Powerful women call end to Coates reign

The AOC cannot have good governance until John Coates is removed, a group of leading businesswomen say.

‘It removes any potential­ for independence’: Diane Smith-Gander. Picture: Renee Nowytarger

The Australian Olympic Committee cannot have good governance and independent decision-making until John Coates is removed as president, a group of leading women in business and sport has declared.

Diane Smith-Gander, a former­ chairwoman of Basketball Australia and a director of corporate­ giants Wesfarmers and AGL Energy, said where longevity­ in sport was a cause for celebration, lengthy tenure on boards conspired against dispassionate, clear thinking and good culture.

“Longevity of this sort is never OK because it removes any potential­ for independence,’’ Ms Smith-Gander said.

“When you remove independ­ence, bad things always follow.’’

Ms Smith-Gander is part of a group of influential women ­involved in business and sport backing the campaign for Hock­ey­roos Olympic champion Dani­elle Roche to topple Mr Coates in Saturday’s AOC elections.

They have no personal beef with Mr Coates; they argue that basic governance principles requir­e term limits for directors, the right mix of skills and talent on a board, and a regular infusion of new blood at the top of organisations.

“A lot of work has been done in corporate Australia around this and it is just as important in the governance of sports organisations,’’ said Anne-Marie Corboy, a corporate director, director of Commonwealth Games Australia and, until recently, the chairwoman of Netball Australia.

“If you have got appropriate governance structures, the sorts of situations we have got here should not develop.

“We should not have a case where someone can be in a role for 26 years without having someone stand against them.’’

As delegates from summer and winter Olympic sports prepare­ to cast their votes in Saturday’s unprecedented ballot, there is concern among some of the sports that without Mr Coates, Australia will lose its influenc­e in international sport.

The International Olympic Committee has confirmed that if Mr Coates is dumped as AOC president, he will be immediately stripped of his IOC membership.

However, the extraordinary tenure that elevated Mr Coates to a position of influence in world sport is now a dead weight in the AOC campaign.

Swimming legend Dawn Fraser­ has joined a growing chorus­, declaring that after 26 years with Mr Coates atop the AOC, “it is time for a change’’. Ms Smith-Gander said she was ­particularly concerned that Mr Coates, having announced that his next term as AOC president will be his last, is planning to help choose his successor. She said this was a clear sign that the board did not have the right culture.

The governance structure of the AOC is unique in Australian sport. In November 1990, when Mr Coates replaced Kevan Gosper­ as AOC president, the role was honorary.

Mr Coates, with board support, has in more recent years adopted the title of executive president, and is currently paid a consult­ancy fee much larger than the salary earned by the organisation’s fulltime chief executive.

Although it is common in the US for a company to have an executive chairman role, a lead, independent director is usually appointed to ensure a balance of power. All current AOC directors, even those now in opposition to Mr Coates, joined the board at Mr Coates’s behest.

“This is certainly not a model of good governance or one that I have seen work successfully anywhere,’’ Ms Smith-Gander said.

Ms Roche is pledging to introduce term limits for all board members and return the role of AOC president to a non-executive chairperson with vastly reduced remun­eration.

Both Ms Smith-Gander and Ms Corboy are members of Chief Executive Women, an industry group for women who have climbed to the top of Australia’s corporate ladder.

Australian Rugby Union board member Ann Sherry, another CEW member, has expressed concerns­ about the workplace culture at the AOC. Former sex discrimination commissioner Eliza­beth Broderick, also a CEW member, tweeted support for Fiona de Jong, a former­ AOC chief executive who raised bullying allegations against AOC media director Mike Tancred.

Mr Coates is a fierce defender of the AOC’s independence from government. He has framed the challenge against him as an attempt­ by the Australian Sports Commission, a government agency­ of which Ms Roche is a member, to take control of the AOC and its $146 million investment­ fund.

Ms Smith-Gander said proper independence required the regul­ar turnover of directors and chairpeople. “Having made a decision as a board member, you become invested in their success,’’ she said.

“You can’t see them as they are, you can’t call the emperor out when he has no clothes. It is ­impossible for someone who has been in a role for 26 years to bring the dispassionate, critical thinking that is required to ensure an organ­isation is sustainable.’’