Photography by CyclingTips

Is Gerry Ryan the right man for the Cycling Australia presidency?

by Wade Wallace - November 12, 2013

Cycling Australia announced yesterday that Gerry Ryan, one of Australia’s most successful businessmen and the owner of GreenEDGE Cycling, has been elected as the national body's president. Few would question Mr. Ryan’s commitment to and the support he's provided for Australian cycling in the past 20 years. But is he the right man for the Cycling Australia presidency?

Background

Back in October it was announced that Cycling Australia’s CEO Graham Fredricks would be stepping down, following in the footsteps of president Klaus Mueller who had resigned two months earlier. These departures came in the aftermath of the Wood Review into CA’s operations.

The findings and recommendations from that report were released back in January, amid Australia Sports Commission (ASC) concerns about cycling governance in Australia. In April the ASC released a report about investments provided for various sports in Australia, including the following sentence about Cycling Australia:

“

The ASC expects Cycling Australia to implement the findings from the Wood Review as a matter of priority in 2013/14.

In an ASC report updated this Wednesday, as part of the organisation’s Winning Edge 2012-2022 initiative, cycling was rated as ‘low’ in a ‘governance progress assessment’.

The document reads:

“

Cycling in Australia has structural challenges that limit its potential to grow, particularly given the broad public popularity of the sport in a range of settings. Currently there are three major bodies representing cycling in Australia; Cycling Australia, Bicycle Motorcross Australia (BMX) and Mountain Bike Australia meaning there is not a single entity representing the sport.

There is also a large recreational biking sector that operates independently of these organisations. The sport would benefit from, and has committed to, integration.

While all parties are open to negotiations on achieving integration, progress to date has been slow and the ASC will be taking a more active role in negotiations. Identifying a new President of Cycling Australia is an urgent priority and significant progress is required over next six months.

In the absence of any on-the-record comment, we can only assume that Klaus Mueller and Graham Fredericks did not implement the governance measures required by the ASC. In order to continue with the level of government funding they’d had in the past, Cycling Australia needed to implement changes at the top.

Ryan and Anderson to lead

In a Cycling Australia press conference today with Gerry Ryan and new interim CEO, Adrian Anderson, Mr Ryan said the following about the role he’ll be undertaking:

“

I can bring to this organisation some commercialisation in terms of my experience in the commercial world. What I’m about to … assist in is change — change management. To help develop a business model that is successful and sustainable.

The most popular question I’ve had put to me in the last 24 hours is what’s my vision. I don’t have a vision. I’m not a stakeholder. It is my duty, and with Adrian [Anderson] coming on board, over the next couple months to review how the operation functions, who are the stakeholders and to try and build a business model based on best practices .

[We’ll] certainly model ourselves on other sports in Australia, for instance what they’ve done with yachting and we’ll be looking to the most successful sporting cycling model: the Brits. The British system over the last ten years has developed into a very slick operation based on a business model and we’ll certainly be looking to take certain aspects out of that.

It will be our role to do a total review and report back to the board with our findings and for the board to develop a vision for cycling.

When asked if he sees this as a long-term role for him or if he’s there to fix problems then get out, Ryan said “I’ll be here as long as I’m required and as long as people want me here I’ll keep that position.”

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Conflicts of interest?

When the news broke that Gerry Ryan will be the new Cycling Australia president, many people asked whether the appointment creates conflicts of interest.

Ryan is a successful entrepreneur who owns businesses in manufacturing, entertainment and sport, including, of course, GreenEDGE Cycling. Ryan is ranked at 161 on the 2013 BRW Rich 200 list with a personal fortune of $310 million. He obviously has the money to spend and appears to do so for purely philanthropic reasons, not for recognition.

Ryan has funded individuals in the sport for more than two decades after first investing in Kathy Watt, a move which helped her win an Olympic medal at Barcelona in 1992. Since then, he’s been extremely generous in financially supporting cycling at a number of levels, much of which goes unpublicised.

So what’s the problem with the man who has given so generously to Australian cycling being the president of the sport’s national body? Shouldn’t he have a say in how his money is spent?

I’m certainly not suggesting anything untoward here, but it would be naive to think that Gerry Ryan’s hefty contribution to the sport of cycling in Australia doesn’t come with an indirect influence over CA decisions.

That said, there’s little doubt Gerry Ryan has the sport’s best intentions at heart and will act accordingly as the president of CA. But as the owner of Australia’s first and only WorldTour team, and considering his personal financial contributions to cycling in this country, some conflicts of interest are sure to arise in future.

For example, how can he defend or support someone involved in a scandal within Orica-GreenEDGE and at the same time take a firm stand as the president of CA? Or how could the selection of a World Championships squad appear to be fairly picked if it was seen to favour riders from Orica-GreenEDGE? Or how decisions are made that impact development pathways which are not part of the AIS?

When asked at today’s press conference about the possibility of conflicting interests, Mr. Ryan said the following:

“

Before I took up the position I went through a process with the board. There isn’t, according to the board — and certainly the Sports Commission ran an eye over what I do in cycling — they don’t see a conflict and in fact they said [Ryan’s other cycling interests are] probably beneficial going forward.

In the inevitable situation where there is a conflict of interest, Mr Ryan said “It’ll go through the process — the sports commission and also CA — and I would step aside.”

But perception is reality and unfortunately even if Gerry Ryan were to stand down from issues and decisions that appear to have a conflict of interest, you could argue it diminishes his power as president such that he can’t properly exercise his position. High positions such as this require absolute independence.

Adrian Anderson, CA’s interim CEO disagrees:

“

I don’t think there a sport where conflicts of interest don’t exist. Like Mike Fitzpatrick’s the chairman of the AFL and he’s a shareholder of Telstra and ANZ Stadium or one of the equity holders. It’s the nature of sport that if you want people that are passionate and good and involved, there’s going to conflicts from time to time. Otherwise you’ll never get quality people like Gerry involved. You’ve just got to manage [the conflict] if there is one.

Cycling Australia clearly thinks that the benefits Gerry Ryan bring to the table outweigh the potential conflicts of interest, but it will be interesting to see how these inevitable conflicts of interest are handled and if he can fulfil his role properly when they arise.

It also remains to be seen if Gerry Ryan’s role as president will be temporary, to allow him to shake things up and put the required governance measures in place, or if this will be a long-lasting position.

What do you think? Is Gerry Ryan the right man for the top job at Cycling Australia? Are you concerned by the potential conflicts of interest?

Tags: Cycling Australia, Gerry Ryan

choppy

at least road cycling is ok. sorry trackies bmxers and mbikers! OGE just got a CA cash injection and are signing N Quintana!
What a joke. Same as Eddie Macquire buying Collingwood and then being appointed head of AFL operations.
- exCAmember
  
  Worse, choppy - its as if Eddie McGuire owns Collingwood’s major sponsor Emirates Airlines, while owning Collingwood, and then being made President of the AFL. There are so many conflicts of interest inherent within Ryan’s appointment that its difficult to untangle them all.
- a different ben
  
  I thought the plan was to bring road, track, bmx and mtb together?
  - Dave
    
    If Ryan is going to be in charge I can’t see the MTB and BMX communities wanting any of that.
    
    Track cycling is already integrated into the CA structure and - apart from the sprint discipline - seems to exist mainly as a feeder program to the pro road teams.
- Daniel
  
  Funny you should mention McGuire. He was on the board of Athletics Australia, whilst president of Collingwood FC. Athletics got moved from Olympic park, home of athletics for 50 years. Collingwood got a new training venue. McGuire resigned from athletics board shortly after - mission accomplished.
  Conflict of interest clearly but athletics was so desperate to get Eddie’s commercial and media expertise they ignored the conflict of interest and got dudded. I really hope CA doesn’t get done over like AA was.
  - Abdu
    
    Yeh, and Eddy was such a hit as CEO of channel 9 (possibly the worst CEO since, well ever).
    
    In case anyone wants to look 1cm deeper beyond his hype, he ain’t very good at much but self promotion.
Andy

This could be the greatest decision made by a sporting organisation in Australia. A successful person with a entrepreneurial background and a genuine interest in the spot, and a sports administrator with a track record of success at the highest levels.

What more could cyclists ask for? This puts cycling in the box seat to capitalise on it’s position as one of the fastest growing sports in Australia.
- Dave
  
  It also puts cycling in the box seat to get completely dragged down by a single scandal in a theoretically unrelated trade team if others at CA are forced to defend GR/OGE when the next doping scandal rolls around.
  - velocite
    
    Ahh Dave..two possibilities: Andy’s and yours. I’m with Andy. Let’s check back in 12 months.
Tim

With the limited knowledge I have, it seems to me that Mr Ryan is a game changer. He will come in and use his extensive knowledge of cycling at the competitive level and his business acumen to restructure cycling administration in Australia. I do not disagree that Mr Ryan is in a unique position to be successful in orchestrating these changes. He should then leave. This should be a short term contract. Being the owner of a pro team and the head of this organisation in the future is a mistake. The ongoing president needs to be independent. There can be no opaqueness in administrating cycling in Australia.
Davo

Brilliant decision!

Someone who knows how to run a successful organisation, puts his money where his mouth is, and genuinely has the interests of Australian cycling at heart.

This is very similar to Frank Lowy and his association with soccer in Australia, no one can deny the impact that has had, and I hope that Gerry is able to perform a similar transformation for cycling in this country also!

The take of conflicts of interest is just phaff.
- Dave
  
  Frank Lowy didn’t have financial interests in the success of a professional team at the same time if I remember correctly.
  - Craig
    
    You will find he was heavily involved financially in the Sydney FC club.
inopinatus

Having a conflict of interests is not a bad thing. The phrase is oft used as a negative, as some kind of disqualification. It isn’t; it’s just a minor situation that occurs routinely at board levels and is always handled by recusal.

Notwithstanding which; it’s quite acceptable for a leader to have influence, opinion, experience, open preferences for one thing over another; otherwise all we get are bland administrators. And as for the possible conflicts cited, they seem to me more like operational issues, the job of the executive not the board.

I also disagree that perception is reality, but that’s a common perspective in media :>
- The Potato Man
  
  I agree. Perception isn’t reality. Reality is reality and perception is perception.
  
  However, CA and Gerry Ryan, etc will have to be careful and transparent to ensure that perception is closely aligned with reality. As you said, it is pretty standard for potential conflicts to be acknowledged before an issue is considered by a board.
  - http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
    
    What I should have said is that perception defines our image, and cycling’s image in this case. Regardless, there should be lessons learned from Pat McQuaid and the many conflicts of interest he had (playing both the batter and the umpire) and how it affected his and the UCI’s credibility and image.
    - velocite
      
      Not sure what you think are the lessons from McQuaid CT, but Pat appeared not to be able to work out which way the world was going. He flogged dead horses and engaged in diversionary tactics. Ryan is smarter than McQuaid, with different motivations I believe.
  - exCAmember
    
    But as the author states, there are so many conflicts - from national team selection of OGE riders, sponsorship decisions, marketing of Jayco logo everywhere, etc - that its hard to see where Ryan won’t have a conflict of interest. He’s going to be sitting out an awful lot of decisions, which begs the question - why make him President? The problem with becoming so beholden and dependent upon a single benefactor (although Ryan is no philanthropist, he has Jayco shareholders to answer to) is that it becomes impossible to say no to the hand that feeds you.
    - Dave
      
      I feel sorry for the BMX and MTB riders who just got F’ed in the A.
      
      Hopefully it’s not too late for them to avoid the merging into CA that the ASC ordered, and to keep on producing Australia’s best future road cyclists independently.
      - Tim Rowe
        
        The ASC did *not* order that MTBA merge in to CA (along with BMXA) - and MTBA and BMXA are not merging in to CA. A new cycling body will be formed which functions in a way that’s acceptable to all three bodies - there is a major difference, so don’t be illusioned that MTBA will just get absorbed in to CA, that’s not what’s going on. There are still many in the CA fraternity who believe it’s MTBA/BMXA merging in to them - largely being the state federations who have the most to lose. It needs to be thoroughly understood that this is not the case. Yes, there is a path towards integration going on, some organisations closer to being ready than others - but there’s many hurdles to overcome.
        
        jules
        
        all i will say is that it’s ridiculous i need to go out and spend extra $ on an MTBA license when i already have a CA one. that needs to be fixed first and foremost.
        
        Tim Rowe
        
        MTBA/BMXA members could just as equally say it’s ridiculous we need to go out and spend extra money on a CA license to do road/track events. And such a disproportionate amount. Considering the amount of that which is insurance, the actual administration overhead of MTBA is minimal compared to funding the state bodies and CA admin. MTBA gets virtually no administrative assistance at all from the state federations - who take a much larger chunk of each CA license.
        
        You do realise that if a license were to include Track, Road, BMX and MTB, the overall cost of all licenses would merely increase? It’s not going to stay the same if people want all components, and I gurarantee you’re going to get more people complaining about their license fee going up when they don’t want to do BMX or MTB, or the other way around - MTBers who suddenly go from paying $120/yr to $300+/yr when they have no interest in doing Road/Track.
        
        jules
        
        fair points Tim. i’m not whingeing about the money or devaluing the work by people who have given their time to these bodies, as much as questioning the lack of coordination. i’m happy to pay my way to support cycling in australia. but there seems no reason why a combined license (even at extra cost) can’t be offered. to the rider, it seems like factionalism and unnecessary red tape. and inevitably - the need for a separate license will discourage riders holding one from trying out events which need the other.
        
        Tim Rowe
        
        A major point of contention is that BMXA and MTBA memberships are valid for year from the day you join. CA memberships are all calendar year only.
        Cyclocross is kind of a trial for offering unified licensing, but I can’t see it as being likely that you have a single license that automagically allows you to compete in any discipline, rather I expect we’ll end up with a system where you pay a module - hardly different to what you have now. So you want to do Track, you pay an extra $x, do BMX, add $y. IMO all a single license achieves here is a warm, fuzzy feeling.
- Dave
  
  Influence, opinion, experience and preferences are one thing.
  
  It’s completely different for him to have “private” financial interests so completely tangled that CA will have no option but to roll over and defend GR’s private team when they next get entangled in a doping fiasco.
- a different ben
  
  Can anyone with direct experience of this clear up just how much Mueller / past presidents influenced national selection? Is there not a separate selection process from the management and administration of the cycling body? As inopinatus points out Ryan is not part of the executive.
  
  The national selection policy (http://www.cycling.org.au/High-Performance/Selection-Policies) states that there are committees for the various disciplines, and selections are endorsed by the CA Executive on behalf of the board. Seems pretty easy for Ryan to recuse himself from that, or is there more to it? I suppose the CA Executive or the board appoint the selectors, so I suppose Ryan could attempt to appoint someone like Matt White from OGE, but really, there are 10 people on the board and I doubt the the president has a veto.
Hugh Jaas

I think the organisation is bigger than the individual. And in the best interests of cycling, which we know Ryan has, we can only hope he doesn’t abuse the position. And I don’t think the organization will allow it. I hope anyway. Great decision though. I’m happy with it.
- Dave
  
  I don’t think the organisation has the capability to not allow it, he is in the unique position of being able to take his bat and go home.
  
  As I wrote on yesterday’s Rocacorba, we’ll only see his true colours when the next - and there will be a next - OGE doping scandal comes around.
Dave

Does GR not realise that this could put the renewal of OGE’s ProTeam license in serious jeopardy thanks to the rules demanding ProTeams be completely separate from the national governing body where they are registered?

Does he not realise that this puts the domestic and international reputation of CA in the mud? It would undo a huge amount of good work if Brian Cookson stands by his platform of transparency and asks for Tracey Gaudry’s resignation.

The right thing to do for GR if he really loved cycling would have been to thank the CA board for the invitation and decline it.
- Henry
  
  @Dave you’re very anti GR. He’s done nothing but great things for this sport. He is considered an upstanding businessman and he has agreed to dedicate circa-3-days per week to CA for at least 18-months. OGE runs without his day-to-day input and his position as president will be far removed from it. In terms of MTBA and BMXA getting shafted - they are their own worst enemy. They are badly mismanaged by men with big egos and a sense of entitlement - they are remnants of McQuaid era. I think it’ll take someone like Gerry to ensure there is a successful integration. Hopefully Gerry also does something about CA’s disastrous commercial arm and their new IMG website which is the biggest crock of shite that I’ve seen!
  - Troy
    
    Haha, Henry do you have any idea about MTBA or BMXA? BMX membership has experienced around 76% growth over the last 12 months alone and then some before that. It’s odd you talk about your view of them being mismanaged and then talk of disastrous commercial arm of CA. When you stack them together the disaster isn’t with BMX.
    
    As for being anti GR and Dave’s view, I really don;t believe Dave is anti GR, rather the fit isn’t right and regardless of the credence to the statement by those at the top, there is a real conflict of interest.
    
    Some one else asked who would be better to take the job…. well there are still plenty of business savvy millionaires in the country. It appears you don;t have to know about cycling, cos the CEO has no knowledge so really provided they can do a good job, then the answer is just about most top executives.
  - Dave
    
    Not anti-GR at all. I just want a healthy and visible separation between big commercial interests and the independent regulation of the sport.
Callum Dwyer

Does new a CA President mean changes/improvements for your average CA member and the grass roots of the sport?
Bigaus

When I think of Conflicts of Interest and Gerry Ryan/OGE, I come back to the fall of Pegasus and the rise of GreenEdge. Pegasus was poised to become a WorldTour team and it seemed to be heading in the right direction, but really without any support from CA it seemed. Suddenly within days of Pegasus turning sour, GreenEdge rises from the ashes with the full backing of CA and ends up with a WorldTour license. That always struck me as strange and it was almost like CA wanted Pegasus to fail so they could throw their energy behind GreenEdge. My “perception” back then was already a conflict of interest with CA in regards to GreenEdge. That perception has been reinforced over the past couple of years when I see OGE trucks/vans/buses supporting the national team at World Champs and the like. With Gerry Ryan becoming CA president I can’t see that becoming anything but worse.
- Jaded
  
  Who could forget watching Matt Lloyd hopelessly outnumbered against a stacked OGE team in the 2012 national champs? My perception then was that CA and OGE believed that the national jersey MUST be on Gerrans’ back for OGE’s 1st TDF appearance. They made sure of it. It’s all about the ‘brand’, unfortunately.
  - jules
    
    OGE raced to win and marking Lloyd was an obvious tactic. OGE was very open and frank about making the national champs a priority. how does trying hard constitute a conspiracy?
    - Jaded
      
      Competing in National Championships has always played by the rules that you are racing as an individual - not as part of a team. That all suddenly changed when OGE were formed, and surprise, surprise, everything was stacked with a 16-man team to ensure an equally-deserving Australian rider had no chance whatsoever - purely because he wasn’t signed to OGE. That kind of discrinimation has crept into Australian cycling since OGE were formed. And it happened in the Women’s races as well: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/kitchen-alleges-collusion-between-greenedge-ais-and-ais-squads and http://www.sbs.com.au/cyclingcentral/bridie-odonnell/blog/127302/big-fish-small-pond
      - jules
        
        is it a rule that team racing is disallowed? or just a gentleman’s agreement?
- Dave
  
  That conflict of interest from the failure of Pegasus and arrival of GreenEdge has a name - Shayne Bannan.
  
  I don’t think there’s anything to be found in the OGE support vehicles being used for the World Championships, that happens with everybody as a matter of convenience.
http://www.facebook.com/pmark1bike pmark1bike

Oh no the sky is falling down!
Can anyone name someone better to take the job, that has the business savvy to make it work and that willing take the job and is involved in cycling for the love of it, GR certainly isn’t in it for the money. Lets give him a go and stop cutting down the tall poppies.
- Abdu
  
  Agree, he’s put his own money in and plenty of it over the years. Good luck to him, and Adrian Anderson will know all about hiding drug scandals after his years at the AFL.
Frank

I think Cycling Australia are tyring to replicate what the FFA did with putting Frank Lowy in chage
john

too all those naysayers - what have you done for the sport lately (if at all) ?
Arfy

Potential conflicts of interest? Yes. Is there a better person for the job? Not that I know of.
I hope that Gerry, in his unpaid role as President, can help build a cycling body that not only meets ASC satisfaction, but can build real commercial value. The test for this will be when Road/BMX/MTB events make it into mainstream media, such as commercial television. I’m sure if he can do that then ASC funding will be considered redundant. I’m also sure I’ll forgive him for the perceived conflicts of interest.