Board and Executive Leadership

Gold Coast United brings together top business and football talent to create a commercially sustainable, community driven club.

CEO OF GOLD COAST UNITED LIMITED

Troy Bingham

Troy has been involved in football at every level across three continents over the past 45 years. As a football player, administrator, owner and coach he has excelled in South Africa, USA, Canada and Australia. Over the past 10 years he has established a strong record of business and sports management success on the Gold Coast. Troy provides the strong football knowledge and business acumen to bridge the relationship between business and football. The following are some of his background qualifications and achievements that reinforce his suitability to lead the establishment and growth of a community led professional football team on the Gold Coast.

Education: Bachelor of Science – Accounting (Gannon University, Pennsylvania, USA) MBA – International Marketing and Management (Toledo University, Ohio, USA) National Soccer Coaches Association of America – National coaching Diploma.

Business Background: Price Waterhouse – Accountant. Smith and Nephew – Sports Injuries Product Manager (Responsible for medical side of Rugby World Cup 95 and numerous national team sponsorships) Old Mutual Sports Arena Founder – largest inflatable sports arena operator in South Africa supplying facilities year-round to underprivileged communities. Toledo Indoor Soccer Centre founding partner – first indoor football facility in Toledo Ohio. Gold Coast Blaze Inaugural General Manager – professional basketball team on the Gold Coast that played out of the convention centre. The Consulting House – international business consultancy to numerous international brands and companies in the sports (Kooga), banking (Mastercard), building (Intelligent Building Systems), travel (RCI) and technology (Rainbow Rewards) sectors to name a few.

Sport/Football Background:
State team player from U10 onwards
South Africa National U19 Team
Professional player with Durban City and Amazulu FC in South Africa
Professional Player in Canada with St Catherines Roma FC
Professional Player in USA with Wichita Wings and Columbus
All American College Team
American College Senior Bowl All Star Team
National Championship Winning captain and MVP
Leading Scorer in two Final Four teams and in #1 Ranked College team
Inducted into Gannon University Hall of Fame

Founding Partner of Toledo Indoor Soccer Centre
Founder of International Soccer Academy in the USA
Founding Partner of Gold Coast Futsal
Previous Board Member of Football Gold Coast
Previous Director of Football Gold Coast juniors and rep programmes
Sponsor of numerous players to USA university soocer programmes

Chairman

Danny Maher

Mr Maher is one of Australia’s leading executives and was named 2015 Australian CEO of the year ahead of Alan Joyce (Silver) – Qantas, and David Thodey (Bronze) -Telstra.

Mr Maher is a global tech entrepreneur with a particular passion and knowledge of the startup ecosystem. Mr Maher is also passionate about football and philanthropy and heads Sports Gold Coast’s football committee.

Having built and exited a number of highly successful tech companies around the world (including the NetStar group where he together with Allen & Buckeridge and Baring Private Equity Partners were the 100% shareholders), Mr Maher relocated to the Gold Coast under an economic attraction request from Gold Coast City Council to assist in diversifying the Gold Coast economy and stimulating the innovation sector.

Mr Maher serves on a number of boards, is chairman of the Gold Coast Innovation Hub who are committing $20 Million to sports innovation and is currently executive chairman of multi award winning Network Management Software company Opmantek. Opmantek has been QLD ICT exporter of the year for the last 3 years , is a 2016 Winner of the American Business awards and was Australian ICT exporter of the year in 2015. Opmantek has over 130,000 organisations using their software around the world with a new organisation implementing an Opmantek product every 6 minutes making them possibly the fastest growing business software company in the world.

In addition to his business acumen, Mr Maher:
– was a state Representative footballer as a junior (wing/midfield)
– Is a licensed junior coach
– Skied for Australia as a junior
– Has served as President of 3 football clubs in the past.
– Has two children that play football (a boy and girl, both NPL standard).
– Has been a major sponsor of football at the Gold Coast for the last 3 years.

Director

Mark Anderson

Mark is a highly successful technology business owner with executive levels of experience in project delivery, sales, people management, financial management and business strategy developed over 30 years. His experience within private and publicly listed enterprises has enabled a broad based, innovative approach to resolving challenging issues, meeting goals and furthering strategic initiatives.

Mark was a major part of the success and growth of “Supply Chain Consulting” who in 2005 were listed in BRW as the 20th fastest growing company in Australia and for the period 2005 to 2009 with Oxygen Business Solutions (now UXC Oxygen a CSC Company).

Mark has considerable international experience including being part of the Australian High Commission in London and the head of operations for the Asia Pacific Region for HCL Axon. Mark’s early career was as a meteorologist in the Royal Australian Navy where he saw active service in Somalia – Operation Restore Hope.

Mark has played football since the age of 5 and still continues to play the game he loves today. While in the Royal Australian Navy Mark was honoured to represent the Australian Services football team. He is passionate about the game and the development of young footballers. Mark has been a player, coach, team manager, supporter and football administrator for over 45 years and currently holds the voluntary position of Secretary of Gold Coast Over 35 Soccer.

Director

Trina Hockley

Trina is a well respected business owner operator of the L & M Group of Companies and an experienced, qualified non-executive director with a background in training, education, sport, employment, retail and governance.

Trina’s business interests are located on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Wollongong. Highly sought after for both her business and governance acumen, she holds the position of Chair of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) Gold Coast committee. She is also Chair of Arcadia College and Ohana for Youth and director of the Spot Academy, The Gold Coast Sporting Hall of Fame and Sports Gold Coast. Trina also co-founded Women in Power – empowering women.

Trina’s volunteering has seen accolades as an Outstanding Volunteer to the Indigenous Community and has received a 20 year Leadership Award from the City of Gold Coast. She is an avid advocate for youth education and development and Gold Coast sport and business.

Trina has a Bachelor of Human Movement Studies majoring in exercise physiology and sports medicine, and 3 sons that played football.

Director

Nick Hare

Nick was born on the Gold Coast and studied a Bachelor of Business at Griffith University. Nick established his own business LETZ LIVE at 18 years of age which now services over 1,000 students each year, providing working opportunities around the world. Nick has also established an in-house travel agency (specialising in youth and corporate travel) and a UK migration firm. At 31 years of age Nick, has staff in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom managing a multimillion dollar turnover.

Director

Richard Watkinson

Richard is a Chartered Accountant and Director with KPMG with 17 years’ experience in providing advisory, accounting and assurance services to clients both within Australia and internationally. KPMG are a leader in the provision of professional services to registered clubs and professional sporting organisations across Australia. As part of KPMG’s National Sports Network Richard has extensive knowledge of the challenges facing organisations in the sporting industry and offers a range of advisory services to sporting franchises. Richard works with several high profile sporting organisations and clubs on the Gold Coast and Nationally. During his time in the UK, Richard had a lead role in providing professional services dedicated to elite athletes, retired sports professionals, musicians and media personalities.

Director

Nick Scott

Nick Scott has spent thirty seven (37) years working in senior roles within the media; much of this time being based on the Gold Coast. He has held the positions of Director, Group General Manager, General Manager and National Sales Director. Nick has recently retired from his full time position with Southern Cross Austereo; operators on the Gold Coast of television brands Southern Cross Ten, 11 and One as well as broadcasting stations 90.9 Sea FM and 92.5 Gold FM. His commitment to the industry has been evidenced by main Board positions with Commercial Radio Australia and membership of national industry bodies overseeing Regional Australia, Research and Sales/Marketing/Codes/Branding.
Nick owns and operates his own Business/Media Consultancy ‘TGM’; consulting to local, national and international organisations.
He holds a Bachelor of Education from the University of Tasmania and presently, Nick sits on various local Boards including Bond (University) Business School, Gold Coast Tourism, Gold Coast Eisteddfod, Gold Coast Community Fund and Gold Coast Academy of Sport.

Director

Rebecca Yang

Rebecca Yang is General Manager for Business Development China for the MiiGroup. Rebecca brings a wealth of connections and reputation in dealing with Chinese investors. Rebecca graduated from the University of Queensland with Bachelor’s degrees in Property Studies and international tourism management. She has worked for major investment and development companies in China and also worked for Mega Harvest International (Brisbane) as a Chinese buyer’s agent. Rebecca has strong connections to business groups in China, is an experienced translator and an experienced projectmanager with excellent communication skills.

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