David Stevenson

"Yarra taught me not just to stick to my interests but to try new things to progress."

Since leaving Yarra, David Stevenson’s career in management has taken him around the world before finally bringing him back to Melbourne.

He spent 17 years with global sporting giant, Nike - about half that time David was in Australia and the remainder of the time he worked at Nike headquarters in the US, China and Hong Kong.

After Nike he spent time as the CEO of the Western Bulldogs and witnessed the club winning its first AFL premiership after a 62-year drought. Now working for the AFL as the GM of Operations, he is also on a number of boards, including Chair of Dental Health Services Victoria which is the agency for public dental health across Victoria.

David joined Yarra in Year 7 and says he spent as much time as possible outside playing volleyball, footy and cricket.

“I’ve got great memories of the school camps, too. It was a chance to get to know kids you might not have spent a lot of time with otherwise – and there was always a bit of mischief! Not all the stories from camp made it back to school!” he says.

David joined the choir and the debating team and later studied business-focused subjects that set him up well for his future career, particularly at Nike. He completed a business management degree at Monash University and has completed the Australian Company Directors course.

“Nike is an amazing organisation with a culture focused on teamwork and collaboration. It’s bold and ambitious and encourages people to dream big,” he says.

“I’d been in the US for several months and was asked to move to China. The CEO of Nike said he wanted me to go there and open five new Nike stores…a day. We did that every day for a year and had 7,000 stores by the time I left China.”

Working with the AFL has been rewarding and after the challenges of the pandemic, David says the focus for 2022 is on getting the fans back to the footy.

“The level of connection between the fans and the game has changed – more people are watching it on TV – and we want to bring people back to the games,” he says.

“For many people, I think football gave them hope during lockdowns. It gave them an escape from the craziness of COVID and from the financial and health challenges they were facing.”

While his working life gives him a sense of purpose, David says being a great dad to his three children, and a great husband to his wife, are his most important priority.

“Finding balance and quality time as a dad, husband, son and friend matters,” he says.