The man who organised Sydney’s Olympic Games has hailed the appointment of “formidable” businesswoman Cindy Hook as the chief executive officer for the Brisbane 2032 organising committee, and said the blueprints used for the 2000 Games are still valuable three decades on.
Hook, a Californian who moved to Australia in 2009, was named chief executive officer of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games Organising Committee on Tuesday.
Hook served as chief executive of Deloitte Australia – becoming the first female CEO of one of the Big Four firms in 2015 – before her more recent role as chief executive of Deloitte Asia Pacific. The 58-year-old was moving towards retirement and a return to the States when she was approached to put her name in the ring for the 2032 Games job, and from a worldwide field of 50, won the job.
Apart from her love of marathon running, Hook has no experience in sport, and is believed to have beaten outgoing AFL chief executive Gil McLachlan for the CEO role, with the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games board preferring a candidate with a proven background – and existing global contacts – in the business world.
Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games president Andrew Liveris said Hook had extensive experience in managing 4000 executives and raising revenue for Deloitte in Australia and in the South Pacific.
“I have dealt with a lot of global executives over my time, and I am just gobsmacked that we have managed to attract someone like Cindy. She understands what is required to turn Brisbane 2032 into a global household name,” he said.
Cindy Hook and Brisbane 2032 President Andrew Liveris.Credit:AFR
“We needed an individual that knows what it takes to run a multibillion-dollar business on time and on budget, as well as how to engage to the community, industry and the corporate sector in what is effectively the biggest event-based project this nation will see in a decade.”
In a broad Californian accent, she described Australia as “her adopted homeland since 2009” and said she was proud to have been chosen.
“The idea of being able to create the vision, to create the team, set the strategies, and ultimately build up to delivering a smooth and successful Games is very appealing to me,” Hook said. “For me, this is a dream job.”
Sandy Hollway, who was the chief executive officer of SOCOG from 1996, said he was pleased to see a person of Hook’s calibre had been recruited.
Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games president Andrew Liveris (left), Hook, and International Olympic Committee board member John Coates in Brisbane, where Hook’s role was announced.Credit:Tony Moore
“It strikes me that is an excellent appointment. She is obviously a very formidable and capable person,” Hollway told the Herald.
Hollway said he would “not presume to think it necessary”, but would be available for Hook at any time to share advice or tips. The former Sydney boss said the expansive “Transfer of Knowhow” booklet put together by his team in 2000 to hand on to the IOC and the 2004 Athens Games, was still being used by Olympic hosts and could help Brisbane, too.
“My view has always been that the less reinvention of the wheel that has to be done by an organising committee on the fundamental stuff, the more time each individual city organising committee has to focus on what will make its games special and different,” Hollway said.
“If the million-and-one fundamental things don’t have to be re-invented then Brisbane and South Queensland will be able to spend more time on the legacy for them and the particular character of their Games.”
Cindy Hook standing above the Brisbane River.
Hook is only the second female CEO of an Olympic organising committee, behind LA 2028 boss Kathy Carter.
Former Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner Liz Broderick says Hook will be an excellent CEO for Brisbane 2032, and lead with a focus inclusivity and diversity for the Games. The pair worked together on the Male Champions of Change coalition, which strives for gender equality.
“I am delighted she has been appointed. She is a very collaborative leader. She is warm and engaging, organised, smart. But you wouldn’t want to underestimate her,” Broderick said.
“She’s results-orientated, and she expects high standards as well. So you wouldn’t want to mistake her collaborative, warm and engaging style with someone who doesn’t get stuff done. She will be able to do that through her excellent engagement skills so she will be really good at engaging the Australian community, at all levels.
“From business leaders to sporting leaders, and community organisations. She has incredible skills around that, which will be really important because we want Australia to get behind this. She also has strong political nous, so she will be able to navigate what is quite a political landscape as well.”
Meanwhile, Australia’s IOC representative on BOCOG, John Coates, said he had no concerns about the infrastructure delivery timeline for the 2032 Games.
“They have taken me through the project timelines for every one of the venues that remains to be done,” Coates said. “Remember we have 84 per cent, 85 per cent, of the venues already in place.”
He said aside from the Gabba redevelopment and Brisbane Live over Roma Street Station, most of the remaining venues were in the scale of “$120 million to $150 million community sports halls”.
He agreed the Queensland government’s Brisbane Live was a major project, but said for Olympics and Paralympic purposes in 2032, it was a “drop-in swimming pool”.
“We have done that in Melbourne for the Commonwealth Games. We used drop-in pools in Perth when they held the world championships, Los Angeles [1984] was a drop-in pool at the University of Southern California.”
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told journalists at the announcement that news about the Gabba redevelopment would be made in the “near future”.
