Anthony Heraghty, the former boss of Rebel Sport’s owner, has had less time in the corporate sin bin than his former employer spent fighting to discredit the tawdry, but ultimately true allegations made against him.

Last September, Heraghty was dumped after misleading the board of the $4 billion Super Retail over an affair with a subordinate, a scandal that cost the company nearly $30 million in legal bills.

This week, he was unveiled as the new chief executive of Winning Group, the century-old family-owned luxury white goods retailer, as it gears up for a potential sharemarket float.

Winning’s decision to hire the former Super Retail boss so soon after he was dumped last year is a big call for the company to make.

Especially so at a time when the treatment of whistleblowers has been thrust into the spotlight by the escalating scandal at KPMG, which was sparked by a whistleblower’s allegations about staff illicitly accessing boardroom documents.

In late 2023, anonymous whistleblower complaints were made to Super Retail alleging that Heraghty was in a clandestine relationship with head of human resources, Jane Kelly.

Court documents would later allege that in October that year, Heraghty’s executive assistant had resigned after being contacted by the CEO’s wife (now ex-wife) with evidence the affair began in 2020.

Heraghty and Kelly took great lengths to deny the affair, with Super Retail’s board going along for the ride in an attempt at damage control that was both comically bumbling and viciously retributive.

In April 2024, a bombshell pre-emptive statement was released to the ASX flagging impending litigation to be brought by two employees, alleging the affair, and claiming damages of between $30 and $50 million. The board insisted that none of the allegations were substantiated, citing a review conducted by external advisors, later revealed to be law firm Hamilton Locke.

Those allegations were further detailed in a statement of claim filed in the Federal Court in July 2024 by former chief legal officer Rebecca Farrell and company secretary Amelia Berczelly, which included allegations of bullying, harassment and breaches of whistleblower protections, all stemming from the undisclosed relationship between Heraghty and Jones.

These were no longer anonymous whispers, but serious claims made by two of the company’s most senior legal officers, who now alleged that Super Retail had tried to destroy their careers after they had sought to bring the affair to light.

For 18 months, Super Group fought an aggressive media and public relations battle to defend Heraghty. Before Farrell and Berczelly’s identities were made public, their legal team at Harmers’ Workplace lawyers responded to the company’s April ASX announcement with a statement defending the pair against “deliberate misrepresentations” and “an internal campaign of suppression via fear”.

Super Group responded by terminating Farrell and Berczelly, and taking preliminary steps toward suing them and Harmers for defamation. The pair also denied that they were asking for anywhere near the $50 million cited by Super Retail.

Both women later told the court they were hospitalised for the stress. In an affidavit, Berczelly said she believed the company had “wanted to push me to kill myself, destroy my reputation, and bankrupt me as a means to silence me and punish me”.

The company insisted that their allegations were not true, sought to defend the litigation, and unsuccessfully tried to stop Harmers acting for the pair. Journalists covering Super Group’s results were firmly instructed that the allegations against Heraghty were not up for discussion.

All of this makes last September’s volte-face all the more galling. Facing a flurry of subpoenas related to the litigation, Super Group announced that Heraghty had been terminated after it had received “new information” regarding his relationship with Kelly.

“In light of this new information, the board has concluded Mr Heraghty’s prior disclosures were not satisfactory.”

Super Group quickly settled, although an Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation of the whistleblower dispute remains ongoing.

And now Heraghty, whose actions cost Super Group $28.3 million in legal fees (most of which went to paying settlements to the whistleblowers) and caused immense psychological damage to two women, has landed merrily on his feet.

It is hard to believe that a female chief executive would have won redemption in the corporate world as quickly as Heraghty has.

Winning’s decision to hire Heraghty comes after it recently secured a new investment from Ellerston Capital, and as it targets a $1 billion listing next year. No doubt the company sees Heraghty as key to these float plans (which could also be lucrative for Heraghty).

However, it has also faced a series of high-profile departures, and multiple unfair dismissal claims.

Perhaps that’s another reason why they sought out Heraghty, a bloke who knows how to fight like hell on such matters. We did give the company an opportunity to explain themselves, or better yet, let Heraghty tell us in his own words how he’s learnt from his mistakes. They did not take us up on the offer. But apparently, staff at Winning are very impressed by the new boss’s “energy”, according to a write-up in the appliances industry trade press.

Some people, it seems, just can’t stop winning.

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