He helped save rugby league and turned one car dealership into a $2 billion fortune. But it’s never been just about the money – it’s also about loyalty.
It was around two o’clock one morning when Phil Gould’s phone rang. On the end of the line was his dad delivering some bad news. Gould’s mother, who’d been suffering from severe headaches, was at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital and had taken a terrible turn. Gould, a former star rugby league player and premiership-winning coach, feared his mum might not make it.
Loyalty is a word that comes up often when people talk about Politis, which may explain his nickname, the Godfather. It’s a sobriquet he dislikes intensely. “If Nick’s in a room with car manufacturers and other dealers, and he says something, you can hear a pin drop,” says Ward. “He’s the Godfather of the automotive industry.” There are more than 2000 family-operated car dealerships in Australia.
While Politis is one of Australia’s most successful businessmen, he is also one of the country’s most successful migrants. And like so many migrants, his start in life was tougher than most. His story, literally, begins with a bang.their first significant birthday present: a watch, a bike or maybe, more recently, a mobile phone. For Nick Politis, it was a grenade. He was four years old.
From an early age, a strong work ethic was instilled in him. He attended school, quickly improving his English, and in the afternoons helped out at the cafe or manned the petrol bowser outside it. There was no high school in Blackall, so his parents saved and when he was old enough, he was sent away to Ipswich Grammar. In Ipswich, Politis lived with extended family, who ran a fruit shop, where he would work after school.
On another wall are photos of him with members of the Ford motoring dynasty. There’s also a plaque of seven quotes from Henry Ford about the importance of enthusiasm. The father of the motor car believed enthusiasm was the root of all progress, whether in business or life. It’s a motto Politis has tried to live by, ever since he was hired by Ford as a graduate trainee straight out of the University of Queensland, where he’d studied commerce and economics.
Politis won’t discuss his son’s death. Quayle is not surprised; it’s a no-go subject. Politis is guarded about most of his private life, especially his two other children, Anthony and Erin. Anthony works in Politis’ private car business, known as WFM Motors, as does Erin’s husband. Asked about his former marriage, Politis declines to answer any questions. Nor will he discuss his long-term partner, Fiona.
was building his fortune in cars, he was also establishing his influential network through football, the community in which he anchored himself after his son’s death. “Everybody follows something, I follow rugby league and the Roosters, that’s my outlet,” he says. Kerry Packer had bypass surgery that same year, after a massive heart attack. Packer died for seven minutes before he was revived. Both men were operated on by Victor Chang, who was murdered a year later in a botched extortion attempt. Politis has looked after his health ever since his operation, watching what he eats and drinks and exercising regularly. “Greeks, we like food, and we eat too much,” he says. “I try to eat less. I do a lot of yoga, which is good.
“The Murdochs offered him an awful lot of money to get him to switch, and he wouldn’t take it,” says Graham Richardson, a former federal Labor minister who was working for Kerry Packer at the time. “I’ve found that’s not normal in life.”Phil Gould was coaching the Roosters through the Super League period, and says if Politis and the Roosters had jumped, the ARL’s competition would have collapsed. “Nick said he could never live with himself if it meant the demise of the other ARL clubs.
McInnes stayed on the Roosters board despite some pressure that he go. At the time, Politis fired back at the critics, saying: “Get one thing straight, at this club we take care of our own. And if one of us is going through a hard time, I can promise you I will be there to support them.”while we chat in his office. The calls become insistent, so after a while he apologises and answers it.