A few weeks back, the Shane Warne Foundation found itself in hot water when it tried to block the release of damning records of its financial activities, allegedly showing heavy spending on events and staffing, and little actual money donated to charity.
This week, the foundation faces a fresh new controversy, with a report in The Age that its new CEO has already left, following concerns that a promised overhaul, announced this week by Warne and Eddie McGuire, may not be all that it appears.
Amongst other things, the foundation faces accusations that the lavish charity cricket matches and poker tournaments for which it is famous do not raise funds, and in some cases, run at a loss.
Warne refused to confirm whether or not newly-appointed chief executive Emma Coleman is actually leaving, but admitted that the firm’s finances had been “poorly administered” in the past, saying:
“The Shane Warne Foundation has always done the right thing, but in the last few years there have been some problems with financial numbers for the events we have been running. It was not done through malice or incompetence. We are cutting costs at the foundation but no decisions about jobs have been made yet.”
The Age report that Coleman, who joined the foundation to help overhaul its fund-raising methods, handed in her resignation over concerns that “the restructure plans announced publicly are potentially misleading.”
A ‘source’ – gotta love ’em – tells a slightly different story, hinting that Coleman herself may have been let go as a cost-cutting measure, having recently been informed that her contract is up in February:
“They’ve held Emma out very publicly as the person who was brought in to fix the massive administration problems from the past and to take the foundation in a new direction. Now they want to keep her around just long enough to sign up the new sponsors and for all the media attention to die down.”
Coleman herself has not commented.
Story: The Age
Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty
