Simon Porter: Halo Sport Managing Director and Rugby Player Agent on Mark Robinson's resignation

New Zealand Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson has stepped down from his role. 

Robinson has been chief executive of NZR since January 2020, and will leave NZR at the end of this year. 

In a statement, Robinson said he will join his family in Australia when he has finished in the job. 

Halo Sport’s Simon Porter told Ryan Bridge he’d agree with Robinson’s assessment that he left the organisation a better place than he found it. 

He says it’s been a pretty tough six years with Covid, and they’ve made some substantial changes and split the organisation, but hopefully its set itself up to be a bit more nimble as it moves forward. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Big announcement in the world of rugby. The Inded our

(00:02):
boss Mark Robinson is stepping down a CEO. Wants to
move back to Australia with the wife and kids in
twenty twenty six. So what does this mean for the
future of New Zealand rugby. Reaction this morning from Simon Porter,
managing director and rugby player agent for Halo Sports. Simon
good morning, Good morning.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
How are you?

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Yeah? Good, thank you. Good to have you on the show.
Mark says he said he's left Inded in a better
place than when he found it. Do you agree with that?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Yeah, I mean I think so. I mean, it's been
a pretty tough six years with COVID. I think they've
made some substantial change around the splitting of the commercial
co with the rest of the rugby operations I suppose,
and there's two different entities now and I guess I

(00:52):
mean hopefully it is set up to be a bit
more nimble, little bit more agile as it moves forward.
I think we're still the proofs to be in the
po a little bit around whether that separation is going
to have the benefits that we all sort of hope
that would when it came in.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
That's the big issue for you was the separation, and
I mean, do you think they should recouple? Ah?

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Well, I think it's pretty clear when Craig Finton left
last year what that was in October or November, and
he still hasn't been replaced. I think it's fairly clear
in my mind that they'll try to set up a
different structure now where for one of a better term
of group cl come in and will sit across both entities.
I think splitting the entities actually makes a lot of

(01:37):
sense just from around their ability to work to different
strategic objectives. Because if you're the commercial operation, then you
are simply wanting to go out and get as much
money as you can. You know, you're looking at your fans,
you're running it as a professional organization like a Manchester
United or any other large professional sporting body. But when

(01:58):
you're also the newsular and you've got to look after
the participant in the community, you know, your touch points
and strategic projectives are quite different. So being a bit
more honest about that and splitting that into two companies
actually makes quite a lot of sense from you know,
the ability to work to different purposes.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Okay, let's assume that you're right and that this is
a board, that this is the direction the board wants
to move. And do you think that they I mean,
whose decision was it for Mark to go it?

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Do you think I think it was probably Mark's decision
to go. I definitely feel that that was the case.
I mean, I was dealing with them last week on
an issue and I think it was definitely his decision
to leave. Now, I think the hard bit is that,
you know, we've got two boards effectively, and how they're

(02:47):
going to work that if they sort of have that
group CEO because when the silver Lake investment was made,
the commercial board was set up and that's where silver
Lake have their representatives on the So how they can
resolve you know, the commitments of made the silver Acre
around board representation and strategic direction with appointing a group

(03:11):
CEO that's going to set across two entities and how
do those boards work together, et cetera. Like there's some big,
pretty media issues that I think they need to work
through before they are ready to appoint the CEO and
and you know, announce any sort of new new structure
or way of working.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
Okay, interesting, Simon appreciate your thoughts this morning. Simon Porter,
managing director and rugby player agent from Halo Sport. Twenty
three minutes after five Bryant Bridge speaking of companies splitting up, well,
coming together and then splitting off again. This has happened
to my old employer, Warner Brothers Discovery. Their share price
up seven point three three percent this morning, which is

(03:49):
great because they gave me shares when I worked there
and so they'll now be worth more. But they are
splitting the company. So they came together and Warner Brothers Discovery,
now they're going to be basically split back into two
separate businesses to standalone publicly traded entertainment companies, separating HBO Max,
which is their streaming service, your movie studios and your

(04:12):
TV productions that goes on one side, and then your
cable networks basically your legacy media on the other, and
that would presumably include TV three New Zealand. They own
the likes of CNN. Ratings for cable networks in the
US have been tanking, particularly on the left. CNN has
been hit hard cannibalized a little bit by MSNBC. So
there's problems over there, and now they're splitting up the

(04:35):
companies so that they can, which is hugely ironic because
it was not that long ago that they all came
together and everything went on hold, and hot businesses just
basically go sideways when they do mergers because no one
makes any decisions for a year prior a year after.
And now they're going to uncouple themselves because the share
prices tanked something like sixty percent over the past year.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
From Early edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News
Talks at B from five am weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.