Background
He was born in Orange, New South Wales on 9 March 1950.
He was born in Orange, New South Wales on 9 March 1950.
He attended Orange High School and Shore School. He completed at Bachelor of Laws (Honours) at University of Sydney and Master of Laws at University of London.
Since 2004, he has held the position of Head of National/International Development at Federation Australia. He came from a family interested in sport and he participated in athletics, diving and rowing growing up. At the age of 13 he became involved in rowing as a coxswain.
This involvement was to lead to a long involvement in rowing.
After completing his legal studies, he worked in private practice as a barrister until 1989. Between 1989 and 1995, he was Secretary General of the International Federation.
Besides these current positions, he has had a long association with rowing in Australia as a cox, coach, national team manager and state councillor. His club association as a competitor (coxswain) and administrator (club secretary) was with the Sydney University Boat Club.
He was the fifth Director of the from 1995 to 2001, succeeding Robert De Castella.
While he was Director, he supervised the Olympic Athlete Program, which was largely responsible for Australia winning 58 medals and finishing 4th on the medal tally at the Sydney Olympics. He was not reappointed to the position and was replaced by Michael Scott. In 2004, he was appointed by Federation Australia to establish a high performance unit
He is responsible for overseeing the national teams including the Socceroos, Olyroos and Matildas.
During this period, the Socceroos qualified for World Cups in Germany and South Africa. Since 1996, he has been a judge of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Since 2000, he has been a director of Australia for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Limited. In this role, he has been a strong advocate for the transformative sports programs United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provides for young refugees, having observed these programs in refugee camps in Thailand.
He is currently a board member of the International Federation and Australia and Steward of the Henley Royal Regatta.
