Grounded in faith, family and friends
News
Rob Chapman might be heading to Government House soon to receive his Medal of Australia (AM) but one thing is for sure, neither he nor his mates will let it change him.
Rob, or ‘Chappy’ as he is fondly known, is just as comfortable having a beer and a punt at the BMH (Bay Motel Hotel) as he is in the boardroom of banks, football clubs and some of the biggest corporations in Australia.
Rob with his three grandchildren Isla, Harriet (back) and Violet, who will be baptised next month.
“When I walk into the BMH my mates still call me the usual stuff…they all abuse me, so nothing changes there,” he said.
“It’s nice to have the recognition, but it won’t change me too much.”
A regular Mass-goer at St John the Baptist Church, Plympton, Chappy also has had a long association with Glenelg parish and was a boarder for five years at Sacred Heart College, Somerton Park, where he made the lifelong friends that he still meets with at the pub every Saturday.
Two of those friends, Jim O’Byrne and Anthony Goodrich, join him on Sundays at 8.30am Mass where Chappy is sometimes called upon to take up the collections.
With Plympton’s proximity to Morphettville Racecourse and connection with some of Adelaide’s top trainers, bookmakers and punters, it’s the perfect place for Chappy who owns several horses.
When he and fellow parishioner Fred Vella took up the collections recently, a good friend sitting behind him (whose family had won a Melbourne Cup with Bart Cummings) leaned forward when Chappy returned to his seat and said: ‘Bart would turn in his grave if he knew you and Fred were collecting the money…he’d swear we were just as likely to take it down to the TAB.’
While Chappy is best known for his high-profile roles as managing director of BankSA and chair of the Adelaide Crows, his contribution to the community includes serving on the Diocesan Finance Council for a decade before he moved to Sydney to take up the top job at St George’s Bank in 2009.
He has held numerous government and business board positions, including chair of the Investment Attraction South Australia Advisory Board and president of Business SA, and has chaired the Adelaide Airport board since 2014, Barossa Infrastructure since 2012 and Coopers Brewery since 2017. He now runs his own corporate advisory business, Chapman Capital Partners.
It’s a fair achievement for the boy who grew up as the son of a country butcher from Mount Barker and was educated by the Mercy Sisters at St Scholastica’s.
When the Australia Day honour was announced, none were prouder than his family, especially his 86-year-old mum, Lena, whose Italian heritage provided the foundation for Chappy’s strong Catholic faith and values.
He said his upbringing had a “significant impact” on him.
“I loved primary school, being taught by the Sisters of Mercy,” he said.
“Mount Barker was a tiny town back then, everybody knew each other, everybody had to be an altar boy, if someone didn’t get to Mass you went out to the farm to check on them.”
His parents’ decision to send him to boarding school was a pivotal one and might not have happened if his maternal grandfather hadn’t died when he was in Year 6. Lena was the oldest of four children, the youngest, David, being 24 years younger than her.
“My uncle was only a year older than me and was sent to boarding school but it didn’t resonate with him like it did me,” Chappy, 61, said.
“So he left! I liked it, so I stayed.
“Boarding school had as much impact on me as anything else, more than uni perhaps. You had to get on with people, you had to learn to manage your money, you had to learn respect, you learnt what it was like to have a bit of camaraderie, and trust. I mean we got up to a bit of shenanigans, but they were my best mates.
“Yesterday I was sitting down the pub with Jimmy, Goody, Tohly Fossy, Griffo and Bruiser Hendry; we all went to school together.
“It was a family back then – and still is now. We all still see each other, we’ve all stayed local, we’ve all got each other’s back. People say that about Sacred Heart, that it’s a real community.”
Chappy has nothing but praise for the Marist Brothers who taught him and supervised the boarding house, describing them as “inspirational”.
“They became your friends, don’t get me wrong, they meted out discipline, but you learnt about respect,” he said.
“For example, Brother Dennis would tell us ‘just be home by midnight on any given night…’ and if you did that you got rewarded for it and were allowed out next week, but if you overstepped the mark, you knew about it,” he said.
“The Brothers were fantastic, every Brother that was there, and credit to them for the sacrifices they made for everyone else.”
Married to Lisa with four children and three grandchildren, Chappy’s message to young people starting out in their career is simple: “Just do the job you’re in and do it really well, and people will notice that and you will get the next opportunity,” he said.
“Don’t look too far ahead, perform the task, then you get a reputation of being able to get the job done.”
Rob with the late Archbishop Philip Wilson after a Racing Mass at Plympton.
Consistency is another important trait, particularly in highly accountable positions.
“I learnt at a very young age to just be consistent…you can be consistently grumpy as long as you’re consistent,” he advised.
“And you are exposed, so don’t ever lie…you’ve got to tell it as it is, be thick skinned.”
If someone he doesn’t know has a go at him for his opinion or decisions Chappy isn’t too fussed.
“But if my mates, my peers or my colleagues say something then I do take criticism to heart because they know me and must have a point so you change your behaviour.”
Referring to his 14-year involvement with the Adelaide Crows (12 as chairman), he said many people didn’t realise that “you don’t get paid one cent”.
“At the Crows, sometimes you were spending 40 hours a week working on things and we (the board) weren’t running the show. The board is there for the benefit of the mistakes you’ve made and the wisdom of experience, you’re not there to run it. But unfortunately in football everyone turns to the chairman.”
His involvement in sport and community organisations has given him a deep respect for the “unseen work” of volunteers.
“The volunteers in this world, in football clubs, churches, charities and so on – we can’t do without them; there’s always got to be someone who puts the Mass on or cleans up afterwards,” he said.
His leadership and business values sit easily alongside his faith: “You’ve got to care, you’ve got to be honest, you’ve got to do the best you can with what you’ve got.”
In an era where many of his generation no longer practise the faith, Chappy said he looks forward to Mass every week.
“It’s important to me, a time to reflect in an otherwise busy world.
