Former AFL CEO who turned three failing clubs into finals contenders — and growing profits
Cameron Schwab was appointed CEO of the Richmond Football Club at the age of 24 — the youngest person to hold that position in the history of the game. Over the following 25 years he served as CEO of three AFL clubs, making him the second-longest-serving CEO in the modern era of the competition. What distinguished every appointment was the condition of the club he walked into: each was at its lowest ebb, financially distressed, uncompetitive on the field, and facing structural challenges that threatened its survival. At Richmond, he created the 'Save Our Skin' campaign, which saved the club from bankruptcy and was later named the club's Defining Moment of the Century. At Melbourne, he unified a club that had nearly merged with Hawthorn and took them from last place to a Grand Final within two years — while growing attendances by 65 per cent. At Fremantle, revenue increased by 320 per cent and the balance sheet improved by $13 million.
What makes Schwab genuinely different on the speaking circuit is that he is not trading on past glory. Since leaving the AFL he has channelled that experience into mentoring CEOs and senior leaders across multiple industries, working with organisations that want to build high-performance cultures grounded in strategic trust rather than motivational slogans. His framework holds that professional team sport is not club versus club — it is system versus system — and that the leaders who build the better system consistently win. That insight translates directly to the boardroom, and he delivers it through a seven-step process that is, in his words, immediately executable.
Schwab suits leadership conferences, CEO forums, and off-sites where organisations want to examine culture, decision-making, and performance accountability honestly. CPA Australia gave his session a feedback rating of 4.9 out of 5 — one of the highest scores at the event — with attendees describing it as authentic, thought-provoking, and full of tangible takeaways. He is the kind of speaker who stays for dinner and keeps talking — because the conversation is worth having.
Cameron Schwab is a keynote speaker based in Victoria who speaks on business strategy, change management and leadership. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
Elite sport is awash with contradictions and complexity. What is most often misunderstood, is professional team sport is not club versus club, it is system vs system - developed and implemented by the leaders of those organisations. It is my experience, that leaders and their organisations do not rise to the level of their ambition, they fall to the standard of their systems. It is the system that establishes the behaviours, aligned to purpose, that in turn institutionalises the values and culture, to achieve the goals of high performance organisations. Cameron delivers a game-changing framework that aligns purpose and performance, particularly as it relates to the complex mix of culture, strategy, leadership and decision-making judgment.
As a leader, you are both the observer and the observed. You are being observed, even when you are losing confidence, results are down and you’re trapped in the busyness and complexity of modern leadership, emotionally drained and feeling isolated. You are struggling and don’t know where to get help without showing weakness, unsure of whether you have what it takes to turn-it-around, personally and organisationally. You are trapped in this cycle, when trying harder will simply not be enough. So, what do you do? Cameron models his ‘Being Brave’ mantra - a seven-step process to find the answers for yourself, rebuild confidence, and be the leader you aspire to be.
Your words tell others what you think, your actions tell them what you believe. The best leaders are not the most talented or gifted, they have established outstanding leadership and performance behaviours and habits. Behaviours are the product of personal and organisational habits, good and bad. For organisations with high-performance ambitions, or seeking turnaround, it will be the aggregation of marginal gains that will be the key to transformation. Great leaders have turned self-responsibility into a daily practice, performance habits that compound over time to establish their personal leadership mastery. Leaders then create leaders. Cameron articulates four core leadership habits, immediately executable, to create the behaviours and culture to lead with authenticity and achieve high performance outcomes.
Business often turns to the football codes when seeking to understand the key concepts of team, particularly, the role of leadership in terms of establishing a winning culture and executing a game plan. The best leaders I have worked with and studied in sport and business, all shared one key competency. While they may have approached the role with different philosophies and methodologies, they successfully created environments that enabled their teams and organisations, to access the full range of their capabilities. A winning organisation is an environment of personal and professional development, in which each individual takes responsibility and shares ownership. Cameron fully explains a seven-step process, immediately executable, enabling leaders to establish performance accountability, where people consistently set high expectations of themselves and behave to those expectations, and most importantly, do the right thing, even when it’s hard.
As a leader, you want a coach that makes you better. Cameron Schwab makes me better. End of story. Every Session grabs my attention. Through sharing stories or leaning on his diverse experience and incredible curiosity and creativity, he makes every session a work of art.Senior Coach Carlton Football Club
I’ve had the privilege of listening to Cameron talk about leadership and life twice now. I was so impressed the first time that I asked him to present to my Leadership Team. You could have heard a pin drop on each occasion and everyone, sports enthusiast or not, got so much out of the session. Cameron tells a powerful, entertaining, and deeply personal story that resonates with everyone who has experienced change and challenge.Chief Executive Officer John Holland
It was truly incredible to sit in the energy of a room of people completely captivated by your storytelling. Your vulnerability and the art you have mastered in weaving your personal story into some incredible lessons for leadership and life. Thank you Cameron for a very moving and insightful session with our key clients overlooking the MCG. The feedback on the day and in the messages posted was just fantastic. We are very grateful.CEO, Six Degrees Executive
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