Malcolm Speed appointed Cycling Australia president; new board and $2 million loan also revealed

Cycling Australia has announced the appointment of a new board with long-time sporting administrator and former International Cricket Council CEO Malcolm Speed as president (second from the right in the image above).

The new board, which was ratified at a Cycling Australia (CA) meeting last night, will swear in Speed as president when it meets for the first time later this week.

The election of the new board and president coincides with the announcement of a $2 million loan to Cycling Australia, to help stabilise the ailing national body. Cycling Australia has been in significant financial difficulty for several years and the loan will reportedly be used to protect the country’s high performance program while ongoing governance reforms take place.

The $2 million comprises $1.5 million from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), while Cycling Australia’s member states and Mountain Bike Australia will collectively provide the remaining $500,000.

ASC Chair John Wylie AM said via a press release that the ASC undertook a “rigorous financial analysis” of Cycling Australia before deciding to provide a loan.

“After much consideration, the ASC determined that the most effective way of protecting the sport’s strongest assets – its high performance athletes and mass public appeal – was to grant the existing organisation a loan on the condition it continues its reform agenda”, Mr Wylie said via a Cycling Australia press release.

The interest-bearing loan comes with a number of conditions, including “ongoing financial oversight of the high performance program by the AIS” and a “complete governance overhaul”.

Since November 2013, Cycling Australia has been led by president Gerry Ryan, owner of caravan brand Jayco and GreenEdge Cycling (among other businesses) and a long-time investor in Australian cycling. A key role for Ryan throughout his tenure as CA president — alongside interim CEO Adrian Anderson who served from November 2013 to May 2014 — has been driving much-needed governance reforms for the organisation.

“Since I took over as president late last year a number of significant changes have taken place including a review of the sport’s business which identified potential savings within the organisation, renegotiating a new broadcast deal and developing a commercial plan to attract new partners,” Ryan said via a press release.

“We have also made necessary governance reform including the move to a company limited by guarantee and made constitutional changes which align to the ASC’s mandatory governance principles.”

ASC Chief Executive Simon Hollingsworth thanked Gerry Ryan for his long-term support of cycling in Australia as well as stepping into the role of overseeing the caretaker board.

“Gerry’s support for cycling and passion to see it succeed is phenomenal and the work he has done since stepping into the role of short-term president has been fantastic,” he said.

“That work has included developing a business plan which outlines how the organisation will address its financial issues and demonstrate a capacity to repay loans to the ASC and state member bodies.

“Given the significant recent progress made towards getting CA back on track, it was considered important to provide it with this vital financial support while it completes its reforms.”

The new Cycling Australia board is as follows:

Malcolm Speed (President-elect): former CEO of Cricket Australia and the International Cricket Council
David Ansell: Senior sales and marketing executive at Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Foxtel
Matt Dever: Managing Director at Emit Capital
Linda Evans: Partner at Clayton Utz specialising in antitrust law and mergers
Leeanne Grantham: Former elite basketballer and CEO of the WNBL
Anthony Griffin: CEO at Saxo Capital Markets and current director of Amy Gillett Foundation
Justin Quill: Partner at Kelly Hazell Quill and former Partner at Corrs Chambers Westgarth
Gerry Ryan (Appointed Director)

Troy

Still no mention of a CEO though?
- http://www.cyclingTipsBlog.com cyclingTips
  
  They are in the process of appointing a CEO and should be announced in the very near future (according what Malcolm said at the press conference)
Robert Merkel

Seems like a reasonable collection of sporting, business, legal and financial expertise, but a bit light on for cycling expertise.

While Malcolm Speed certainly knows his way around international sporting governance given the complexities of cricket, cycling has its own oddities and the only obvious person with experience in the world of international cycling politics is Gerry Ryan.

And there doesn’t appear to be anyone who is a former elite cyclist or coach - kinda important, given the vast majority of CA’s money goes on running the high-performance programs for elite cyclists and the board presumably needs to sign off on coaching appointments.

For comparison, Cricket Australia has Michael Kasprowicz and Mark Taylor on the board.
- Troy
  
  I kind of agree you Robert but at the same think this will bring about positive change that has been long overdue at the national body. The ASC’s Winning Edge mandate made it clear that governance issues (amongst others) were in need of being sorted.
  
  The move away from those within the sport is what was needed in the short to medium term to get the financial arrangements back in check. I can foresee that once the wheels of change really get up to speed (oh the use of bad puns!) then the time will come that former elite cyclists that can bring something to the table should be welcomed again.
  
  Its nearing a year since CA has a full time CEO. Fredericks left in October with the ASC appointed interim CEO leaving in May. Long time to be in caretaker mode. And during that time the organisation has shed staff both forced and willingly.
  
  I find it a little odd that $500K of the loan has been made up by the state organisations and MTBA. Meanwhile BMX has broken further away relocating to new premises. The ASC’s hope of a unified cycling body seems to be in more disarray.
- Dave
  
  It looks like a good board, especially considering that CA is not too far away from “tear it down and start over” becoming the most viable option for fixing it. It needs a good CEO to make it work though.
  
  Ryan out of the presidency is a good move for the sake of transparency, too many conflicts of interest.
  - echidna_sg
    
    pretty sure it was thrust upon him and only ever as a caretaker - but fully agree, he couldn’t continue to retain the position whilst having some many other fingers in other pies.
Abdu

On personal wealth alone this board smashes it. John Wylie sold his investment firm for $200m last year so maybe he could chip in a bit? He was involved behind the scenes with the AFL trying to resolve the Bombers drug scandal and look how that’s turned out?
In the end, all this mob has “delivered” here after a year or more of reviewing is a $2m loan… That will be needed for the President’s salary in year one. A café operator in Chapel Street could rustle that up in 5 minutes, we’re talking about a sport looking massive potential in the face. $2m..? Rowing gets $7.3m a year funding. That $2m is nothing for a high performance program, the Poms kick in $10m a year for their Olympic cycling programme.
What are the “savings they’ve identified” exactly? What is the investment made to tap into the “mass public appeal”? I can’t see any, it’s all done by organisations like Amy Gillette Foundation, private event organisers, or the clubs (which are really not funded at all by the head body).
What benefit does Cycling Australia provide to the everyday cyclist (non racer)?
Not sure if any have the slightest understanding of the sport, with the exception of Ryan and we’ve seen how OGE handles things (Matt White given a weekend’s leave after being forced to admit EPO use, but otherwise the team wins and that’s all that matters). All credit to Ryan for his (financial) support, but it makes me laugh when people talk about governance and then remember OGE’s still got Neil Stephens in charge.
I think people are kidding themselves if they think Malcom Speed is a guru. From where I see it, he ‘oversaw’ the glory days of Australian cricket with Warne, McGrath, etc. (heck, I could do that) then handed all power in world cricket over to the Indians for them to let their IPL rip the sport to pieces. Guru? Hardly.
I love it when I hear the words “rigorous financial process” used in this sort context too. Is that a credit check, or just Gerry giving a guarantee?
I might hose down my utter cynicism if there was one sliver of transparency. Like release of said business plan?
- Troy
  
  My understanding is the $2M is just a loan and is no way the HP budget which is separate to this. The ASC will still give the sport its grants for HP and whatever else.
The Mad Hippie

So it’s men in suits again. I find it hard to believe there was not one female candidate worthy of an appointment. Considering the rapid rise of women in domestic cycling in AUS and the depth of talent both in the sport and the corporate environment surly there was a need to broaden the perspective of the board.
- Gavin Adkins
  
  Linda Evans and Leeanne Grantham are also on the board but are not pictured.
Gavin Adkins

I find the references to CA being “back on track” and “ailing” to be a touch unfair to those involved before Ryan jumped in as President. Governance reforms were surely needed and this is all really positive stuff, but I see it as part of a progression.

The sport has grown and changed dramatically over the last 5 years and previous CA boards oversaw, among other things, a very well run world road championships in Geelong and had to deal with the unprecedented fallout associated with Lance Armstrong.

Cycling administration has always essentially been a volunteer-run labour of love. It’s great that it is becoming more professional, but I don’t think we should diminish the efforts of previous contributors even if, with hindsight, we might have done things differently.
Nick Squillari

I’m ready for the $50 licence increase for 2015. Should bring us closer to triple what other Commonwealth nations pay…yay.
velocite

Cricket is a competitive sport. It keeps you off the streets, as it were, but doesn’t have much else in the way of associated benefits, like keeping you fit. Cycling, on the other hand, is more multi-faceted. For different people and at different times it can be a competitive sport, it can be a leisure pursuit, and it can be utilitarian transport. And it has a significant associated benefits in physical and mental health. The more of a cycling nation Australia could become it may be that the less of an obese nation we would become.

This is the mission statement of CA, from its web site:

“To be recognised as the pre-eminent governing body in Australian sport - providing world-class experiences across the spectrum of cycling enthusiasts from recreational riders right through
to high performance athletes.”

Not impressive, not useful. Would it not be great if our government adopted the promotion of cycling as a major and significantly resourced strategy? CA should be lobbying for that IMHO.
- Troy
  
  Problem is there are already advocacy bodies out there doing that which has diluted any power CA would have in doing the same. Rightly or wrongly, CA has become the body that only deals with cyclists who want to compete and not just ride. It has no relationship with those who just want to ride where as other organisations like Bike NSW or Bicycle Network do with their advocacy programs.
  
  CA has a job on its hand getting its own organisation in order. It can’t take its eyes of that task to “save” all cycling - it needs to save itself first.

Malcolm Speed appointed Cycling Australia president; new board and $2 million loan also revealed

by CyclingTips - September 16, 2014