From Australian Rugby Captain to Corporate Climber

Stephen Moore is known as one of Australia's greatest rugby union players – a titan on the field. However, he had to face a difficult decision to start again in a new career when his body decided it was time to retire from professional sport. Stephen discusses why lifelong learning is a powerful tool in his transition into the corporate world.

Not many people know that before I went into an Australian rugby career, I was studying a Bachelor of Biomedical Science to become a doctor. Science gives you a good grounding in how to think about things – it’s excellent for an inquisitive mind like mine, it looks at why something happens and how it happens. I think my need to understand how parts work together to contribute to a bigger picture still fuels my thinking today.

I got two years into my Biomedical Science Degree at The University of Queensland and started to play university rugby union, where I represented the Australian Under 19s.  An opportunity to play rugby full time arose with the Queensland Reds, so I jumped in head-first.

Growing up, sport was a significant part of my life. My family moved from Ireland when I was just five to a small rural town of only 2000 people in Queensland called Mount Morgan, which was very different from my home country. It was here that I spent most of my childhood with my three sisters.

There weren’t many distractions in a small country town, so we often had to find ways to create our own entertainment. This developed my love of sport from a young age – especially cricket, rugby and even swimming.

I was a huge fan of sporting legends Steve Waugh and Kieren Perkins. Olympic swimmer, Daniel Kowalski was also from Mount Morgan and came back with his medals after the 1996 Olympics. His visit had such a big impact on the community – myself included.  It definitely lit a fire within me and enhanced my relationship with sport.

I decided I wanted to transfer my leadership knowledge off-field into the business world and set out to reposition myself in a corporate environment. It’s not easy to start from the bottom again, but I had some excellent mentors. I can’t stress enough how important good mentors are. I had three people that I trusted, who offered me great counsel. They also helped open up their networks and gave me advice on who to connect with.

When I landed my first corporate role at The North Australian Pastoral Company, I spent a lot of time reading as much as I could on the company before I started. Educating myself on the entire company operations, culture and values was a really important part in hitting the ground running in my new career.