Hastings Co-op CEO Allan Gordon:

Allan was the CEO of Hastings Co-operative from May 2013 onwards and during that period grew the entity from from 13 to 20 different businesses and increased consolidated revenues by 42%.

Allan also sat on the Board of Regional Australia Bank until he retired from the position in November 2021.

Previously Allan been Chairman of the Holiday Coast Credit Union Board prior to its merger with Regional Australia Bank in July 2019. 

Allan had a background in business consulting and specialised in compliance work for managed investments schemes.

Allan held a Bachelor of Business Degree from Monash University as well as a Graduate Diploma in Education from QUT. 

Support & Encouragement For Portmac.News:

I first met Allan Gordon just weeks after launching Portmac.News, prior to COVID, back in late 2018.

At that time I pitched to him the idea of placing Portmac.News flat screen information displays into the Co-ops IGA stores - he liked the idea.

Back in 2018 the custom software application I had written to run the Portmac.News website was underdeveloped & required additional work in order to make it capable of & stable enough to deliver a fully automatic, multi-site, in-store news display service, as envisaged.

Time flew by - Then along came COVID.

The virus meant priorities changed; we had to shelve our planed roll-out of in-store flat screens & free standing, touchscreeh operated information terminals, in light of changes to the media market & COVID related health restrictions.

During the COVID period we focused on building our user base and modifying our code in light of changing consumer needs & data security requirements.

We perfected our software & the current version allows us to automatically deliver multiple site specific information streams & our website service simultaneously from the same database and server application.

Having got that all fixed up & working, ironically, it was in my plan this year to revisit & re-pitch to Allan, but now sadly that wont be possible.

And that's such a shame as I think he would have gotten a kick out of seeing the whole thing in full operation.

So at this sad time we all wish Allan's family well & we look forward to the opportunity to continue our conversation with the Hastings Co-op via Allan's successor when convenient.