Cindy Hook has been appointed as CEO of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The former CEO of Deloitte Asia Pacific hopes to showcase an inclusive Games, insisting she will elect a diverse team.
“Our First Nations people, people with disabilities, women, men, different cultural backgrounds,” she told ABC. “A diverse team is only as good as the environment they work in … so I’ll absolutely be working on that.”
Australian Olympic Committee CEO Matt Carroll said Hook is “an outstanding appointment into an absolutely crucial role.”
“This requires a CEO with exceptional financial acumen, the capacity to build teams and networks as well as manage a very complex stakeholder environment,” he said in a statement. “To these requirements you can add the creation of a culture that will enable the Brisbane Games to succeed.”
“We are very fortunate in having Cindy Hook ready to step up to this challenge with the calm assurance of a skilled and experienced leader.”
Hook has signed a four-year contract, though the Games are still nine and a half years away.
She is currently a board member of Great Barrier Reef Foundation, and the Singapore Economic Development Board.
The 58-year old US-born businesswoman led Deloitte’s Asia Pacific branch for almost three years before stepping down in June this year with the intention of retiring from corporate work.
Hook said her top priority is to ensure the Games are cost-neutral and ‘climate-positive’.
“We’re basically forming a business and we’ve got to set the foundations that will serve us well for the next 10 years,” she said, adding that her background as an auditor and accounting graduate will help set this up.
At a press conference earlier this week, Hook said, “I think if we work together and keep the end game in mind, we can deliver the best Games ever and really put Brisbane and South East Queensland on the map.”
Carroll agrees, adding his committee “looks forward to providing her with every support needed to deliver a Games that Australia will be proud of, and the world’s athletes will remember with great affection throughout their lives.”
Hook is no stranger to public scrutiny, though admits that accountability will be heightened in her new role.
“My prior role had a level of media engagement and scrutiny, but nothing close to this,” she said.
“I’m a pretty transparent and open person and that’s how I plan to engage the media … but is it the part of the role that I’m most looking forward to … I wouldn’t say that.”
Andrew Liveris, who was appointed president of Brisbane Olympics in April, told ABC his new colleague had been a top pick among fifty highly qualified applicants around the world.
“We needed an individual that knows what it takes to run a multi-billion-dollar business on time and on budget, as well as how to engage to the community, industry and the corporate sector,” Liveris said of Hook.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who is also the Minister for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, called Hook’s appointment “a very significant step on our path to 2032”.
“This will be our Golden Age,” she said. “I look forward to continuing to work together on this once-in-lifetime opportunity for Queensland and Australia.”
Hook relocated to Brisbane earlier this month. She will commence her role as CEO in February.