17 minute read
Ian Horne Farewells AHA|SA
from Hotel SA June 2023
by Boylen
BY IAN HORNE
The following is an edited version of the speech I gave at my retirement dinner. It sums up my thoughts and emotions as I prepare to step down from my role as CEO of the AHA|SA.
WATCH VIDEO OF SPEECH: https://youtu.be/xf6aSMNv3Ho
I joined the AHA|SA back in November 1983 (approaching 40 years ago), as the inaugural manager of what was then AHA Chef Training, which went on become the Hospitality Group Training Scheme. I was 29 years old
I was ‘poached’ from the SA Automobile Chamber of Commerce (now MTA) by a youthful 36-year-old Executive Director of the Australian Hotels Association SA Branch, Bill Spurr.
Some 31 months later and after a stint as the AHA’s IR manager, and on Bill’s recommendation, I replaced him as Executive Director of AHA|SA in May 1986 when he resigned to establish the Adelaide Tourism School at the recently developed TAFESA complex in Light Square.
Mind you, this celebration tonight almost didn’t happen!
As you would expect with the imminent loss to TAFESA of Bill, the AHA President and exec committee rightly decided to go to market, engaged a suitably credentialed executive search company (such as they were in 1986) and advertised in both the morning and afternoon newspapers. As was necessary in those days, candidates would need to mail in their applications.
As an AHA|SA veteran of just 29 months I naturally applied, ran the gauntlet of interviews and psych tests and even had the backing of the then Liquor Trades Union State Secretary Trevor Crothers who, at a regular IR round table with AHA President Peter Whalin and Vice President Fred Basheer - and prior to any recommendation by the Executive Search consultant declared in his deep Irish tone that ‘the LTU fully endorse Ian Horne as the next executive director’. He went further, suggesting it was in the interests of AHA|SA to do so forthwith.
With the benefit of hindsight, we loved the LTU!
I can only assume that carried some weight as the consultant didn’t recommend me… can you imagine! Apparently, my psych test results suggested I was much better suited and would be more comfortable in the arts!
Of course, to my good fortune Bill simply ignored the recommendation, disappointed that the Consultant had seemed quite oblivious to their clients subtle expectations! Bill then received unanimous endorsement of the Executive and so my journey began at just 31 with the Association $10k lighter!
I am so delighted that Helen Spurr could join us tonight. In acknowledgement of our great friend, ally, coconspirator and fellow traveler AHA|SA, in 2022, permanently established an annual award reflecting two of his passions – Hotels & Tourism.
Its forever named the “W.T Spurr AO Award for Tourism & Regional Promotion” at the AHA|SA annual awards.
AHA|SA Council 2007.
PRESIDENTS
One of the great strengths of the AHA|SA is our stability.
To that end, since World War ll we have had just seven Presidents, and that is despite a requirement for them to run for election every twelve months. It’s generally worked very well. We call it guided democracy.
And with great affection I wish to acknowledge and thank the four that I worked with, for their constant and unfaltering support over my journey. They were:
• The late Peter Whallin AM who, while at the end of his career when I arrived, was the AHA’s President for some 21 years and was an incredibly wise man.
Former AHA|SA Executive Director, Bill Spurr AO, with AHA|SA CEO, Ian Horne.
Peter was softly spoken and a diplomat, yet was incredibly effective in getting his message across. He would regularly entertain with great ease Premiers, politicians, the Chief Justice and heads of Government departments at his then Sturt Arcade Hotel on Grenfell Street.
• The late Fred Basheer OAM then became the President. He had been a long-term Vice President and Chairman of Sip’n Save, our Liquor Marketing Group. And he was the Inaugural Chair of the Independent Gaming Corporation, so he was a very important part of the early establishment of the SA gaming offer.
• He was followed on by Peter Hurley AO, who now holds the record as the longest-serving President for 24 years (17 with me). But to do that he had to win 24 annual elections! Which he did!
Peter and I became very close, which happens when you work with someone for such a long, long period. One of his great words of wisdom was “the best thing I can do for the poor is not join them”.
Think about it. It’s actually not a flippant response at all because like so many successful hoteliers, he and Jenny currently employ significant numbers of South Australians; in their case, some 700+ South Australians who all have dependents, families, dreams and ambitions. Peter and Jenny ensure they can pursue their dreams. The last thing those 700 needor the economy needs - is for Peter and Jenny, or the multitude of other successful hoteliers, to join the poor.
Peter, of course, has a lot of other sayings which are best not shared here.
Under Peter’s leadership, we were able to develop the association into an incredibly influential organisation, which has paid dividends to this day in terms of an industry that makes such a significant contribution to employment, investment and the cultural and social wellbeing of so many South Australians.
Former AHA|SA President Peter Hurley AO with AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne.
• And finally, the son of Fred, David Basheer. We identified that David was a potential leader of the future. Remember I talked about guided democracy!
Peter and I literally ‘bullied’ David to come onto the AHA Council ,having failed to convince him of his obligations under the father son rule. In the end he weakened and joined Council and Executive, and he’s now heading up an organisation at a state level and is part of the national AHA leadership group.
The Association success because of the legacy of these Presidents is reflected in our balance sheet, our record membership participation and our standing with Government and opposition.
AHA|SA President David Basheer with CEO Ian Horne.
INCREDIBLE STAFF
I’m very proud to say that my replacement, Anna Moeller, and my last President at AHA|SA, David Basheer, are already a formidable team who bounce off each other in a most proactive and energetic manner… both of them in a hurry. It’s so exciting to see their enthusiasm.
While mentioning Anna, in addition to being described by the recruiter (yes, it was a different recruiter to the one that almost wrecked history in 1986) as head and shoulders above the other contenders. As a result we have a woman heading up AHA|SA for the first time in 152 years. Isn’t that just fantastic? It could have been sooner I’m sure, but her immediate predecessor simply hung around for much longer than expected.
We have had some exceptional women pass through employment at AHA|SA on their way to building solid careers and they include Wendy Bevan, who worked with me closely over several years and is now the CEO of KESAB, and Jodie Van Deventer who was AHA Communications Manager in the 2000s and is now CEO of Ai Group.
And Margo Hill-Smith who was my right-hand Government Relationship Manager with the introduction of gaming in the mid-nineties. Margo went on to become a senior manager at the then Wine Federation of Australia and importantly established the AHA Women in Hotels network with her inaugural WIH Chairperson, Patricia Hurley, some 30 years ago. Thanks for joining me tonight.
We also have exceptional men and women who have made a career at AHA|SA. With Anna at the helm, they will broaden our Association’s horizons even further with long term team members Lucy Randall, Anna Caretti and Didier Vollerin being in their 18th year, Katherine Taylor 16, Lorraine Kranz, John Hilton, Nicole Checker and Owen Webb at 13, and Liz Turley 12.
We’ve been blessed with incredible staff and stability - and it is the staff that are the engine room of the association, both in AHA|SA and our parallel organisation Gaming Care.
But I would like to make special mention of Wally Woehlert. Wally had a unique capacity and knowledge, was Deputy Vice President of the Association for a period and then as head of a restructured Gaming Care, he was integral to our response to all-things liquor, allthings gaming, and all-things legal.
He had discipline and wisdom in his thinking and application that was more valuable than two or more people. He was a rock that kept us grounded.
People said, ‘Well, when Wally goes, you’ll need at least two people to replace him.’ True, we simply couldn’t replace Wally, there is only one of him.
AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne with Wally Woehlert.
But we found Anna who has brought a whole range of skills, different ways and different styles. So as the CEO of some 30 years (over two stints), I’ve been blessed to have 2ICs who have been outstanding.
PREMIERS
Now Premiers are a bit different. I’m already on my ninth, the first being amicable John Bannon and the current equally amicable Peter Malinauskas. In his former life with the SDA, Peter will rightly claim some success in his dealings with AHA, in particular over part day holidays but at the very least our partial loss gave us the opportunity to exercise our creative skill with our moderately AHA/MTA funded campaign that went something like “You can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig”.
The term ‘it’s a pig of a deal’ referring to the deal conjured up between a then very conflicted Business SA, some salivating independent grocers desperate for all businesses to pay so they could to sell wine inside supermarkets, and significantly, a much more astute SDA secretary. We did take some comfort in running a Derryn Hinch inspired ‘Shame, Shame, Shame Business SA’ full pager ad in The Advertiser, expressing our disapproval at one of our own side’s treachery! And we dipped our lid to a strategically clever SDA State Secretary.
Premier of SA Peter Malinauskas with AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne.
PERSONAL LIFE
It’s quite incredible that I ended up spending most of my career in employer associations because I had no natural affiliation with the business community. Some of you would know that I’m the son of a Churches of Christ Minister of Religion. Churches of Christ in that day were ‘anti’ several things that I now hold dear to my heart, namely gambling and alcohol. I was born in Queensland, my dad was a Salvation Army Officer who defected to the Churches of Christ (I suspect in pursuit of my mum). As a three-year-old, we moved to Adelaide in 1957 to take up residence in the church manse next to the church on Brooker Terrace in Cowandilla.
I did my primary schooling at Cowandilla school and I signed the pledge to abstain from alcohol at eight years of age - because in what I considered a fair trade, I received a very attractive enamel “Band of Hope Temperance Medal”. I recall I broke that pledge sometime in my mid-teens.
High school was Henley High, more famous for its football prowess than academic excellence, although prominent South Australians such as Jay Whetherill, John Rau, Paul Ciaca and Wayne Mathews followed on after me.
Ian Furby, client Director of Aon, with AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne.
AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne speaks at the Annual General Meeting.
When I discovered the AHA, I immediately wanted to identity as Irish and become a Catholic. You see, Protestants accumulate and carry their burden of guilt to the grave, while Irish Catholics who run pubs simply seek forgiveness once a week and start each week with a clean slate!
BIGGEST CHALLENGES
I’m often asked what my biggest challenge or success has been. The truth is there have been many, many highs and lows. Sometimes, running the AHA is a bit like trying to sip water from a fire hydrant.
Certainly the gaming legislation of May 1992 was transformative for an industry almost on its knees, with commercial lending rates as high as 21% in some cases.
The choice for Parliament was essentially to pick one of two options. There was a model that would be controlled and managed completely by the Lotteries Commission. Or there was an industry model, where we would also create a central monitoring system.
That industry’s model passed through Parliament about 6am Friday morning, the 8th of May in 1992. We remain indebted to then Treasurer Frank Belvins, Tourism Minister Barbara Weise and many others for their focus and advice, and to Rob Lucas and Diana Laidlaw for their support.
Two years later, on the 25th of July 1994, the first gaming machines came into operation with a fully approved and operating Independent Gaming Corporation central monitoring system, which has operated flawlessly for nearly thirty years and is currently chaired by Ben Doyle KC.
It was the beginning of an extraordinary decade of growth - and controversy. However ,I am pleased that in South Australia we have the most comprehensive harm minimisation framework of any State.
SA Pub Burger Challenge judging panel - Bill Lindsay MLA, AHA|SA CEO IanHorne, Stephen Rowe FIVEaa and Margie Gregg.
AHA|SA CEO Ian Horne delivering a speech at the AHA|SA President’s Lunch.
THE 2018 ELECTION
It would be difficult not to mention Nick Xenophon. Senator Nick Xenophon was originally elected in the South Australian Upper House in 1997, on an anti-pokie platform.
He decided he could do no more in South Australia, ran for the Senate and was successful, which was a great comfort to us because he was in Canberra. But in 2017 he announced that he was resigning from the Senate to come back to South Australia to contest the 2018 election with his own party, SA Best. Three weeks out, the poll suggested that with enough seats, he could influence either party - but he also had the potential to be the Premier.
Now, not only would that have been a disaster for our industry, but in our opinion it would also have been a disaster for South Australia. We would have ended up with something akin to Tasmania, which is almost ungovernable.
We had no choice but to take him on, head-on. Unashamedly, we ran significant media campaigns, we ran significant community information forums, we did everything and anything we could to raise the awareness in the population to ‘be careful what you vote for’.
We pushed the message, ‘Vote for anyone else but do not vote for him, put him last.’
The election result was a great success for the industry - but a disaster for Nick because they didn’t get a seat. There are several people that made up the response team, who will remain nameless, but they know who they are so I simply say thank you.
And of course I enjoyed the total support of the AHA SA Executive and Council. Peter, David, Matt and the executive met on an as-needs basis and not once failed to give anything but 100% support both personally and in allocating precious resources. It was an expensive campaign.
PANDEMIC
I’ve talked about many other challenges but amongst the greatest was COVID-19.
Who could ever imagine that on the 23 March 2020 that every single pub and hotel would be closed, from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and everywhere in between. That never happened in World Wars or in any natural disaster, and there was no exit date.
It was devastating for all our members and all of our hundreds of thousands of employees across Australia. And it was a challenge for the AHA.
The resilience of the industry was really tested. Sadly, there were casualties along the way, but generally we got through it.
Post-COVID-19, we’ve entered an incredible growth period but we’re still paying a price in terms of chronic skill shortages, among a range of other issues.
What did work for us was the role of SAPOL under the leadership of Commissioner Grant Stevens in communicating, sharing and, on occasions, advocating for better outcomes. In particular I would like to acknowledge Assistant Commissioner Noel Bamford whose direct dealing with us and our access to him and his team was unprecedented. Thank you Grant and Noel.
MY KPI s
David Basheer and others have heard me try to describe what I do. I’m generally seen as unhelpful when I respond that ‘my KPIs at the AHA are to achieve nothing’. Quite simply, the status quo may be the best it will ever be. The word reform usually means nothing of the sort for hotels - but a further undermining of hotels and their capacity to employ and sustain communities. We have enjoyed an economic moat for some time, largely because we deal with alcohol and gambling... in fact, since 1836!
Others keep kicking dirt into this moat trying to fill it up fill it up. It’s our job to shovel it out as quickly as possible.
Finally I would like to acknowledge wonderful my family, my wife Lyndsay who over the journey has managed single handedly every important decision of our lives, like raising two daughters, caring for elderly parents, selling, buying and moving houses, and providing tangible, unquestioning support for me.
Thank you all with my love and great appreciation.
While I’m retiring from AHA|SA, I’m not retiring from life. It’s been a fantastic journey which I would love to start again but with the knowledge I have now! That’s not possible, so to Anna Moeller and David Basheer and the AHA|SA Council and members of AHA|SA, thank you for an extraordinary ride!
Ian Philip Horne: A Snapshot
Ian was born in Adelaide in 1954.
He graduated from Henley High School and in the ensuing years, has gone on to complete an MBA at Adelaide Uni and journeyed to Stamford University to study Strategy Beyond Markets:
Building Competitive Advantage Though Government Relations and Public Affairs.
He serves on many boards, including the SA Tourism Commission, Adelaide Venue Management Corporation, Gaming Care, Independent Gaming Corporation, Tourism Accommodation Australia and Business Events Adelaide.
SOME OF HIS ACHIEVEMENTS INCLUDE :
• Establishing the Gaming Care agency as the hotel industry’s $1.5m annually funded response to early intervention with problem gamblers
• Developing and managing the process of establishing the Independent Gaming Corporation Ltd (IGC) as the first industry-based, private sector gaming authority in Australia (IGC operates the centralised computer monitoring system for gaming machines in SA)
• Establishing Hotel-Care (now Pubs with Heart), the Hotel industry Community Projects Fund with annual community contributions now exceeding $.7m per annum
• Facilitating the establishment of the Gamblers Rehabilitation Fund
• Establishing the AHA –Hospitality Group Training Scheme for the employment and training of apprentice cooks and food and beverage trainees (over 380 in 1998).
Ian was Executive Director, of the Motor Trade Association of SA from 1998 to 2005 September and Executive Chairman of that organisation’s Group Training Scheme.
CAREER SUMMARY
• 2005 to 2023: CEO, AHA|SA
• 1998 to 2005: CEO, Motor Trade Association of SA
• 1983 to 1998: Executive Director, AHA|SA
• 1985 to 1986: Industrial Relations Manager, AHA|SA
• 1983 to 1985: Manager, AHA Group Training Scheme – AHA|SA
• 1981 to 1983: Group Training Manager: South Australian Automobile Chamber of Commerce Inc. (S.A.A.C.C.) - Now MTA SA/NT.
