When Luke Sayers celebrated his 50th birthday in 2019, then federal treasurer and Carlton fanatic Josh Frydenberg and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews were among the array of influential figures in the gathering at Sayers’ East Hawthorn palazzo.
As one associate noted during those days of peak Sayers, to cross or walk down Collins Street with him took time, as the suits called out to the man who had established his name in the business and political worlds at PwC. Sayers had turbocharged the once-staid big four accounting firm to new levels of growth and revenue in his eventful term as chief executive (2012 to 2020).
Luke Sayers and his wife Cate in a cafe in Lucca, Tuscany yesterday.Credit: Photo: Exclusively obtained by The Age
One of Sayers’ defining traits, according to those who know him, is his boundless, almost Pollyanna-level positivity, irrespective of the financial or footy score.
That glass-half-full mindset will never be more essential than now, at the nadir of his public life, after Sayers stepped down as president of a Melbourne institution that is followed with far more fervour than any house of finance – the Carlton Football Club.
Sayers, as one Carlton person noted, is invariably bullish about the Blues’ prospects of making finals or winning the premiership.
This week, the Sayers train was halted by the second scandal he has encountered in his rise from an internship at PwC to the chief executive role and then to command of a private business, the Sayers Group, that counts caravan magnate Gerry Ryan, Seek founder and St Kilda president Andrew Bassat, the (Lindsay) Fox family and Andrew Burnes, chief executive of Helloworld travel, among its shareholders.
Luke Sayers.Credit: Marija Ercegovac
He endured the 2023-24 Senate hearings into the PwC tax scandal – for which Sayers took responsibility as the relevant CEO while still maintaining he had no direct knowledge of what had gone on, and ultimately bore no punitive action from authorities. Now Sayers has been undone by the more tawdry matter of a social media post on his X account, in which a lewd image was circulated – what we call a “dick pic” – with the tagging in of a female BUPA executive.
And so it is a personal embarrassment, not corporate matters, that has led to Sayers withdrawing from public life, also taking leave from his business (of which he owns more than 25 per cent) and remaining in Italy, where he has two villas and had been holidaying with wife Cate and his four daughters.
Luke and Cate Sayers were photographed together at a cafe in Lucca, Tuscany on Friday (AEDT).
No date has been set on Sayers’ return, but it is more likely a matter of months than a few weeks before he returns to Melbourne, associates say.
Sayers chose to abruptly quit the Carlton presidency on Wednesday, having willingly subjected himself to an AFL investigation and interviews by the league’s integrity unit. The AFL found that Sayers himself had not posted the offending image/tweet – his supporters reckon him a social media dunce, incapable of posting anything.
Sayers quit as Carlton Football Club president.Credit: Elke Meitzel
In the absence of any known police or other investigation with genuine legal heft, the Sayers camp is pointing to the AFL’s finding as a small victory, in the hope that, after a period of convalescence in Tuscany, he can – in due course – quietly return to Melbourne, with his formidable Rolodex intact and return to the Sayers Group.
Sayers had initially suggested that he had been “hacked” – the word he used on his tweet (which his personal assistant did, according to knowledgeable sources speaking on condition of anonymity) before the account was cancelled and his mobile number changed.
The AFL used a different word, saying the account had been “compromised”. It was clear – from his statement and elsewhere – that Sayers wanted the matter closed down, rather than opened up for further public scrutiny. He did not wish to discuss the suspected provenance of the grubby image, in the interests of his family, Carlton, the BUPA executive, his business and himself.
The AFL interviewed both Sayers and the unfairly tarnished female executive. Sayers opted to wait until the AFL’s finding before quitting as Carlton president, and his statement was notable for suggesting that he and the BUPA executive had never been in a romantic relationship.
“I am aware of speculation that the naming of another person in the post explains why it happened,” said Sayers. “It does not, and that narrative is wrong. I am so sorry for the hurt it has caused.”
The origin of the image, when and how the “dick pic” was taken, went unexplained.
The nature of the offensive photograph was also unusual, as anyone could see before it was taken down by Sayers’ PA, at his instructions, a source familiar with that process claimed. Hardly flattering, the pic did not appear to be one that anyone would willingly send a paramour; it appeared – including to the AFL – that whoever posted it meant to inflict hurt on Sayers.
Sayers’ time as Carlton president lasted slightly more than three years. It is a measure of his energetic ways that he presided – initially as the driver of a review (when he was president-designate in 2021) that led to the departure of both the senior coach David Teague and chief executive Cain Liddle – over a series of sackings, appointments, coups and a board shake-up.
Not long after Sayers settled in the president’s chair, he had lured the game’s longest-serving chief executive, Brian Cook, to Carlton, and hired a new coach in Michael Voss, having approached both Alastair Clarkson (who said no) and Ross Lyon (whom the club board had reservations about and therefore withdrew). Voss emerged from a process that included now-Giants coach Adam Kingsley.
Sayers rose to prominence on the back of his talents for networking and connecting. He is described by several who know him as “a hugger”.
His charismatic, emotive style of leadership is against the grain of buttoned-up accountancy firms, but his entrepreneurial go-getting is arguably compatible with seminal Carlton presidents, such as the late John Elliott and Richard Pratt, both of whom also found corporate strife.
Sayers did not swagger like Elliott or throw his own chequebook around as Pratt did. Still, he rapidly reshaped the club board – four new directors, including club great Greg “Diesel” Williams – led a brutal review and landed Cook as chief executive. More recently, he anointed Cook’s successor in Graham Wright (from Collingwood) and hired Voss after sounding out Clarkson and Lyon. It was redolent of Carlton’s fast past.
Yet, Sayers departed dramatically from Carlton’s past practices by standing firm behind Voss in 2023, guaranteeing his position for 2024 when the Blues were mired in the bottom four; this allowed team and coach to recover, leading to a stunning turnaround.
This loyalty (to Voss), which Sayers’ supporters cite as a core personality trait, came at a time of conflict with Bruce and Craig Mathieson, the former having lashed the Carlton board that big Bruce had served and influenced for years, as a gaming partner of the club.
Governance expert Helen Bird, of Swinburne University, tracks Sayers’ recent decision to resign from Carlton and take time out from Sayers Group back to his troubles at PwC.
“It is not so much that it’s the personal issues that have undone him, but this is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” says Bird.
“It’s been building, and this is the final point. Now why this is the point is a really good question, but I think it isn’t really in isolation from all that’s gone on in the last 18 months.”
Bird was referring to Sayers’ torrid 2023, when it emerged that while running PwC between 2012 and 2020, a group of the firm’s tax experts had deliberately shared confidential information with clients it had learnt through its role as an adviser to the government on its new multinational tax crackdown. That information was used by PwC to drum up business and to help its existing clients avoid the sting of the new tax regime.
Sayers and Blues coach Michael Voss.Credit: AFL Photos
The resulting backlash led to mass layoffs and the break-up of the firm’s Australian arm to avoid the loss of billions of dollars’ worth of government contracts and the departure of a slew of senior staff.
A PwC-commissioned review by independent expert Ziggy Switkowski found the firm had, during its tax division issues, tolerated poor conduct of some partners and fostered a “whatever it takes” business model. Later a Senate committee was critical of Sayers, describing aspects of his evidence as “implausible” but declined to find he was immediately accountable for the breach. Sayers always maintained he was not aware of the wrongdoing.
Bird believes that if Sayers had still been working at PwC at the time of the inquiry he would have fallen (or been made to fall) on his sword.
“But because he no longer worked at PwC, he could come in, talk about the past and leave it, whereas if he had continued to be a partner there, I think his position would have been untenable.”
“What is happening is, although he may not himself be personally found accountable, he has been suffering reputational damage, and that’s been bleeding for a while.”
At its offices on Collins Street, Sayers Group has had a quieter year, perhaps in part due to Sayers’ bad press and even the change in premier.
Sayers is a close friend of Daniel Andrews and his business was said to have lost some of its edge following the change to Jacinta Allan. Sayers Group say the business isn’t reliant on government at all. But the flow-on effect of PwC’s issues dented the group’s impressive growth of government and private sector clients.
Since the lewd image was posted, Sayers Group has been contacting clients and investors to confirm it remained open for business. It was necessary outreach. According to a source with knowledge of the group’s activities but not permitted to speak on the record, some clients were rethinking the scope of their relationship with Sayers Group.
Sayers Group has seen a turnover of senior staff in recent years, most notably the departure of former Andrews government adviser Tom Considine.
Yet despite these concerns, the group has been producing strong profits over the past three years and expects to produce another strong result in 2025 thanks to the large consultancy practices of its remaining partners.
The group has declined to rule out changing its name, but a rebranding remains very much on the back burner.
Earlier this week, Sayers Group chief executive Sammy Kumar insisted the business was still thriving despite Sayers’ absence. “The Sayers advisory business is built around the collective skills, experience and expertise of all our partners and people, not individuals. As such, our focus remains on our clients and the work we continue to do with them,” Kumar said.
And the Blues? They enter 2025 as a potential premiership contender, with the coffers restored on Sayers’ watch. His exit, a season earlier than planned, will stop the imbroglio causing further distraction, but the fans care only about whether they keep Charlie Curnow and Sam Walsh et al on the park.
Of the two scandals Sayers has faced, the recent one is said to have caused him greater personal distress. Within Carlton, despite goodwill and affection for Luke Sayers, they’ve already moved on.
