MILLIONAIRE Perth businessman Geoff Lewis has promised to bring "a firm commercial prospective" to the Kangaroos after being announced as a club director this week.
Lewis will join a new-look board in 2008 featuring former dual premiership coach Denis Pagan as the Roos endeavour to solidify their position in the congested and competitive Melbourne football market, rather than commit to a move to the Gold Coast.
The 47-year-old, the chief executive officer and managing director of the ASG Group, a highly successful IT service provider, is a lifelong supporter of the club and is determined to assist helping the Kangaroos establish themselves as a key component of the AFL.
"Football clubs are an emotional thing and a fabric of our society and they mean a great deal to a great number of people," Lewis said.
"Just because we don't have the same level of support of a club like Collingwood or West Coast, doesn't mean we aren't as important to our supporters as the big clubs are to theirs. I'm passionate about the North Melbourne Football Club and I want to get involved and I think when I do get involved, I have the capacity to bring a firm commercial prospective to the table."
Lewis' company — which he started from scratch a decade ago and is now estimated to be worth in the vicinity of $275 million with offices all around Australia — was a mid-tier sponsor of the Kangaroos this year. Lewis expects that partnership to flow into next season. He said he was sounded out by new chairman and fellow West Australian James Brayshaw about being a part of the club and jumped at the opportunity.
"I knew of James without really knowing James. He grew up in Trigg and I grew up in Trigg, but we didn't grow up together," Lewis said. "Over the last couple of years through people and dealings, we struck up a bit of a friendship and it's grown from there to where it is now.
"It's going to be a very exciting time for the club, an important time for the club and hopefully we can leverage the Kangaroos' strength, the Shinboner spirit and tap into generation Y and move forward, create our own destiny."
Brayshaw spoke glowingly of Lewis and the other new faces on the board during the week when he announced Pagan as a director, while declaring the club would remain as the Kangaroos in 2008 before reverting back to North Melbourne.
"We've got in Geoff Lewis enormous business acumen, in Carl Dilena enormous commerce acumen, in Will Houghton we've got the QC we need in case we land ourselves in any trouble and in Denis Pagan we've got a legend of the North Melbourne Football Club," Brayshaw said.
They join existing board members Brayshaw, his brother Mark, Fulvio Inserra, Stephen Head and Ron Joseph.
In a further positive for the club, the Roos' controlling shareholders, John Magowan, Peter de Rauch and Bob Ansett, have agreed to relinquish their shares at no cost to the club, allowing the Roos to become a membership-based club, ensuring it can keep the special AFL funding of $1.4 million a year.
WEST AUSTRALIAN
