory and also including champion wheelchair athlete Madison de Rozario in the Minerva network which has led to a deep friendship between the two.
“My hope is that we find ways to ensure pathways for the broadest spectrum of sports in Australia,” she said. “Focus tends to go to the big codes or big names, that’s why there is a place to play for the Minerva Network and the other sports bodies. Sport is capable of giving an inspirational pathway out of COVID; the time feels right now to be tapping into the obsession and passion of our nation for our sports.”
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