SUNS GO EAST – The Gold Coast Suns Are On A Mission

WORDS: John McJannett PHOTOGRAPHY John McJannett - www.twohandsphotography.com.au

Bob East is both an optimist and an opportunist – two characteristics that have served him incredibly well in his journey to his present role as Chair of the Gold Coast Suns Football Club.

He is the chairman of numerous ASX-listed companies and has been at the forefront of two corporations that have achieved valuations of over $1 billion AUD. He has been heavily involved in a multitude of successful private equity startups, and his government roles have included chairing Tourism Australia and Tourism Events Queensland.

Throughout his decades of business experience, Bob has maintained a key philosophy. This mantra is centred around remaining true to the basics, doing the things that matter most, and surrounding himself with the right people to achieve success.

This winning formula has resulted in an abundance of success in the Australian business landscape, and Bob is certain that it will be instrumental in delivering success to the Gold Coast Suns.

Like all players, officials, sponsors and loyal supporters of the club he is aware that fourteen years in the competition without a finals appearance needs to be turned around.

Bob and the team at the Gold Coast Suns Football Club are on a mission to prove the doubters wrong and achieve a new level of success that will lift the credibility of the club to a new level.

Having been on the Committee since day dot in 2011, he is extremely passionate and proud of the effort by all of the team associated with the club in striving to “break their duck” and play finals in both the mens and womens national competition!

Bob believes that the relatively young club is getting closer to playing finals.  This is being helped by the increased strength of their playing squads and support staff and by greater community involvement and the backing of their two major sponsors – HOSTPLUS superannuation and Sixt car rentals.  People First Bank is their stadium partner at Carrara.

A true Queenslander, Bob was born in Toowoomba as the youngest of two children.   He came through the public school system, played soccer and competed in athletics all through before attending University in Toowoomba and completing a teaching degree. He was later to complete his MBA through the University of New England.

Whilst he completed his teaching qualifications Bob hastens to add that he never actually went into teaching. Instead, he opted for the unconventional, broke the mould and went travelling.

Previously, he had “some exposure to the outside world” and he decided it was in his better interests to explore his new found fascination with the world away from Toowoomba.

He began his full-time working career in the late 1980’s working in the tropical Whitsundays region as a Watersports Assistant in the five-star luxury resort that was Hayman Island. He then travelled through Asia and his first long stop was in Japan where he worked as a labourer and landscape gardener on a couple of golf courses before he obtained a visa that enabled him to teach English and “get a legitimate job.” He travelled up to the north of Japan and worked on the island of Hokkaido in the tourism sector.

He describes his two years in Hokkaido as a fantastic and very interesting experience.  “At that time, the island was quite remote, there were not a lot of other foreigners there and I did immerse myself into all things Japanese. I grew my understanding of the culture and my language skills reached a moderate level informally.”

Bob celebrated his twenty-first birthday in Japan but shortly afterwards realised that he was perhaps spending too much time on the ski slopes of Hokkaido and that it was time to move on with his life.

He returned to Australia where he landed a position in Cairns at the Cairns International Hotel. At that time,  in the boom stage of the 1990’s, this 321 room five star hotel was the flagship property of the largest overseas investor in tourism and hospitality in Queensland, a Japanese company called Daikyo.

Bob spent nine years living and working in Cairns and it was during this time that he met his wife Susan.  She hails from the Gulf of Carpentaria region, a little town called Normanton and Susan, like Bob, had ventured away from her home town seeking greater opportunities.  She was also working at the Cairns International Hotel when they met.

Susan’s family owned a motel in Normanton which became known as The Big Barramundi in honour of a large fibreglass barramundi replica which Susan’s dad built out front of the property. Susan is the eldest of four girls and once again – a very tight-knit and close family.

Bob and Susan have been together for twenty nine years and have four children, three boys and one girl.  Two of the boys are at University and the two youngest are at High School.

In Bob’s words “Susan and the children are the heartbeat of my life.  We are a very close family and it’s both very pleasing and important to Susan and myself that our children are fit and healthy and have a very balanced outlook on life.”

In 1999, Bob left Cairns as he was recruited to join Mirvac Hotels and Resorts, a then subdivision of one of Australia’s most successful property developers.  Bob spent a short time as General Manager of the Sebel Coolangatta before being transferred to Melbourne to open The Sebel Melbourne in 2000.  Bob was General Manager of that hotel in Melbourne for about eighteen months before he was offered a role in development at the Mirvac Head Office in Sydney.

“This was the most transformative part of my career when I was given the opportunity to work with Bob Hamilton, the founder of the Mirvac Group.  Bob was an icon of the industry, a gentleman and a very smart man. I had the opportunity to work with him for about a year until he retired. I had the privilege of working with a team whose prime focus was the best interests of customers, they acted with integrity and within the parameters of what the whole brand stood for.”

Bob left Mirvac, returned to the Gold Coast and went straight into a private equity model – one that  was taking a public company private. This was his first experience in investment and was the birth of the eventually very successful Mantra Hotels Group.

The venture struggled to get off the ground as a consequence of the GFC but thanks to the support of the bank it weathered the initial storm and over time, despite some dark days that the company experienced,  Mantra Hotels expanded from 12 to 140 properties across Australia.

“As CEO of the company, I was able to gather a loyal team together and build the business into Australia’s largest accommodation provider. We listed the business in 2014, it became the largest listed business on the Gold Coast and we eventually sold it to Accor Hotels in 2018 for $1.3 billion.”

“In the beginning, it was a Gold Coast company that had folded and was a bit messy and it took us a long time to build our credibility.  It was a challenge for us to prove that you don’t have to be in Sydney or Melbourne to do great things.  We knew we couldn’t do it as if we were in one of those locations, and that we had to find our own way.”

“We had to find our points of difference and our approach was where you can’t compete, don’t compete and where you can compete, double down on that and make sure that you differentiate and find a way of adding value.

“We wanted to be an Australian service operator that focused on those things that mattered. So we surrounded ourselves with good people and were able to build the biggest company in Australia in the hotel space at that time. “The true lesson in that business was the constant lesson in life – If you surround yourself with people who are fantastic and better at things than you are, and you allow them to apply their skills and knowledge – then that will always work to your advantage.”

There is no doubt that in the catalogue of successful Gold Coast based businesses Mantra Hotels rates somewhere near the very top of the list.

As Bob proudly states – “It was a Gold Coast business success mostly driven by locals.  We were able to attract some amazing local talent to work in our head office and drive the business and that talent remained loyal to us. People love to live here and with meaningful and challenging employment, they will stay.

“Our early days at Mantra were very similar to this footy club.  You can’t just drag people up here from down south – you have to build and create your own unique approach to things.”

Bob freely admits that his own pedigree in Australian Rules is not that great but it is a game that he loves.  His time in Melbourne fuelled his fire and passion for the game and he became a foundation Board member of the Gold Coast Suns when the club came into being.

“I saw the formation of this club as being important to the Gold Coast community.  It genuinely does a terrific job with young people and provides talent pathways for those who are focused on a career within the industry itself.

“I also believe that the Gold Coast is a natural hub for sports people and especially for those striving to be elite. The climate is fantastic and the facilities are constantly being improved.

I believe in the product and I believe in the worth of having a national sporting team in the community and I can see that it has far-reaching benefits beyond trying to win premierships for those young women and young men who enter into the league.

“There is great diversity in the role of Chair of the footy club.  One minute I may be chairing a meeting or making a speech or a media commitment, and then the next minute I may be down in the trenches with members or with the cheerleading team finding out what is meaningful to them.  I find that is what brings the spice and fun to the role!” Bob generously acknowledges that the Suns have a committed Board of Directors at the club.

“These are fantastic men and women who give freely of their time in the best interests of this football club.  All of them genuinely engage with the community and our sponsors. They don’t get paid for their efforts but it is our ‘give back’ to our community and we all know that we’ll get payback to the level that we put in. I particularly enjoy my role of trying to set up a structure and get the resources so that people can experience success.

We are also extremely fortunate to have a such a capable group of management, administration staff, service staff, coaches and support staff.  And of course a fantastic group of young men and women who make up the playing squads!

“There are some amazingly talented and wonderful young people in this club and I like to do everything that I can to bring some success into their world.”

When he took up the Chair of the club, Bob identified that three things needed to be given priority.

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA – MARCH 16: Gold Coast Suns chairman Bob East looks on during the round one AFL match between Gold Coast Suns and Adelaide Crows at People First Stadium, on March 16, 2024, in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images via AFL Photos)

Number One is to take a “Footy First” approach.

“The players and the parents and families of those young men and women athletes have put in an incredible effort to get to an elite sporting level.  We feel an absolute obligation to do everything we can to give those kids a chance of success.  We also have a thousand young people in our Academy and we aim to provide them with a pathway to professional sport where they can do it in their backyard. We want to grow our own local sporting heroes.”

Number Two is to generate engagement and take the Gold Coast community with us.

 “We want people to join our journey and feel that they are part of something special.  We’ve increased the membership to nearly 30,000 now, and we need to maintain and grow the belief that we are taking the Gold Coast community with us.”

Number Three is to turn this football club into a financial success.

“We are unapologetic about the fact that we need to find ways to generate income beyond the footy field.

“There are limits to the amount of money that we can make from a footy-only approach.  We have decided on a clubhouse/venue that will have food and beverage facilities and we have opened a childcare facility over the road from the club.  We are looking to achieve financial sustainability and build pride in the club as we bolster our own balance sheet. I believe that these types of endeavours can even offer a good prospect for some of our players post their playing days.”

Bob’s time in the Chair came with some immediate challenges. “It is also a priority of the Board to set up a football department that looks like a winning proposition. We completed an analysis of the department and the decision was made to part ways with the coach of our men’s team. He had done amazing things for the players and the club but we felt we needed a new direction. “Damien Hardwick had retired from Richmond so the club CEO Mark Evans and I met with Damien while he was taking a break in Italy. After two days of intense discussions we were able to announce Damien’s appointment as Senior Coach of the men’s team. “Damien has won premierships as a player and a coach.  On his own, he may not be the complete saviour but he has the capability to get good people around him to build a winning team.  We are already starting to see real evidence of that and it is no secret that we are all walking a little taller as we see this coming to fruition.”

The Suns have also appointed a new coach for the women’s team – Rhyce Shaw.  Like Damien Hardwick, Rhyce has experienced the joys of being part of a premiership winning team. “Rhyce has a great pedigree in the game and we are excited and confident that our women’s team will also be heading in the right direction.  There are some talented people working with them and the talent in that squad is fantastic. “We feel that we are making good progress with both teams and we hope that we are on the cusp of some greater success with both. “The Gold Coast has seen sporting clubs come and go at the national level and if we get this right – and we will get there – we can build something that will be quite iconic.  We want to flip from being a club that is working hard towards getting people to come here to being a club where people aspire to join.”

Bob may not have followed a traditional career path to the executive positions that he has held  in the corporate world and now in the sporting world.  His experience at the grass roots level of the hospitality Industry and his subsequent ‘move through the ranks’ into management roles have given him a balanced outlook and approach to business that brings quality decisions, growth and positive results.

At heart he is a family man willing to do everything within his power to ensure that his family is happy and successful. One cannot help but be left with the impression that he sees the Gold Coast Suns Football Club as his extended family. His level of commitment to the club is exemplary.

His desire and passion for the club and the people associated with it to experience greater success – both on and off the field – is both admirable and so openly visible in everything that he does for the club. Bob recognises the challenges ahead, he knows that nothing will come without dedication and hard work.  He is extremely confident with the progress and growth of Queensland’s youngest AFL club and he exudes a determination to achieve better outcomes for the club.

In the meantime, Bob is Chair of the Board of the Gold Coast Suns AFL team and the ‘new Mantra’ for him, the Board members and the team is: “Let’s aim to be a sporting and financial powerhouse in the next ten years.” Only time will tell.

Author Bio: After a career of over 30 years in senior management in the Australian Hospitality Industry John McJannett has returned to where it all started on the Gold Coast. In semi-retirement he now has time to pursue his interest in photography and writing. Visit www.twohandsphotography.com.au or Instagram @johnomcj