Collingwood FC names Mark Korda as its new President

AFL giant the Collingwood Football Club has announced the appointment of Mark Korda as its 13th President, replacing Eddie McGuire who resigned earlier this year.

Korda, co-President with fellow director Peter Murphy in the weeks since McGuire’s resignation in February, was ratified as President after a meeting of the full board on Wednesday during which new Director Neil Wilson was also appointed.

With Collingwood having been rocked by incidents of racism over the past year, Korda has pledged to implement the findings of the ‘Do Better’ report which found “systemic racism” within the club and that its response to these matters “has been at best ineffective".

Korda, who has served on the Collingwood board since 2007, is the co-founder of Korda/Mentha, a prominent investment and advisory group and the nation’s leading restructuring firm. 

Welcoming his appointment, Korda stated  “Collingwood has long held a place in my life and I take on this role with the strong belief that we have in our possession a wonderful legacy, a strength and spirit with which we must seek to do and be better.

“We have challenges but great people and passion to meet them.

“Collingwood has been made by many and it will take many to drive it forward. I thank Peter Murphy for his support, particularly over recent months, and his determination to see Collingwood continue to flourish.

“We have worked closely and talked daily over the past months and will continue to do so.”

Asked about the implementation of the recommendations of the ‘Do Better’ report, Korda told SEN “the Do Better report really addressed structural racism, which to be frank most of us didn’t really know much about, we are much more informed now and structural racism exists in the world, it exists in Australia, it exists in the AFL and exists in Collingwood.

“We put our expert group together, (board member) Jodie Sizer is spending a lot of time on it. We want to lead in this area for the AFL and for society.

“Lots of resources are going into that and we had 18 recommendations laid out and every month at the board meeting we have people in the meeting tell us where we are up to because we’re serious that we will implement those recommendations.”

1. Collingwood promotes Mark Korda after he was a part of the systematic racist board the past 15 years? How is that “real progress”? @CollingwoodFC continues to be corrupt and abuse their powers all for their executive power struggles, and at the expense of black people.

— Joel Wilkinson (@joelwilkinson) April 22, 2021

Despite Korda’s pledge, former AFL player Joel Wilkinson has questioned the appointment, taking to Twitter ask how the appointment of a longstanding board member represented any change which the ‘Do Better’ report was supposed to generate.

Wilkinson wrote “Collingwood promotes Mark Korda after he was a part of the systematic racist board the past 15 years?

“How is that ‘real progress’? Collingwood continues to be corrupt and abuse their powers all for their executive power struggles, and at the expense of black people.

“According to Collingwoods contract as a business, the board oversees and implements all key decisions. So the current board believes that this is progress and the way forward? ZERO policies have changed from Collingwood since that bs report.

“Most of these board members were present during Adam Goodes saga, corruption during my lawsuit and covering up their racist fans.”

New Collingwood board member Wilson is Chairman and a former Chief Executive of the Victoria Racing Club with an extensive commercial, digital and information technology background. He fills the board vacancy created by McGuire’s departure.

Image: Mark Korda. Credit: Collingwood Football Club.