It’s clear the bar and restaurant in Perth’s Parmelia Hilton is a favourite of the 72-year-old,who has guided the strategy of some of the country’s biggest firms and is widely considered one of Western Australia’s most successful corporate advisers.
Prominent Perth businessman John Poynton AO and WAtoday reporter Jesinta Burton at Samuels on Mill.Ebony Talijancich.
“[The staff are] putting it on,I don’t come here that often,” he insists.
It’s a fitting venue,nestled between the office of his financial consultancy business,Poynton Stavrianou,and Westralia Square,the building that once bore his father’s name.
He says the years he spent at Hartley Poynton’s eponymous stockbroking firm were among his most formative.
“By the time I got to the last two or three years of school,I actually asked[my father] what he thought I should do,” he tells me.
“I’d been observing what he’d been doing over the years peripherally,I’d been in the office,I’d heard him on the phone talking business,and when I was 15 I said,‘You know,I think what you do sounds pretty interesting’.”
In response,Hartley set out a long list of skills and experiences his son should acquire before embarking on a career in finance:from getting a commerce and geology degree to learning the language of WA’s then-major trading partner,getting a pilot’s licence and working in England.
The issue,Poynton claims,which I struggle to believe,is that he “wasn’t that bright”.
“So,I did a commerce degree,but took a little longer to finish;I tried learning Japanese,without success;I got a pilot’s licence and I worked in London — I cherry-picked,” he says.
Poynton also worked for the government in Consumer Affairs before joining his father’s firm in 1976,where he would remain for the next two decades.
Prominent Perth businessman John Poynton AO felt the pressure of his father’s legacy – from his mother.Ebony Talijancich.
It was there he finally found where the action was:on the floor of the Perth Stock Exchange.
“It was becoming more and more buoyant,a lot of fun,there was a lot of camaraderie,and we used to muck around all the time doing things we weren’t supposed to — watching surreptitious TV,Conan the Barbarian movies,playing cricket,” he says.
His father retired in the early 1980s and Poynton worked his way up to partner,before becoming managing director of Hartley Poynton on the eve of the 1987 Black Monday stockmarket crash.
Poynton said his mother was “very clear” about the pressure of his father’s legacy.
“He was a man of integrity,and the profession did have cowboys,especially in the 1960s-70s,so there was pressure to live up to a particular standard and,you know,the surname is on the wall.”
It was during the 1990s Poynton shifted from stockbroking to the more lucrative field of corporate advisory - his passion for flying,however,did not waver.
Poynton’s love of helicopters is almost as well-documented as the high-flyers who chose to travel with him,a decision that in 2021.
He spent eight years with GEM Consulting before co-founding Azure Capital in 2004,which he chaired until 2016.
Since then,Poynton has held a range of board roles,including with the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Payments System Board,as chair of ASX Perth and Alinta Energy,director of Austal and Multiplex,non-executive chair of Strike Energy and non-executive director of Perth Airport. He has also spent time on the boards of not-for-profits including the WA Museum and Celebrate WA.
Poynton has held many board positions but his role at Crown Perth attracted the most scrutiny.Ebony Talijancich.
“It’s mostly determined by people I like and respect asking me and areas I have an interest in,” he says,as lunch arrives – Cajun chicken salad for me,his regular chilli crab aglio e olio for him.
Of all Poynton’s positions,the role that attracted the most scrutiny was at Crown Perth.
Poynton served on the Crown Perth board from 2004 and was appointed to the national board in November 2018,before stepping down at the request of the NSW gambling regulator in early 2021.
His close relationship with James Packer,who stepped down as chair of Crown Resorts in March 2018,was scrutinised during the NSW inquiry and Perth Casino Royal Commission.
That extended to a $50,000-a-year consultancy deal the pair struck for top-secret information on the Crown businesses.
While the commission ultimately absolved Poynton of any wrongdoing over the agreement,it’s clear media coverage of the matter is still a raw topic.
“We could talk about that the whole lunch,” he tells me.
Poynton returning,after a break,to the casino commission,during which the high-profile participants attracted as much attention as the probe itself.Trevor Collens
“There were particular instances where we would question things like money laundering around the board table,and would be given presentations by both management and external consultants insisting this was best practice.”
Coverage of the inquiry and the high-profile Perth businesspeople embroiled in it were the subject of as much discussion in business and media circles as the probe itself.
This wasn’t just because it had entangled Seven West Media director John Alexander and WA chief executive Maryna Fewster,both of whom served as directors of Crown Resorts Perth and fronted the probe,but due to Poynton’s unrelenting feud with Seven West’s powerful chair Kerry Stokes.
“Someone like Kerry Stokes obviously used it as an opportunity to really put the boots into me,because he doesn’t like me,” he says of the formidable billionaire,whose businesses span mining,property and ownership of Western Australia’s only daily newspaper.
It’s worth noting Seven has repeatedly rejected insinuations its proprietor asserts any influence overThe West Australian in a way that compromises its editorial independence.
Poynton first crossed paths with the media mogul in 1989,when he was charged with leading a consortium that would drag WA Newspapers out of receivership after the collapse of businessman Alan Bond’s Bond Corp.
Newly formed West Australian Newspapers Holdings bought the paper before being floated in an oversubscribed $185 million public offering.
As the story goes,Poynton approached Stokes about being part of the consortium,an offer Stokes declined in favour of pursuing the newspaper as a direct competitor.
When the Poynton-led consortium won,Stokes,who went on to control the Seven Network,had to acquire a controlling stake in the paper at much higher prices in the years that followed.
Another bit of folklore is that Poynton’s father,Hartley,blackballed Stokes when he went to become a member of the men’s only Weld Club.
But it’s a tale Poynton insists is fictitious,having investigated its veracity himself.
Poynton with wife Di Bain,who ran for Perth Lord Mayor against prominent Seven West Media personality Basil Zempilas in 2020.Matthew Tompsett
As he takes a call mid-lunch,I remember Poynton’s wife,Di Bain,former journalist-now-Tourism WA boss,ran for Perth Lord Mayor against prominent Seven West Media personality Basil Zempilas in 2020.
It’s clear Poynton is reluctant to be drawn further on Stokes,but it’s not difficult to read between the lines:“There’s been a pattern,and that’s where I’ll leave it,” he says.
“People like me get singled out,and you can’t fight back,and it makes people uncomfortable.”
Someone who recently did fight back was billionaire Andrew Forrest,who accused Stokes of weaponising the newspaper to attack him in an address to staff in February 2023 after the collapse of a commercial deal.
Poynton had the option of leaving the insular WA business scene for the east coast in his 30s,when he was offered a job running a firm in Sydney. To this day,he wonders whether it was a “cop-out” to stay.
It’s clear he is passionate about West Australians being represented in significant enterprises in the east,saying those from the west are often typecast as “white-shoe cowboys”.
But he says WA’s growing importance to the national economy has turned that on its head,and he credits Wesfarmers chairman Michael Chaney with aiding that shift in perception,as well as senior executives from miners BHP and Rio,and Mineral Resources’ billionaire boss Chris Ellison.
Poynton himself has earned plenty of accolades,from being awarded WA Citizen of the Year in the industry and commerce category to being made a member of the Order of Australia in 2016.
One giveaway that he is not exaggerating his lack of academic achievement is seeing him visibly recoil at the mention of honours he’s received as an alumnus,including a Dean’s Medal and an honorary doctorate from the University of Western Australia.
Poynton says WA’s growing importance to the national economy has challenged perceptions of its people as “white-shoe cowboys”.Ebony Talijancich.
“The problem is that you feel like a complete fool because I was hopeless at school — and I’ve lived in eternal fear that the school and the university will pull out my academic transcript,” he says.
“I really respect people’s ability to get good results,but I don’t think it’s all about academic achievement. There’s so much more.”
For a man who claims to have been a mediocre student,Poynton has carved out an outstanding career. As we walk back down the Terrace,I ask him what advice he would give to others.
“It’s kind of a cliche to say,but you can design your own future,” he says.
“And once you’ve achieved a series of goals,reward yourself along the way.”
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