Craig O’Brien has been appointed as the new chief executive of The Concord Club.
O’Brien brings 30 years of hospitality experience to role having worked in a range of hotel groups, before switching his focus to club operations where he was most recently general manager of the Carnarvon Golf Club and the former chief operations manager of Pittwater RSL.
“I made the switch to clubs wanting a bigger challenge. I think clubs are multifaceted venues … and I think the business overall is bigger, but it is harder in that fact that they’re harder to turn around,” he said.
“But I believe my nimble abilities in hotel has helped me now come across in clubs.”
O’Brien’s arrival at the club comes just months after The Concord Club opened its doors in Sydney’s inner west. It is the new build by The Croatian Club, which had previously sold its own site in Punchbowl to pay its way out of a $5 million debt, before purchasing Concord RSL and Bowling Club from RSL NSW for $8.55 million in 2021.
He takes over from the club’s inaugural CEO, Kerrie Wadwell, who was only in the role for a year.
“Kerrie did a great job in getting it organised and getting things in place in a very short period in what was a massive build, but the direction Kerrie wanted to go was different to the board,” O’Brien said.
In his new role, O’Brien said he looks forward to helping the club continue to celebrate its Croatian heritage.
“When The Croatian Club sold Punchbowl, the community of Punchbowl used the Carnarvon Golf Club as a stopping ground,” he explained.
“They were there for almost two years while [The Concord] was getting built, so I got to know the community really well and enjoyed their company. When I was offered the position here, I took it up with gusto because I thought we could do something really strong with a brand new club and a brand new building that’s absolutely phenomenal.”
He described the club has delivered a “new lease of life, especially for the local community”. In the first two weeks of operation, the club signed up over 8,000 new members, who were people from the local community.
“The local community now has a venue where they can come and enjoy,” O’Brien said.
