Swimming Australia is experiencing yet another change in its organizational structure, as Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Filopoulos, announced he is leaving the organization, effective later this summer.
Filopoulos will be taking on a new position as the new Chief Executive Officer of Perth Glory, Western Australia’s professional football (soccer) club, which competes in the country’s A-League. Filopoulos begins his new role in tumultuous times for the team, as his predecessor, Jason Brewer, resigned after having been found guilty of cheating its A-League salary cap.
Earlier this year while in his role as Swimming Australia’s Chief Commercial Officer, Filopoulos was credited with playing a major part in securing partnership with Hancock Prospecting as the team’s major sponsor leading to Rio. The mining company had been the biggest private funder of Swimming Australia since the squad lost Telstra as its primary corporate sponsor post-London Olympics and the agreement gave the team a major boost after coming away from London with zero individual gold medals.
In April 2015, Filopoulos was also instrumental in Australia’s national team reverting back to its moniker of the “Dolphins”, a name once associated with the squad, but was dropped in 2009. The implementation of the “Dolphins” name was symbolic of the overall re-imaging of the Australian team, one free of any scandal or disappointment; a path filled with team pride and public respect for the Australian team on its road to Rio.
Filopoulos’ departure is among several recent changes in the overall Swimming Australian organization, which includes the resignation of High Performance Director, Michael Scott in February of this year, after only having served less than two years in that capacity. After a multiple month search for a replacement, Swimming Australia ultimately announced it would cease trying to find a replacement for Scott in favor of redirecting its entire approach to its leadership structure.
This decision then led to three appointments in April 2015, which included Jacco Verhaeron seeing his head coaching role expanded, while Wayne Lomas’ role of performance manager was elevated to that of General Manager Performance. Additionally, Martin Roberts was moved into a role in Strategic Projects, with the purpose of focusing on post-Rio’s High Performance Strategic Plan.