Two years after returning to Perth from New York, Ross Love has emerged as an influential figure in the state government.
Ross Love has a resume few can match.
Early in his career, he worked for Labor premier Carmen Lawrence and, before that, deputy premier Mal Bryce.
That was followed by 25 years with Boston Consulting Group, where he ran its Australian operations and later its New York office.
His first position back in Perth was as an adviser to mining magnate Andrew Forrest.
Since then, he has taken on multiple roles with the state government, including as chair of two major business enterprises: the Water Corporation and Fremantle Ports.
He is also a member of the state government’s Regional Development Trust and the Westport Taskforce steering committee.
It’s rare for one person to hold so many government appointments.
It puts Mr Love in the same league as people such as John Langoulant and Rob Cole.
Mr Langoulant, who formerly ran the state Treasury, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA, and Kerry Stokes’ private company, is one of WA’s busiest directors.
He is chair of two government trading enterprises – the Government Employees Superannuation Board and the Rottnest Island Authority – and also chairs advisory body Infrastructure WA and a number of private and not-for-profit organisations.
Mr Cole was a partner at law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques and an executive director at Woodside Petroleum before becoming a professional director.
As well as being on the board of several companies in the resources sector, he is the chair of Synergy and, more recently, Landgate.
This illustrates the credentials of the people who chair most of WA’s government business enterprises.
Another example is Gold Corporation, which is chaired by former Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh.
Western Power chair Colin Beckett was a senior Chevron executive in charge of the Gorgon gas project, while Insurance Commission of Western Australia chair Frank Cooper was one of the state’s top accounting partners and is also a director of Woodside Petroleum and South32.
Chairman of the board
Asked about his recent appointments, Mr Love said he should not be seen as a Labor man.
“I hope not,” Mr Love told Business News, adding he has friends on both sides of the political fence.
“I like to think I’m able to bring people together.”
Mr Love said the boards of government business enterprises were similar to public company boards, despite the ability of ministers to formally dictate policy.
“It’s an ongoing and generally healthy and constructive discussion,” he said.
“The role of boards is to mediate that discussion and ensure good outcomes are achieved.
“We ensure decisions are based on good evidence, and that government policy is understood and executed in a way that makes good commercial sense.
“But it’s not contentious, by and large.
“It’s not that different to public company boards; they have strong shareholders or large shareholder groups that get together on particular issues.”
Having just been appointed as chair of the Water Corporation, Mr Love said he couldn’t comment on the departure of former chair Mike Hollett, who resigned early this year, just two months after being reappointed to the role.
Nor did he wish to comment on the scrapping of two apparently successful contracts with private sector providers Programmed, Suez, and Broadspectrum.
The changes resulted in about 400 jobs shifting back to the public sector.
Water Minister Dave Kelly has claimed both decisions would save money, but neither he, nor the Water Corporation, have released details.
Mr Love said he had an open mind on contracting models.
“In the corporate sector, I’ve worked with many organisations that have both insourced and outsourced various activities over time,” he said.
“Sometimes companies get that right and sometimes they get that wrong.
“I don’t think these things are black and white, it depends on the services and the objectives and where the expertise resides.
“Having a strong evidence base for the decision is important.”
Career path
Mr Love’s first proper job after university was with Brian Burke and Mal Bryce, who were on the brink of leading WA Labor to a resounding win at the 1983 state election.
After Labor won power, Mr Love stayed with Mr Bryce, who served as deputy premier and is best known for championing the technology and small business sectors.
“He was a very upright guy and had some very progressive ideas,” Mr Love said.
“He created the first chief information officer for a state government; he got Technology Park started, he had a lot of energy for promoting new activity and innovation.”
Mr Bryce was also responsible for the establishment of Scitech and legislated to establish the Small Business Development Corporation.
In 1986, Mr Love was awarded a Harkness scholarship, which allowed him to travel to the US to study at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.
He returned to Perth in 1990 after being asked to become chief of staff to newly installed Labor premier Carmen Lawrence.
“Somewhat out of the blue I was asked by Carmen to come back and run her office after she had found herself premier,” Mr Love said.
“It was searing, it was really, really tough.
“There was an enormous amount of pressure on Carmen and the government.
“The effective leader of the opposition in the state in those days was her brother, so it was up close and personal.”
Mr Love here is referring to Bevan Lawrence, who had established People for Fair and Open Government in 1989 to seek government accountability amid the tumult of the WA Inc era.
Dr Lawrence’s most notable decisions included calling a Royal Commission into WA Inc, which shone a light on the controversial deals between the Burke government and prominent business figures, notably Laurie Connell and Alan Bond.
Mr Love said Labor’s loss at the 1993 election was inevitable but believes it wasn’t the wipeout that many had anticipated.
BCG move
Mr Love opted for a major career change after the election, joining global consulting firm Boston Consulting Group in Sydney.
“It sounds like a dramatic shift, but there are a lot of common elements,” he said.
“I loved the work, the challenges, problem solving, the people I got to work with, the variety.”
He ended up running BCG’s Australia and New Zealand business.
It was during this time that BCG established its first Perth office, led by Angus Jaffray.
That was part of a wave of office openings by global consulting firms such as Bain & Co and McKinsey, which were all attracted to the boom conditions in Perth.
Mr Love also led BCG’s global travel and tourism practice, and ultimately BCG’s New York office, which became the largest in its global network.
He believes Australians are well placed to succeed in big cities like New York.
“I say to younger people here, if you can make it in Perth, you can make it anywhere,” Mr Love told Business News.
“We’re pretty open minded, we see things for what they are, we’re pretty direct, and we’ve had the advantage of a great education.
“You just have to be confident, and there are lots of people from Perth, and lots of people from Australia, doing that all over the world.”
Back to Perth
After three and a half years in New York, Mr Love retired from BCG in 2018.
“I was thinking about what was going to be next when I was asked to consider a role with Andrew Forrest,” he said.
He had been acquainted with Mr Forrest during their university years, and spent more time with him when they both served on the Business Council of Australia’s indigenous engagement taskforce.
“The thing that really appealed to me was the combination of some hard-core commercial businesses and issues alongside the philanthropy,” Mr Love said.
“I’ve always tried to mix both in my professional life.”
That turned into a six-month contract advising Mr Forrest.
Mr Love has subsequently done some consulting work with Paatsch Group, including in the mining sector.
His government roles include advising Alannah MacTiernan on the industry-funded property buy-back scheme in the west end of Port Hedland.
The buy-back is designed to address health risks associated with high levels of dust in the west end, with iron ore stockpiles considered a major contributor.
That work resulted in the announcement in June of a voluntary buy-back scheme under which the port’s big users would pay up to $220 million to buy 400 properties.
Mr Love said he did a lot of analytical work, looking at house prices in all of the major Pilbara communities over the past 30 years.
He could not find any evidence that property values in the west end of Port Hedland were affected by dust issues and associated changes to planning regulations.
“That was the basis for saying the compensation, which is market value plus 35 per cent, is generous in terms of normal compulsory acquisition schemes,” Mr Love said.
Improving supply chain efficiency at Fremantle harbour is high on the agenda. Gabriel Oliveira
Port plans
After nearly a year as chair of Fremantle Ports and a member of the Westport Taskforce, Mr Love flagged four important sets of issues that need to be addressed.
One is the design of the new port to be built at Cockburn Sound.
“There is a wide range of choices, from replicating current technology and process to something that looks quite different,” he said.
“It could look like the front end of a conveyor belt, and all the sorting and lifting happens somewhere else.
“We have no preconceptions about that.
“That will have big implications for the container supply chain and what footprint we need in Cockburn Sound, and so on.
“That’s a big piece of work we’re about to start.
“Even before that, job one is to work through the environmental issues so we’re confident the new infrastructure can be built in a way that enhances rather than detracts from the environment of Cockburn Sound.
“That’s a go, no-go decision.”
While the Westport taskforce has focused on container trade, Mr Love said it would be necessary to look at other trades, such as bulk, break bulk and roll-on, roll-off.
“And not just Fremantle Ports, but Southern Ports as well, and possibly up to Geraldton,” he said.
“That work has not been done in a comprehensive manner, so that’s being kicked off.”
In the interim, Mr Love said the port authority would seek to reduce its impact and emissions, and test new systems.
This would include exploring ways to reduce the number of truck movements.
“It has got progressively more efficient, but there is still a lot more that we can do,” Mr Love said.
“As part of that, what else do we need to look at and understand to further optimise the entire supply chain?
“Ports have traditionally looked at their part of the puzzle but haven’t been as active in trying to manage outcomes for the entire supply chain as they could.”
As if that wasn’t enough, Mr Love said there was another body of work around the future of the existing inner harbour at Fremantle after the new port was built.
