JAN STEWART
CEO
LOTTERYWEST
AUSTRALIA
My career in the lottery industry began in July 1987 when I was offered a position as a consultant to the Board of the Lotteries Commission of Western Australia (LCWA - now Lotterywest) as a grant consultant. The LCWA was established in 1933, and was not only given the responsibility to run a lottery, it was also given the responsibility directly to distribute a proportion of the revenues raised in the form of grants to charity and community groups in Western Australia.
My background is social work (graduated with a Masters of Social Work in 1992). Two years previously I had resigned from the position of Chief Social Worker at Western Australia’s paediatric teaching hospital to raise our first child. It was this background in community service that led the Board to invite me to assist them in their grant making decisions.
Gradually, the job developed to the point in 1990 where I became the first 'Director of Community Funding' having by then set up a proper funding program structure, public grant guidelines, a simple application process, and proper grant records and grant process. The team I led began to develop a range of innovative grant programs, and today have a national reputation in the community service and philanthropic sector for innovative grant making. 95% of our grant applicants succeed in their requests (because we work with them to help them succeed), and our customers recently reported on all rankings a more than 95% positive score for their experience in dealing with Lotterywest.
In 1992, after an extensive executive search and selection process, I was formally appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer, a position I have held since that time.
The sales turnover of Lotterywest in 1992 was $A302.9 million. In the financial year 2006/2007 it was $A599 million.
The sales increase in 2006/2007 against the previous year was 9.6%, including a 15% increase in instant lottery sales.
Return to beneficiaries was $A185 million, including the direct grants program of $A75 million
National and International Contribution to the Lottery Industry
I am a member of the Australian lottery industry group the 'Australian Lotto Bloc', and have chaired the Powerball Bloc since 1996.
In 1995, Lotterywest hosted an international lottery conference on behalf of the then 'Intertoto'. I was responsible for the total planning and leadership of the conference and trade show, which saw 1000 delegates come to Perth.
Since then I have attended either AILE or Intertoto conferences every year until the merger that led to the formation of the World Lottery Association in 1999. At virtually every lottery and WLA conference since 1995 I have been invited to make a presentation or to moderate a business session (or both).
In Oslo 1999, I was elected as the inaugural President of the newly formed Asia Pacific Lottery Association (APLA), a position I held for 5 years.
As President of APLA, I initiated, organized, and hosted two regional seminars in Perth (1999 and 2002), and the inaugural APLA Lottery Association conference in September 2004 attended by 130 delegates from 38 organizations and 16 countries.
In addition during that time, hosted a number of visits by representatives of the lotteries of North/East Asia [Thailand, China, Japan, Korea, Singapore], who came to us on study tours.
As the APLA delegate I joined the Executive Committee of WLA in 2000, a position in which I served until November 2005.
At the WLA Congress in Durban in November 2005 I was elected by the WLA membership to one of the 7 elected positions on the Executive Committee.
I subsequently was appointed Vice President, and most recently at the Singapore conference in 2006 I was re-elected to the Executive Committee and appointed to the position of Senior Vice President.
In my WLA capacity, I have been a member of the Security and Strategic Development Committees since 2000. Most recently in 2006 I have taken on the leadership of the WLA Communications Committee, (which responsibility includes working with the WLA staff to develop a strategic communication plan, to redevelop the website and the magazine), and in May 2007 the task of leading a group to work on the development of WLA marketing standards for our membership.
In 2006, I took on the responsibility of the co-ordination of the recruitment, selection, and appointment of the new Executive Director of WLA, following the retirement of the Secretary-General. I also co-ordinated all the farewell tributes to her at her retirement function.
Summary
Lotterywest is one of the smaller lotteries (and certainly Perth is the most isolated capital in the world – albeit with arguably the largest geographical territory of the lottery world). Despite that, Lotterywest has acquired an international reputation for excellence in the way we have positioned our values driven Lotterywest brand (we developed this new brand in 2004), the way we manage our partnership with our retailers, and especially for our relationship with our beneficiaries, and our whole community.
Lotterywest has a team of dedicated and creative staff of whom I am very proud.
Through our combined efforts, it has been gratifying to see Lotterywest recognized as a leader among lotteries of the world.
We regularly receive requests for information from our international colleagues on the way we do things in Western Australia, and have often hosted international visitors who wish to learn from us.
In the past 15 years I have developed a wide network of colleagues across the international lottery industry, many of whom I am proud to call friend as well as colleague.
Since my almost 'accidental' and unplanned entry to the lottery business back in 1987, I have found this business an endless source of interest and personal satisfaction. I am committed to excellence in the operations of Lotterywest, in the World Lottery Association, and to making whatever contribution I can to enhance the standing of the lottery business throughout the world.
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