... the Rebels had been assured that they were safe in this process.
As far as I'm aware, nothing of the sort was communicated to The Rebels. I completely reject any implied allegation that I was involved in giving any such assurance to Andrew Cox of the Imperium Group. Indeed, given the sensitivity of the situation, I specifically chose not to have any communication with Andrew Cox from the Imperium Group from March 2017 onwards and left the communication with Andrew Cox to Bill Pulver and ARU legal counsel, Richard Hawkins.
Point 5: Mark Sinderberry makes a totally baseless allegation on page 33, which outside of the cocoon of the Senate inquiry would be utterly to the defamatory:
... chief operating officer, who, on the surface, was trying to be supportive. Obviously I've learned since that he was actually supporting the Rebels' cause and was ultimately re-engaged recently with the Rebels organisation.
I totally deny these accusations levelled by Mr Sinderberry and take umbrage with the malicious innuendo arising from them. I note the following matters. I was accountable to the ARU's CEO for the day-to-day performance of the Western Force as part of my COO position description and employment agreement. I took this responsibility seriously and executed oversight of the Western Force in a professional manner at all times. I was but one of numerous contributors to, and not certainly the sole architect of, the scorecard formulation, analysis and assessment as to which team should be removed, despite representations from Mr Howarth and Mr Sinderberry, who have tried to attribute to me far more credit and influence than I deserve. As a result of a very comprehensive review which had direct input from the majority of ARU's management team and input from an external international consulting firm, I supported the ARU's management recommendation to the ARU board. It was the ARU board of directors who would ultimately decide on which team was to be removed from the Super Rugby competition.
I resigned as chief operating officer in writing to Bill Pulver on Tuesday, 18 April 2017, and left the ARU on Friday, 16 June 2017. After my resignation on 18 April, I was no longer involved in all the ongoing discussions regarding the removal of an Australian Super Rugby team. Given the sensitivity of the situation, the threatened legal action by the Rebels and the actual legal action from the Western Force, I specifically refrained from having any direct contact with Tim North and Victorian Rugby Union, or Andrew Cox of the Imperium Group on any matter while I was serving out my notice period. Furthermore, any dialogue I had with Mr Sinderberry at the Western Force was on day-to-day operational issues only.
Since leaving the ARU in mid-June 2017, I've received several approaches from various organisations about providing consultancy services to them. Indeed, from about mid-July, I was engaged in consulting a leading Sydney GPS school to conduct a comprehensive review of their rugby program. It was not until nearly three months after I had left the ARU—and subsequent to Victorian Rugby Union securing the ownership of the Rebels from the Imperium Group and after the ARU terminated the Western Force license—that I was first approached by Bob Dalziel, who was the founding investor in the rebels in 2011, to ask whether I had any interest in providing consultancy services to the Rebels organisation. Given that I was, by then, a totally free agent, and had been for over three months, I agreed around early September to begin providing ad hoc consulting services to the Rebels, with a primary focus on mentoring and being a sounding board for the recently appointed Rebels CEO, Baden Stephenson. Furthermore, about a fortnight ago—that is, late September—I was approached by another Super Rugby club in Australia, exploring my interest in becoming involved with it in the near future.
Originally Posted by jackster
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