Mike Fitzpatrick (footballer)
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Michael 'Mike' Fitzpatrick is an Australian businessman, sporting administrator and former Australian rules footballer.
He is the current chairman of the Australian Football League having recently succeeded Ron Evans in the position. [1] He has been an AFL commissioner since 2003. [2]
[edit] Football Career
He made his debut in the West Australian Football League with Subiaco in 1970 and in 1973 was a member of Subiaco's first premiership in 49 years and won his first of two consecutive best and fairest awards. He mainly played the key position of ruckman. [3]
He managed to combine his football with engineering studies at the University of Western Australia and in 1975 he was awarded a two-year Rhodes Scholarship to attend the University of Oxford. He also signed to play with the Carlton Football Club in the then Victorian Football League, but only managed a handful of games in these years. However by 1979 he was fully committed to football and again managed to win the Carlton best and fairest award in premiership year. He was then named captain of Carlton in 1980 and led The Blues to consecutive premierships in 1981 and 1982.
He represented both Western Australia and Victoria in state representative football and was twice named captain of the All-Australian team.
[edit] Business Career
At the end of the 1983 season he surprisingly retired from football and established a career working as an adviser in the John Cain government's Victorian Treasury Department.
His career then took him to New York where he worked for International Investment Banks - Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston.
In 1994, he set up Hastings Funds Management, a successful superannuations funds company of which 51 per cent was sold to the Westpac Bank in 2002.[4]
He is a current director of the:
Among other positions held he:
- was previously a director of Telstra, Australian Infrastructure Fund Limited and Pacific Hydro
- was a former chairman of the Australian Sports Commission.
- is chairman of the Victorian Funds Management Corporation and Treasury Group Ltd.
- was a director of several of Hastings' Managed Investments [6]
The AFL Players Association each year awards several AFLPA Mike Fitzpatrick Scholarships to assist young football players financially to achieve excellence in both the education and football fields. [7]
