Tigers poised to name new boss
By Caroline Wilson
April 12 2003
Richmond looks to have scored a significant coup, with US-based Australian Olympian Ian Campbell a near-certainty to return to Melbourne within weeks as the Tigers' new chief executive.
Campbell, 46, a former Nike executive who established that company's international sports entertainment division, is understood to have entered the running for the top job at Tigerland only days ago and is expected to accept the position at the weekend.
Interviewed via video from his base in Portland, Oregon, at the start of this week, Campbell reportedly impressed the Richmond hierarchy with his entrepreneurial ambitions for the club and his lifelong passion for Australian football.
A former triple jumper who grew up in Watsonia and began his athletics career with the Ivanhoe Harriers, Campbell won a silver medal at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978 and a World Cup bronze in Montreal the following year.
He held several Australian and Commonwealth records but is best remembered for his performance at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, when many athletics followers believe he was robbed of victory after being fouled in nine of his 12 jumps by a Russian judge.
One of Campbell's disqualified jumps landed an estimated 17.5 metres - 15 centimetres further than the eventual Russian gold medallist. The Australian finished fifth.
While Richmond's last chief executive, Mark Brayshaw, left the club after four seasons last September, the Tigers' search for his replacement began only in earnest last month, with president Clinton Casey working as an interim chief executive for investigative and cost-saving reasons.
During that period, Casey has restructured the club's marketing, membership and media divisions and rebuilt the football department, appointing former Kangaroos chief executive Greg Miller to oversee the Tigers' on-field fortunes.
Casey appointed a recruitment firm to search for a club boss with both business and marketing expertise. The Tigers, with their popular logo, vastly untapped supporter base, the proximity of the Punt Road Oval and poor commercial performance, have long been regarded as significant under-achievers off-field as well as on-field.
But the board has viewed Campbell, who is keen to return to Melbourne with his family, as an outstanding candidate who has worked closely with such international superstars as Michael Jordan, Carl Lewis, Tiger Woods and David Beckham. He has already put forward some innovative ideas for the future and the potential of Punt Road.
Between 1988 and '91, Campbell worked for Nike, first as director in the Asia-Pacific region and then as the company's European sports marketing boss.
He returned to Australia in 1992, setting up a US National Basketball Association base here and establishing the NBA in Australia as a $100 million business before being promoted to New York to run the NBA's Asia, Pacific and Latin American divisions.
Forced out of athletics as a 24-year-old because of injury, Campbell studied at Washington State University in Oregon and has been running his own sports marketing business from Portland for the past few years
By Caroline Wilson
April 12 2003
Richmond looks to have scored a significant coup, with US-based Australian Olympian Ian Campbell a near-certainty to return to Melbourne within weeks as the Tigers' new chief executive.
Campbell, 46, a former Nike executive who established that company's international sports entertainment division, is understood to have entered the running for the top job at Tigerland only days ago and is expected to accept the position at the weekend.
Interviewed via video from his base in Portland, Oregon, at the start of this week, Campbell reportedly impressed the Richmond hierarchy with his entrepreneurial ambitions for the club and his lifelong passion for Australian football.
A former triple jumper who grew up in Watsonia and began his athletics career with the Ivanhoe Harriers, Campbell won a silver medal at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games in 1978 and a World Cup bronze in Montreal the following year.
He held several Australian and Commonwealth records but is best remembered for his performance at the Moscow Olympics in 1980, when many athletics followers believe he was robbed of victory after being fouled in nine of his 12 jumps by a Russian judge.
One of Campbell's disqualified jumps landed an estimated 17.5 metres - 15 centimetres further than the eventual Russian gold medallist. The Australian finished fifth.
While Richmond's last chief executive, Mark Brayshaw, left the club after four seasons last September, the Tigers' search for his replacement began only in earnest last month, with president Clinton Casey working as an interim chief executive for investigative and cost-saving reasons.
During that period, Casey has restructured the club's marketing, membership and media divisions and rebuilt the football department, appointing former Kangaroos chief executive Greg Miller to oversee the Tigers' on-field fortunes.
Casey appointed a recruitment firm to search for a club boss with both business and marketing expertise. The Tigers, with their popular logo, vastly untapped supporter base, the proximity of the Punt Road Oval and poor commercial performance, have long been regarded as significant under-achievers off-field as well as on-field.
But the board has viewed Campbell, who is keen to return to Melbourne with his family, as an outstanding candidate who has worked closely with such international superstars as Michael Jordan, Carl Lewis, Tiger Woods and David Beckham. He has already put forward some innovative ideas for the future and the potential of Punt Road.
Between 1988 and '91, Campbell worked for Nike, first as director in the Asia-Pacific region and then as the company's European sports marketing boss.
He returned to Australia in 1992, setting up a US National Basketball Association base here and establishing the NBA in Australia as a $100 million business before being promoted to New York to run the NBA's Asia, Pacific and Latin American divisions.
Forced out of athletics as a 24-year-old because of injury, Campbell studied at Washington State University in Oregon and has been running his own sports marketing business from Portland for the past few years
