Latest / Rusty's Garage / Eugene Arocca (Part 1)

Transcript

Eugene Arocca (Part 1) · Rusty's Garage

• 0:02
  A listener production.
• 0:10
  I'm automotive commentator and journalist Greg Rust and this is Rusty's Garage.
• 0:27
  For this episode, I'm in Melbourne at the Listener Studios.
• 0:30
  My guest is one of the top sports administrators in our corner of the world and the CEO of the governing body, Motorsport Australia.
• 0:38
  Eugenia Rocker gets his work ethic from a hard-working, humble family background where he perhaps defied the odds to end up in the legal profession before blending passion with aspects of his occupation to end up in the AFL.
• 0:52
  In fact, he's actually on the way to a footy function but has agreed to stop in for the podcast on the way.
• 0:57
  You'll hear about the LinkedIn message that started a conversation about a move into motorsport, how they were on a drive for fresh ideas from other sports to help our code grow, and the challenges he faced from the establishment along the way.
• 1:12
  He opens up on the rebrand from the Confederation of Australian Motorsport...
• 1:16
  and what he thought of the treatment of fellow Aussie and former F1 race director Michael Massey in the fallout from last season's controversial final round in the Middle East.
• 1:27
  And a whole lot more, including the legal action he championed against Dame Edna.
• 1:32
  That's quite a story.
• 1:33
  Now, I've always maintained that the pod is our guest in their own words, and we've left Huge, as he's affectionately known, unedited.
• 1:41
  I've also passionately believed that the charter of the garage is anyone with a good story around cars, bikes and racing, not just drivers and riders.
• 1:50
  We've had a few engineers and broadcasters.
• 1:53
  I reckon it's good in the wake of COVID that we hear from those that are at the helm of our sport too.
• 1:59
  And we'll do some other category administrators in time.
• 2:02
  We begin with early life for the Iraqis and how it shaped him for roles that are as much about people management, perseverance and politics.
• 2:14
  You know, look, we were working class people and my dad contracted cancer in 75, 76, which set us back a bit.
• 2:20
  And by then we'd moved around a bit.
• 2:22
  We'd moved to Carlton.
• 2:22
  We had a milk bar in Carlton, believe it or not, in Canning Street, Carlton.
• 2:25
  So it was pretty tough.
• 2:27
  It was a tough...
• 2:28
  I went to Faulkner High because I couldn't go to Reservoir because of a bus went to Faulkner instead of Reservoir, which was weird.
• 2:33
  So I grew up in Faulkner, basically, at Faulkner High, and a lot of my mates from those days today...
• 2:38
  I still see on a regular basis, there's a group of about 14 of us, all Italian boys, all working class boys, all had various degrees of success in life and careers.
• 2:47
  And we stick fat and we stick together, and that grounds me a fair bit.
• 2:51
  Did the change of school, the school that you went to, it ultimately had quite a shape on the career that you took, did it not?
• 2:58
  It was a big factor, primarily because my folks decided to buy this milk bar in Carlton.
• 3:04
  We moved to Carlton.
• 3:05
  I went to Princess Hill High School.
• 3:06
  Mm-hmm.
• 3:07
  And that was a significantly better school than Faulkner High, with all due respect to Faulkner High.
• 3:12
  And I was lucky enough to get some pretty good results for a variety of good reasons, and that was that I'd moved away from the boys, the lads who were having fun in Faulkner, and I'd moved to Carlton.
• 3:23
  I also started playing footy back then, and that was good fun.
• 3:25
  And I sort of...
• 3:26
  I found a niche where I had some good luck, I reckon.
• 3:30
  I worked pretty hard.
• 3:31
  I used to get up at 5.30 in the morning and get the milk in for the milk bar.
• 3:34
  Wow.
• 3:35
  And then help mum and dad set it up and then go to school and then come back and then work, you know, work till 9.30.
• 3:40
  So it was pretty grounding.
• 3:42
  And I reckon, you know, that work ethic to this day continues.
• 3:45
  Serves you well.
• 3:46
  Absolutely.
• 3:47
  What became, before we move on here, what became of the handed down EH?
• 3:50
  Where did that end up?
• 3:52
  Well, there's a story about the EH.
• 3:53
  I actually did a wheelie in the car park at Monash University and lifted the engine off its mounts.
• 3:58
  Ho, ho.
• 3:59
  So I actually did a wheelie and I was showing off to my mates in the old EH.
• 4:03
  It was a station wagon too.
• 4:04
  So I had a mate come along with a jack and lifted it back up onto its mounds, bolted it back in and off I went.
• 4:10
  What became of EH, I reckon I had it for about a year and a half.
• 4:13
  I used to drive from Reservoir to Monash.
• 4:15
  Wow.
• 4:15
  That's 40 clicks back and forward against the traffic.
• 4:19
  And eventually it just had enough.
• 4:20
  And I traded it in.
• 4:21
  They gave us probably a couple of hundred bucks.
• 4:22
  I ended up getting a Mitsubishi Sigma.
• 4:25
  which is my next car.
• 4:26
  So yeah, the old EH had gone to the graveyard, I suspect by now, but it was tough.
• 4:30
  It had one 49 or probably 179 engine.
• 4:34
  And as I said, it lifted off its mounts when I hit a bump during a wheelie and they just put it back on and off I went.
• 4:39
  So it was amazing.
• 4:40
  You touched on AFL, which would play a significant part in your work life as well, but the passion, obviously from an early age, share a bit of that, how that came about.
• 4:50
  Was that a school thing through family and mates?
• 4:52
  And what...
• 4:53
  kick-started, pardon the pun, the passion for that?
• 4:55
  Yeah, I've many failings, but one of them is that I do, one of them that's not, is that I'm very passionate about things that I do, and I could never imagine going to a job that I wasn't passionate about.
• 5:04
  I've got to get up in the morning and I love what I do.
• 5:07
  So I was a lawyer for 23 years, and I consider that to be like a team, a lawyer, and we grew that firm into a very big organisation.
• 5:13
  But I was very passionate about the Collingwood Footy Club.
• 5:16
  I was a, from the age of six, I'd barracked for Peter McKenna, and I was
• 5:19
  I'd love the pies.
• 5:20
  And so when Collingwood were going for a really rough trot in the mid-90s, I offered myself as lawyer.
• 5:27
  Honorary.
• 5:28
  Just basically went up and said, I'm happy to be, you've got no money.
• 5:30
  You're broke.
• 5:31
  They were broke.
• 5:32
  And I said, I'd love to be involved as a lawyer.
• 5:34
  And initially they spurned me.
• 5:35
  And then there was a change of president before Eddie.
• 5:37
  And they did realize how bad they were financially.
• 5:40
  Kevin Rose called me in and said, look, you know, you offered to be the lawyer.
• 5:43
  Here you are.
• 5:44
  And so I then was acting lawyer from 1996, and Eddie, when he came in, kept me on until about 2002, and then he invited me onto the board.
• 5:53
  But in that time, I acted for a lot of the players in a variety of different personal, private, financial, you know, housing, residential, criminal matters.
• 6:04
  I was of a wild west back at Collingwood in the early 90s, right through about until about Mick Malthouse arrived.
• 6:09
  We had the Rat Pack, of course.
• 6:11
  So it kept me, it was pretty busy and I did it all for the love of a club.
• 6:14
  And then they put me on the board in 2002 and eventually North Melbourne came knocking and I decided to have a career change away from the law and put on the North Melbourne sort of polo top and that was my team.
• 6:25
  And so that's the thing that I, and the same with Motorsport Australia, I become very passionate about the organisations I work for.
• 6:31
  I want to join the dots just a little bit here, just back up just a fraction if we can.
• 6:36
  The ticket or the university study, am I right in saying double degree and one of them is law?
• 6:41
  Is that right?
• 6:42
  I got the jurisprudence degree first, which is really a nothing degree, to be honest.
• 6:45
  It's just sort of a stepping stone to the law degree.
• 6:47
  But my folks were beside themselves.
• 6:49
  His son had got a degree and I kept on saying to mum, it's actually a stepping stone degree.
• 6:53
  It means nothing.
• 6:54
  When I got the law degree, I think it was 1982, that was a pretty proud moment for my folks.
• 7:00
  Monash, am I right?
• 7:01
  Monash University, yeah.
• 7:02
  And I ended up getting a gig at a law firm called Morris Blackburn, you know, strong sort of working class law firm.
• 7:09
  And through that, I formed some really great connections politically to this day that still remain.
• 7:15
  And I think that was another major part of my life.
• 7:19
  But I worked bloody hard, to put it bluntly.
• 7:20
  It was hard work back those days.
• 7:23
  There is a fun story that we can share.
• 7:24
  Not everyone may know it.
• 7:25
  It made the front page of the paper, and that is a case involving Dame Itna.
• 7:31
  Tell us about this one.
• 7:32
  Rusty, I've had a few weird and wonderful cases.
• 7:36
  That was the high watermark.
• 7:37
  And to give a bit of background, a mate of mine was in New York many years later, wandering through a bookstore, and he picked up a book of lists.
• 7:46
  And there's just lists on everything.
• 7:47
  And he says, I went to the – he was a lawyer.
• 7:49
  He's a former partner of mine, a legal partner.
• 7:51
  And he got to the legal, weirdest legal cases.
• 7:55
  And sure enough, number 19, Eugene Orocca versus Dame Edna.
• 8:00
  And so what had happened is that a client had gone to a theatre and watched Dame Edna.
• 8:05
  If you remember, at the end of the show, she would throw gladioli into the crowd.
• 8:10
  Well, this chap was talking to his mate.
• 8:12
  The show had finished.
• 8:13
  The lights were coming on.
• 8:14
  He turned back and then bang, one of the spears of the end of the gladioli, which were cut, ended up in his eye.
• 8:20
  Oh.
• 8:21
  And look.
• 8:22
  Between you and I, he just got a blood eye.
• 8:24
  Yes.
• 8:24
  And so we reached out to Dame Edna.
• 8:26
  We got nothing.
• 8:27
  And so in the end, I sued him.
• 8:28
  So I sued Barry Humphreys and Barry Humphreys Production Company.
• 8:31
  And we settled on the door of a court.
• 8:34
  The gladioli case.
• 8:35
  The gladioli case.
• 8:36
  So we didn't get to court, but we settled on the door of a court.
• 8:39
  And they insisted that it be confidential, which I was quite happy to do.
• 8:44
  It wasn't a large settlement.
• 8:45
  But then the rumor started circulating that I'd picked up $250,000 of this bloke.
• 8:49
  And I hadn't.
• 8:51
  And so the legend of Eugenio Rocha as a sort of ambulance-chasing lawyer for hire became pretty much public.
• 8:58
  And I've acted for a lot of celebrities and other people that have had legal misgivings.
• 9:03
  I acted for the wife of David Hooks, for example, in that tragic film.
• 9:06
  Wow.
• 9:07
  So I've had a really varied and exciting 23-year career as a lawyer doing all sorts of things, but that would probably be both a high and below light of my career.
• 9:17
  I remember Ross and John had a crack at me for suing a legend, but in the end, it was an insurance case and we did it.
• 9:23
  We'll move on and focus more on your career quite rightly here.
• 9:27
  But a funny little story to join things here.
• 9:30
  You may recall that Dame Edna had a temporary licence with the Confederation of Australian Motorsport.
• 9:36
  This is in Neil Crompton's book, which is out now, and he's talked about it occasionally in podcasts.
• 9:40
  Very funny story.
• 9:43
  A lot of investment in getting Barry Humphrey's day-mended to go to the Adelaide Grand Prix as it was back then for the celebrity race.
• 9:49
  And CAMS, as it was back then, had to sign off after their training that the licence was okay for them to do the celebrity race.
• 9:57
  And there was some...
• 9:58
  concern that the competencies weren't quite there.
• 10:03
  And so there's this hurried 11th hour meeting on the eve of the Grand Prix.
• 10:06
  And I think the solution was, providing Neil Crompton, who was one of the trainers, sat beside Dame Edna in the car for the celebrity race, it would be okay.
• 10:16
  Okay.
• 10:17
  So off they go.
• 10:18
  They do the race.
• 10:19
  Barry's in full Dame Edna mode with the glasses and out the window.
• 10:22
  Hello, possums, and all this sort of palaver.
• 10:25
  But, of course, the sports stars and some of the front-running drivers are gradually catching them.
• 10:29
  They're going to potentially lap them.
• 10:32
  And Crumpo can recall that Dame Edna got to this point where the panic, the realisation kind of kicked in and Barry looked in the rearview mirror, then looked at Neil in full Dame Edna kit, but dropped the voice facade and said, you got to help me here.
• 10:49
  LAUGHTER
• 10:53
  So there you go.
• 10:55
  A little joy to the dots.
• 10:55
  Crompo tells that story way better than me.
• 10:57
  It's in his book, as I say.
• 10:58
  I might add that he or she doesn't throw Gladiolo into a crowd anymore.
• 11:02
  Okay.
• 11:03
  She just hands them out rather than throwing them.
• 11:06
  But anyway.
• 11:07
  Let's talk just about the North Melbourne chapter.
• 11:11
  I think they call you Roo Jean there, mate, because they love you.
• 11:15
  You've done your homework.
• 11:17
  And...
• 11:18
  Mate, it was a very rewarding four-year period at a significant moment for this club, wasn't it?
• 11:24
  Yeah, it was.
• 11:25
  And I didn't break for North Melbourne.
• 11:26
  I was a 40-year Collingwood supporter member, board member.
• 11:29
  I'd actually worked for Collingwood.
• 11:30
  I'd missed out on the job as CEO at Collingwood.
• 11:32
  I was a bit miffed by that.
• 11:33
  And then North Melbourne came knocking.
• 11:35
  And I reckon the moment I walked into the door, and only AFL people understand this, I guess, or team people.
• 11:40
  But the moment I walked into the door...
• 11:43
  as opposed to Collingwood, which was big and a bit cumbersome, they just literally put their arms around me.
• 11:48
  From the bootstutter to the president, they just made me feel welcome.
• 11:52
  And I said, well, I'm in.
• 11:53
  And from that moment on, I worked my backside off.
• 11:57
  We returned the club to the members, previously owned by a group of shareholders.
• 12:02
  We built this redevelopment, which was at the time one of the best.
• 12:04
  We had a fantastic community program.
• 12:07
  You kept it there because it was going to be Gold Coast.
• 12:08
  Exactly right.
• 12:09
  We pitched ourselves as the inner city club.
• 12:11
  And, you know, lo and behold, there's going to be 20,000 new residents living in the Arden Precinct, which is going to be built around this oval.
• 12:18
  So I had a lot of luck, a lot of hard work.
• 12:21
  I had some great people working with me in Heatho Lachlan and Adam Aiello and Johnny Murphy, who then followed me to Motorsport Australia.
• 12:28
  But it was probably...
• 12:30
  in real terms, the most rewarding time or career phase in my life.
• 12:35
  Why?
• 12:35
  Because it actually meant putting a stake in the ground to save a football club, which had 40,000 members or 35,000 members, two or 300,000 supporters, and actually making a difference.
• 12:46
  And I remember recently a newly elected president said to me, see, you were sort of like McGough Whittle and we had to have, the sort of person who came along,
• 12:54
  Didn't stay for 20 years, but in a period of a short period of time, made some significant changes.
• 12:59
  I was quite chuffed by that because I'm a fan of golf, as it turns out.
• 13:02
  But we really made some significant changes to the way in which the club was operating and ultimately saved the club.
• 13:08
  When I say we, it was never me.
• 13:09
  I was the right place at the right time.
• 13:12
  And to this day, like even last weekend at Phillip Island, a bloke came up to me, called Andy and said, Eugene, I just want to thank you for what you've done.
• 13:19
  I said...
• 13:19
  not sure that you're going to be that grateful as a motorsport fan.
• 13:22
  He said, no, no, North Melbourne Footy Club, I'm a member.
• 13:24
  And just now, Ed was saying that he's a supporter of North Melbourne.
• 13:28
  So we are a really communal, familial club, and that really appealed to me, and I love that bit about it.
• 13:34
  So I'm very proud of that for a four-and-a-half-year period that I was there at North Melbourne significantly.
• 13:38
  Music
• 13:48
  It was great to have Rusty at the listener studios recently, even if it does mean he takes up half the offers with his bag.
• 13:55
  Sorry Rusty, only joking.
• 13:59
  crazy the circles of life and work and things like that.
• 14:02
  Tony Cochran, who was the boss of Supercars, is now the boss of Gold Coast.
• 14:06
  And his wife, Thea, actually has an involvement with Motorsport Australia, doesn't she?
• 14:09
  I'm outboard.
• 14:10
  I'm outboard.
• 14:10
  And so we often talk about footy because Gold Coast hasn't been going too well lately.
• 14:14
  Although they've picked up again.
• 14:16
  But, you know, the networks, the one thing I did get out of
• 14:19
  football were these extraordinary networks.
• 14:22
  It is a networking, you know, Melbourne is a big city, but a small town in some ways, and everyone knows everyone.
• 14:29
  And to some degree, my work at North Melbourne meant that I got to meet people at the city council.
• 14:34
  And one of the counsellors was on the board at Royal Melbourne Hospital.
• 14:37
  Then I applied for a gig at Royal Melbourne.
• 14:39
  And he remembered me from when I was fighting for North Melbourne.
• 14:41
  He said, we need that sort of person around the table.
• 14:44
  And I've been on the board of the Royal Melbourne Hospital for six years, which is, again, another very proud thing for me to have done because it gives me experience around a billion dollar operation connected to government.
• 14:55
  But the point is that in this country, in this state, sport is, in this country, sport is big.
• 15:00
  But it's particularly big because of the networks and the meetings and the people, everyone from prime ministers to bootstutters and ordinary everyday members.
• 15:09
  And in fact, I'm going to a lunch today for an MP who I met through North Melbourne Footy Club who's celebrating his 10th year anniversary in Parliament.
• 15:16
  So that's one of the connections that I've been really grateful for.
• 15:20
  There's some of many parts when you end up in a role like yours, but is there a moment that you can recall where you went...
• 15:27
  Gee, the thought of shifting from law to administration and management in sport, which you clearly love, when did that sort of kick in for you or that sort of… I'd been doing some work for Collingwood as a lawyer.
• 15:41
  And the CEO at the time, a fellow called Greg Swan, who's now at Brisbane Lions, we were sitting one day waiting for a meeting and he said, Yuge, you must be getting sick of billable hours because he used to be an accountant at EY.
• 15:52
  And I said, what do you ask that?
• 15:53
  He says, well, you know, maybe it's time for you to think about a career change.
• 15:56
  You get to spend more time with your family.
• 15:58
  I was working 70 hours a week.
• 15:59
  Crazy.
• 16:00
  And I'm not seeing my kids.
• 16:01
  And he says, you know, I get to take my kids to the footy with me for work.
• 16:03
  You know, I'll go off to the dinner or lunch, but the kids get to sit in the ground.
• 16:07
  And so the light bulb moment went on.
• 16:10
  And I reckon about six to nine months later, I went to my partners and said, I reckon it's time for me to move on.
• 16:16
  Collingwood had offered me the job as chief operating officer.
• 16:19
  That made it easy to fall into a job like Collingwood.
• 16:21
  What you're barracked for.
• 16:22
  Yes.
• 16:23
  And so I made the decision at 45 years of age to change my career essentially for the benefit of my family.
• 16:29
  I'd still love to be a lawyer today.
• 16:31
  Right now I'd still love to be a lawyer.
• 16:33
  Technically I'm still a lawyer.
• 16:34
  But I think the career change, if I could give advice to anyone...
• 16:40
  In your 40s, male or female is probably about the right time to make a career change.
• 16:44
  And that's when I went left field, went from law to sports administration.
• 16:48
  But it was primarily driven by my family.
• 16:50
  I could have kept, as I said, working seven hours a week right to today.
• 16:54
  But taking my kids to the 40, getting, they had the good fortune of running out onto the oval, coming into the rooms with me.
• 17:00
  You know, footy's up and down, you win and lose, but there's great moments.
• 17:04
  You know, boomers 400, some really great exciting periods that I got to share with my kids, my two boys, who were born Collingwood, but now Barrickford, North Melbourne.
• 17:12
  And so that was really the reason I made that career change.
• 17:16
  How did the overture to come and play in the motorsport world happen?
• 17:21
  And what was your first reaction to that?
• 17:23
  Well, it's funny because I've been on LinkedIn.
• 17:26
  Most of us are on LinkedIn.
• 17:27
  And you sort of think it's a great network, but what has it ever come to?
• 17:30
  Well, I got a phone call.
• 17:31
  I'd left North Melbourne Footy Club and I was setting myself up to go back into the law.
• 17:35
  So I'd hired an office in the city and I was going in every morning and doing nothing.
• 17:39
  What, your own shingle?
• 17:40
  I was going to be a mediator, full-time mediator, because I like crunching heads together and coming up with an outcome.
• 17:45
  That's not actually a very good way to mediate, but anyway, as I discovered.
• 17:49
  So I was sitting around for three months in this office in the top of Queen Street, twiddling my thumbs, waiting for work, because it takes a bit of lag to get work in law.
• 17:57
  And in the space of a week, I had three opportunities present for themselves out of nowhere.
• 18:02
  And they're all sort of because of my football.
• 18:04
  One was with Vision Australia.
• 18:06
  One was with a law firm called Shines.
• 18:08
  And right at the last moment, I got a phone call from a headhunter saying,
• 18:12
  who'd found me on LinkedIn, who said he was looking for an ex AFL CEO to come and work at Motorsport Australia.
• 18:20
  Well, he actually said cams.
• 18:21
  He says, you know what cams is?
• 18:22
  I said, well, as it turns out, I do know who cams are because Greg Swan, who was the CEO back in 97 before he came to Collingwood, I got to know him.
• 18:31
  And I said, yeah, I do know what Cam's are.
• 18:33
  He said, you're interested in motorsport?
• 18:35
  I said, I've got a bit of an interest.
• 18:36
  I've been to a few Grands Prix.
• 18:38
  Hadn't been a big Supercars fan.
• 18:40
  And he said, well, can you come to Sydney?
• 18:41
  I was actually, can we do a Zoom interview?
• 18:43
  This was all through LinkedIn.
• 18:45
  He found me through LinkedIn.
• 18:46
  Okay.
• 18:47
  And so he Zoomed me back then.
• 18:49
  We did a video conference.
• 18:50
  It wasn't as professional as it is now, Zoom, but it was good.
• 18:53
  And then he said, can you fly up to Sydney?
• 18:55
  Yeah.
• 18:55
  And I flew up to Sydney and met Andrew Papadopoulos, Tony South, Graham Emmett, and Gary Connolly.
• 19:00
  Sat in the boardroom there.
• 19:01
  Jeff Morgan, it was his company that was doing the search.
• 19:04
  And I sat there.
• 19:05
  Very, very big recruiting company.
• 19:06
  Very big recruiting company.
• 19:07
  And it was four of us who were in for the gig.
• 19:09
  And I did the interview.
• 19:11
  And when I left the Sydney office and got to the airport, they called me up and said, well, basically, you've got the job.
• 19:16
  So by the time I got to the airport, so whatever I did, I must have...
• 19:19
  Yeah.
• 19:19
  Impressed them.
• 19:20
  And then they got me to meet them in Melbourne when the board next met, the whole board.
• 19:25
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:25
  And then I started on the 26th of October 2012.
• 19:27
  But they made a point of saying we really wanted someone who wasn't necessarily, you know, sort of grounded in motorsport.
• 19:35
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:35
  But understood membership.
• 19:36
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:37
  Sports administration, some commercial experience, some political background, also helped to be a lawyer.
• 19:42
  Mm-hmm.
• 19:42
  And so I was a sort of a right man at the right place.
• 19:45
  And I remember Pap telling me that they'd had five CEOs in 10 years.
• 19:48
  In 10 years, yeah.
• 19:50
  And he said, I'm hoping that you'll be able to beat that average.
• 19:53
  And here I am some 10 years later, still enjoying the role enormously and thinking back and saying how lucky I was that they were particularly concentrating on getting someone out of sports administration, whereas the previous CEOs had sort of had a history in other areas of motorsport or other industries.
• 20:10
  As is you and any good CEO, the very first thing you do is obviously sit down and pull the blinkers off and look at the business.
• 20:17
  I think you interviewed every one of the 48 staff that were there at the time and got to understand them and their role and the way maybe silos in the business could have been improved or changed or whatever.
• 20:28
  You were coming into an organisation that had a lot of traditionalists, shall we say, and bringing a fresh set of thinking.
• 20:35
  How difficult was that balance?
• 20:38
  I'd been told that the organisation was going well.
• 20:41
  So they'd sold me a puppy because it wasn't going well.
• 20:44
  When I walked in, I got an immediate sense of a few silos and red lights and factions.
• 20:51
  It was really fractured.
• 20:52
  Okay.
• 20:53
  And I'm...
• 20:54
  so I interviewed every staff member over a period of one hour each and I got to know the people.
• 20:58
  And it's amazing as a lawyer, you start to cross examine and people start volunteering information.
• 21:03
  And I can tell you that there were some people who by the end of the hour said, here's my resignation.
• 21:09
  I'm moving on.
• 21:10
  You know, a,
• 21:11
  I don't think...
• 21:12
  This is not for me.
• 21:12
  This is not for me.
• 21:13
  What you want is not what I can deliver.
• 21:15
  And so I'm going to move on.
• 21:17
  Others took maybe a week or two to reflect.
• 21:19
  And so in the space of six months, we basically shuffled out nearly 50% of the staff.
• 21:24
  Wow.
• 21:25
  And over that period of time, I then recruited some people that I felt sort of matched what I wanted to do.
• 21:31
  One of them was John Murphy.
• 21:32
  Oh, yes.
• 21:33
  And I remember John joking with me at the first few weeks that you wouldn't want to stand
• 21:41
  We were basically an 8.45 to 5.15.
• 21:44
  Phones would ring and people would walk away at 5.15 because that was the time you'd finished.
• 21:50
  And we'd get pay rises based on CPI.
• 21:52
  It was very much a public service.
• 21:54
  I'm not being disparaging of bureaucrats, but it was sort of 8.45, 5.15.
• 21:59
  No was the easy answer.
• 22:01
  No was the easy answer.
• 22:02
  Don't look for solutions.
• 22:04
  There were silos.
• 22:05
  There were people that were running their own agendas.
• 22:07
  And so in the space of six to nine months,
• 22:09
  we sort of flattened the place out a bit, cleaned out some issues and started to really build on the culture.
• 22:16
  And so that's really my advice to any CEO starting, and I got this advice, sit down, talk to everyone, get to know what they're like.
• 22:26
  You'll find out what motivates them, what doesn't, and then you'll be able to work out whether the organisation is made for them or they're made for the organisation.
• 22:33
  They gave you a mandate.
• 22:34
  They clearly supported you.
• 22:35
  Did you get much resistance to begin with?
• 22:38
  Not from the board was very supportive.
• 22:39
  In fact, I reckon I got the best sort of end of year KPI rap from Andrew at the end of the first 12 months and said, you know, we didn't realise how bad the joint was.
• 22:50
  Okay.
• 22:51
  The board sort of sits to one side to some degree.
• 22:54
  And obviously they let the previous CEO go and decided they had to change directions.
• 22:58
  But I don't think they understood that.
• 23:00
  where we were at in terms of, we were 10 to 15 years behind North Melbourne Footy Club in terms of IT, in terms of membership engaged.
• 23:08
  We would not send out renewals.
• 23:11
  For licensing and mentorship.
• 23:12
  No, it was up to you to come back to us.
• 23:14
  That was a sort of hint of arrogance or hubris.
• 23:17
  And so it was no accident that we were sitting on 19,000, 19,000.
• 23:20
  It was actually 12, 13, 14.
• 23:23
  And we basically had ratcheted ourselves to 19,000 competitor license holders.
• 23:27
  I remember John Murphy coming in and saying, I can't believe we don't send out renewal notices.
• 23:33
  And so...
• 23:34
  I think we brought a lot of the AFL mentality around sponsorship.
• 23:38
  We only had one sponsor at the time, our insurer, our insurance broker.
• 23:42
  We've now got 10.
• 23:43
  We've increased our sponsorship tenfold from what we were.
• 23:47
  But I think the members and the customer engagement for us was really what drove us.
• 23:52
  And I came from...
• 23:53
  a background where I always picked up the phone and I haven't got EAs.
• 23:56
  I don't have an executive assistant.
• 23:58
  I don't have a PA.
• 23:59
  Phone calls come through.
• 24:00
  They come straight through to me.
• 24:01
  People have got my mobile.
• 24:02
  They've got my office number, my email.
• 24:05
  So I've never hidden from running away from a membership-based responsibility.
• 24:08
  And that's what I insist happens with my staff.
• 24:11
  And I often get members who ring me directly to either compliment my staff or say, you know, they haven't gotten back to me and it's been 48 hours.
• 24:18
  Okay.
• 24:18
  Because they sort of expect that.
• 24:20
  So to get back to your original answer, I sort of flatlined the place a bit, cleaned it out, got in some good people who I believed had the right motorsport talent, but passion for the organization.
• 24:31
  Yep.
• 24:31
  And you know, what really irked me, but we never wore our uniform.
• 24:35
  You know, we had polo shirts, Motorsport Australia or CAMS back then, and people just didn't feel the sense of connection with the organisation.
• 24:44
  You go into CAMS now or Motorsport Australia today, 85% of the staff will be wearing their polo shirt because, and we don't require it, but it gives that extra connection.
• 24:54
  And the 15% that aren't are probably because they're getting them washed.
• 24:57
  But that's a really important marker that people have bought in.
• 25:01
  So they're drinking the – you know, they're drinking – They've got the buy-in.
• 25:03
  They've got the passion.
• 25:04
  So they've got the buy-in and they've got the passion.
• 25:06
  And I said, you want to be proud to wear that top whenever you go outside or – and when I fly –
• 25:12
  I always wear the Motorsport Australia shirt because I think it's really important that, one, we're seen, but secondly, that people associate me and the brand with what we want to do in motorsport.
• 25:21
  So never been shy about promoting who we are and what we are.
• 25:24
  I think the majority of our staff, in fact, all of our staff, understand our expectations.
• 25:35
  That's the end of part one of my podcast with Motorsport Australia CEO, Eugenia Rocker.
• 25:40
  Now, we're only a few laps in here.
• 25:42
  Part two is in our library and ready for you to shift into gear right now or whenever you're ready.
• 25:48
  The mission to change the name that the sport had been known for for decades, the pushback.
• 25:54
  the ride he wants to do in a race car, the future for the sport and for Huge, plus some candid thoughts on the treatment of Aussie race director Michael Massey after the unforgettable finish to the 2021 season in Formula One.
• 26:16
  Listener.