Why coming out made Hub24’s CEO a better leader

“Yes, there has been profound change, but I think we have contributed to making that change,” he says. “We’ve always been looking over the hill and thinking about where things are going. We’ve not just been lucky.”

Special sauce

Industry insiders say luck should take at least some credit. “A disruptive platform play was extremely well timed for the last cycle,” says a veteran wealth executive. “Having said that, the real disrupters are those that are genuine fintechs and not just platform providers.”

For Alcock, that is Hub24’s special sauce. And it’s what made him leave his job as chief operating officer of the ill-fated Genesys Wealth Advisers firm after five years – as it changed hands from Challenger to AXA to AMP – and take a bet on a loss-making start-up.

He initially rejected the approach from the head-hunter (and his former boss at Genesys) Greg Kirk, now chairman of investment consultancy Implemented Portfolios and fintech Lumiant.

But just as Alcock tells shareholders and clients today, it was Hub24’s proprietary technology that stood out.

“Once I saw what Hub was actually doing and how much better it was for consumers and advisers, I said ‘Wow,’” he says, listing individual tax calculators as a platform innovation that was ahead of its time. “I took the step to back myself and go on that journey.”

Tech has also been his own special sauce. As a kid growing up on Sydney’s north shore, Alcock wanted to be a professional keyboardist. When that fell through, and he realised he didn’t have the grades to study his second-choice career of medicine, he took a cadetship with the nascent Computer Industry Training Programme through the Australian Computer Society and TAFE NSW.

In an industry generally run by former salesmen or portfolio managers, Alcock’s early career as a software developer has been a competitive advantage.

“Absolutely, it made a difference. Because we were growing so fast you had to really understand,” he says. “I could hold my own against the technical guys.”

IT gave Alcock a grounding in project management before the term was widely used, he says. It helped him foster a culture at Hub24 that valued ideas and innovation. “To me business isn’t about sales and revenue,” he says. “We’re creating something that has meaning and purpose for the value chain and customer.”

To me business isn’t about sales and revenue. We’re creating something that has meaning.

— Andrew Alcock, Hub24

It also led him to financial services. He was poached by his client Tyndall while working as a consultant for global IT firm DMR (now part of Fujitsu). He went on to become the wealth manager’s chief operating officer before securing his first CEO gig as chief of Australian Administration Services (now part of Link Market Services), a major tech provider to big not-for-profit superannuation funds.

“Industry super land was interesting, but it wasn’t me,” he says. “It wasn’t about commercial imperatives and you were one step removed from the customer. I missed the retail side of the business.”

Competitive streak

Despite his musical ambitions and his early foray into IT, Alcock – the son of a property developer and chartered accountant – discovered he’d developed a taste for serious business and had become more competitive than he thought he was. The trait was only exacerbated at Hub24, with its perennial comparison to arch-competitor Netwealth.

Often spoken about in the same breath, it’s a rivalry that Alcock says inspires more than it irritates. “Both of us have played a role in reshaping this industry,” he says of Netwealth.

“Competition is healthy and I respect them immensely. But I believe we’ve led and not followed on product.”

And though Alcock might not be on the Financial Review Rich List, unlike Netwealth’s owners the Heine family, by any measure his bet on Hub24 has paid off. His shareholding in the company is worth about $26 million.

But his pivots from software coder to institutional middle manager to ASX 200 CEO and fintech millionaire were not the only reinventions Alcock had to contend with – and were by no means the most difficult.

Around the same time he became frustrated and disillusioned with life in a big institution and was readying for a return to tech, the father-of-three was also coming to a monumental conclusion in his personal life.

Alcock has been open about his sexuality with friends, family and industry colleagues for a few years, but spoke to BOSS about it for the first time publicly in the hope that it might inspire other budding executives to be their authentic selves.

“There was a time when my personal life challenged me. I wasn’t comfortable, my view was ‘Don’t go there,’” he says.

“As a leader, you can have those boundaries, but if you want to go on a journey with people and succeed together, being real and honest is important.

“I have a male partner and that may not have been conventional [in the past] but it certainly shouldn’t be an issue.

“Understanding who I am and being comfortable letting the world know … is actually quite liberating and helps me be a better leader.”

A former colleague says the experience of coming out has given Alcock “some of his steel”, helping him to handle Hub24’s rapid growth.

Those who have seen him in a boardroom environment describe him as “candid”, even “awkwardly direct”, ruffling the feathers of some who prefer politically correct pleasantries.

It was that candidness that made Alcock feel like he “didn’t fit in” at AMP, with its boys club and “entrenched way of doing business” – a model that would ultimately come unstuck at the royal commission and last year’s furore over its handling of sexual harassment claims.

“I was inconvenient,” Alcock says. “I was seen as a squeaky wheel for calling things out. Whereas at Hub, challenging the status quo is what we do.”

He has found belonging not just in the boardroom but at home.

In September next year, Alcock will marry his partner, Matt, in a ceremony painfully postponed by the pandemic.

He is even considering busting out the keyboard.