Swimming Australia CEO Eugenie Buckley has resigned after 18 months in charge of the organization. Her resignation takes effect immediately and comes just days before the start of the Australian Championships.
Buckley served in the role on a full-time basis since October 2021, with an additional two months of interim work before that. She replaced Alex Baumann, who stepped down due to “health reasons.”
Buckley says that she has left the job “to take up opportunities outside of the sport.”
“Eugenie has steered the organisation through the significant challenges of a corporate restructure and improving our financial position,” Michelle Gallen, the President of Swimming Australia, said. “She leaves us in a strong position to move forward, with a clear strategic direction to 2032 to build performance, pathways, participation and sustainability. I sincerely thank Eugenie for her hard work and determination and wish her well in future endeavours.”
Her tenure included the revival of the Duel in the Pool series with Team USA, the first Swimming World Championship hosted in the country in 15 years, and a return of swimming to free to air television, a release from the organization boasted.
Buckley has a long career in sports having worked on some of the world’s biggest events including the IRB Rugby World Cup in 2003 and the ICC Women’s World Cup in 2009, as well as organisations such as the FFA (now Football Australia), the ICC, Queensland Red and Brisbane Roar.
She also spent over a decade in roles with the Asian Football Confederation, two years as the director of Athletics Australia, and in a number of other roles within other sports.
The Swimming Australia Board of Directors has named Steve Newman, the Executive General Manager Corporate of Swimming Australia, as the interim CEO.
I can hear the cheers across the sport of swimming for the good news of the resignation of bully Eugenie Buckley this week who achieved a big fat nothing other than creating a giant path of destruction, including destroying relationships with critical members states, athletes, coaches and sponsors. Whilst her removal should have occurred last year when all the States revolted against her, it is good it has eventually happened. Now onto a clean-up of the Board, which also needs a good sweeping out! Thank god for Gina Rinehart or our sport would have literally sunk to the bottom of the pool, she has been quietly still supporting all our greatest talent in the background, after pulling out of the disgraceful Swimming… Read more »
The shortness of tenure alone indicates some kind of serious problem, no?
Buckley is a lawyer of some ability, if rather partial to business school “speak” in her communications, but her track record has been one of leaving some previous positions in somewhat acrimonious circumstances. There are very strong suggestions that her relationships with many/most state federations have broken down and that the fallout from last year’s deposition of Tracy Stockwell has …… it’s legacies.