His new role as chair of the WA Football Commission is the latest in a string of positions Frank Cooper has used to “give something back”.
AS an experienced partner with one of the world’s ‘big four’ accounting firms, Frank Cooper is no stranger to big business.
But he says it’s the various roles he’s held (and continues to hold) on numerous committees and boards outside his profession, specifically those with a community focus, that have had the most profound effect on his working life.
“I’ve been involved in schools, health and medical research, the arts and football,” Mr Cooper told WA Business News.
“I’ve always got a lot of personal satisfaction and enjoyment and huge personal development from being involved in community and engaging other people.”
Mr Cooper’s first foray into external board appointments was on school committees, including acting as treasurer for his children’s pre-school many years ago.
But this boy from the bush has always been aware of the need to “give something back”.
“I’ve been involved in community right through my career,” he says.
“I grew up in the country and community played a major part there; if people didn’t pitch in and get the job done and help drive local activities, particularly around sport and things like that, it didn’t occur.”
Originally from Calingiri – about 60 kilometres north of Toodyay and 25 kilometres inland from New Norcia – Mr Cooper has been leading PricewaterhouseCooper’s tax practice in Perth for the past four years.
It’s a far cry from his childhood dreams of being a pilot, and definitely different to his initial university pursuit of architecture.
“As part of my first year we had someone come in to give a talk to the architecture students and he said something along the lines of, ‘I’m not sure why you guys are doing this because I don’t know if you’ll get a job at the end of it’,” Mr Cooper says.
“So I thought ‘that’s interesting’, and most of my mates at the university’s football club were doing commerce, so I went and did commerce and then fell into the profession.
“At that point I had no idea, it was just a relatively lazy decision made as an 18-year-old university student.”
There has been nothing lazy about his efforts when out in the workforce, however.
He’s had years of success at some major accounting firms, including about 15 years as a partner with Arthur Andersen up until the time of its global collapse. He then became a partner at Ernst & Young responsible for clients primarily within the mining, energy and utilities sector.
All the while he served on various health, education and arts-related boards, councils and committees, developing key relationships that not only influenced his decision-making in business, but also how he lived his life.
Mr Cooper served a 10-year term on the John XXIII College council (from 1989-99) as well as the Catholic Archdiocese Finance Committee from 1991-97.
He previously held board positions with the Fremantle Football Club (lasting only six months in 2002 as E&Y became the club’s auditors, causing a potential conflict of interest) and the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research from 1994-2000.
“Through the opportunities I’ve had to be involved in community I’ve learned an enormous amount about business that has been very relevant to how I have then tried to influence the businesses I’ve been involved in,” he says.
“Probably the best example I can give you is around people, and I’ve been fortunate to serve on boards with some wonderful people like Bernie Prindiville, ‘The Godfather’.
“What he (Bernie) taught me was that everyone on boards has to have a voice, you need to have an opinion, you have to have active debate.
“His view was if everyone agrees all the time you’ve simply got too many people.”
Mr Cooper says exposure to Mr Prindiville (and the likes of Michael Perrott, John Schaffer, Michael Chaney, Tony Howarth and Lynton Hayes) helped form and develop his view of how to actively engage people in business to get good outcomes.
“If they feel engaged and involved then they genuinely feel like owners and so they act like owners and that tends to drive down through the business,” he says.
In 1993, despite never having been to the opera, Mr Cooper joined the WA Opera board, taking on the role of chairman in the mid-1990s (when Julie Bishop was elected to federal parliament, taking her away from the chairperson’s role) and eventually leaving in 2006.
“I love the WA Opera company and I love the arts,” he says. “I’ve often said to people, if you could gather the passion that people have in the arts for what they do and replicate it with our people [at PwC] ,we would be unbeatable.”
Mr Cooper has since joined the Major Performing Arts Board and just last week was appointed as the new chairman of the WA Football Commission (replacing Neale Fong) after joining the WAFC board in 2006, an appointment he has relished to date.
“The commission’s major activity is around community development,” he says.
“WAFC is a big driving force in everything that goes right through grass-roots football – so it was something that fitted with my love of footy.
“Football was a big part of my life as a kid; my footy career was pretty uninspiring, only held back by a lack of ability.”
Do you have a business mantra?
Nothing I could put into a few words, but through the opportunities I’ve had to be involved in community I’ve learned an enormous amount about business that has been very relevant to how I have then tried to influence the businesses I’ve been involved in.
Do you have a mentor?
I’ve been fortunate to have had a number of people I call mentors, like Michael Perrott, John Schaffer and Bernie Prindiville who have, in my career, provided me with some good guidance and they’re people who you can talk through some things. That really does help.
What lessons have you brought from your profession to the boardroom?
It might be a little bias due to my profession ... the one consistent lesson that I would try and bring in each and every instance is to be financially stable and have a strong balance sheet. The other thing is cash flow is essential – unless you’ve got cash flow it doesn’t matter what the inherent quality of your business is, you’ll end up in trouble.
Do you have any regrets?
No, I think I’ve had a very fortunate life; enormous opportunities have come my way and enormous challenges – I’ve enjoyed them all and learned from them all. I’ve always tried to live my life looking forward, not backwards.