Hawthorn President Jeff Kennett has penned the following letter to members...

Dear Members,

This letter to you is about the structure of and the forthcoming elections of your Board.

As you know, since my first term as President we have had a Board made up of individuals with specific skills, working together to successfully contribute to the club we have today.

Each Board member has bought to the table their own life and professional skills. I have always taken the approach that good governance is our priority and the welfare of all our employees the second. Our financial strength is our third priority and football success the fourth.

Very simply put, you cannot win premierships unless you achieve the first three priorities.

Since 2005 we have built on the first three priorities and won four premierships. So, a pretty good outcome.

Our membership has tripled, and we are in a strong financial position, as one of only six clubs within the AFL that are deemed to be an Unassisted Club.

This means we and the other five clubs so described, apart from the AFL paying the salaries of our players, pay for the rest of our expenses.

We manage our financial affairs carefully based on your financial support as members.

My point in writing is that as we go into our AGM in December, we will have two vacancies on our Board. This is a result of Board Members Lucinda Nolan and Richard Garvey, my predecessor as President, retiring.

We and the Board thank them for their service, and I will say more about them both at the AGM.

Given these vacancies, the Board went through a process of re-evaluating the Board’s skill set and what might best serve the club in the future.

After a lot of consideration, we decided the club will best be served by a senior person in construction to help us deliver the Kennedy Community Centre (KCC) and a person from an industry with commercial skills and the new media and communication tools.

To that end, the Board approached Luke Stambolis the Managing Director of Probuild. Probuild is a large Australian construction company and Luke has been serving on the committee assisting and advising the Board on the KCC. He brings professional skills and existing involvement in the KCC development to the Board. I always think it is good to promote from within where possible, and Luke fits that criteria.

Secondly, we approached Owen Wilson who is the CEO of REA. REA is a $15bn Australian company with an international presence. It is one of the great success stories of the last decade. Owen has also had considerable finance and other commercial experiences before joining REA.

I consider the club to be most fortunate in potentially securing the services of such senior and respected industry leaders.

Both gentlemen have agreed to stand for election in the ballot leading up to our AGM. Both are Hawthorn members.

The Board will be supporting both candidates.

We consider if elected, both candidates will continue the professionalism of your Board and position us well for what will be a challenging 18 months but also the longer term.

Every year I and others get approached by many people who indicate their desire to join our Board. That is very satisfying and indicates the esteem the Hawthorn Football Club is held in among members and even people who are not members.

But a serious responsibility of any Board is to seek out potential Board members who will add value to the organisation.

Your Board has done that, and we recommend both candidates to you for your consideration. You will get more detailed information on both candidates when the Notice of Meeting is dispatched to you.

Your Deputy President Peter Nankivell is also up for re-election. Peter was elected to the Board in 2014 and has been our legal eyes and ears since. He continues to give hours of his time overseeing the many interests we have at the club, in particular our commercial ventures and delivery of the Kennedy Community Centre. His value to the club is far greater than just his qualifications as a lawyer.

The Board will also be supporting Peter’s re-election, as another principle of mine when assembling a Board is to have one lawyer and one accountant to provide independent oversight of the club’s activity.

I will also be standing again for the Presidency, as I have previously indicated. You can decide the value or otherwise of what I bring to the club.

In the main today I just wanted to introduce you to Luke and Owen. It is the Board’s view that we are most fortunate to have two such experienced individuals prepared to help us on our journey.

Should you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

Stay well.

Until I next write,