Create Advisory taps former Melbourne mayor Sally Capp as new CEO

Create Advisory – the infrastructure & major projects consultancy established by Nicole Scurrah last year – has appointed former Melbourne lord mayor Sally Capp as its new chief executive.

Sally Capp, granted AO status last year, stepped down after six years as Melbourne’s lord mayor in June, after previously spending time as KPMG’s head of markets for Victoria among a myriad of other senior roles across a three-decade career.

Capp’s appointment follows a run of promotions and targeted expansion at Create Advisory, including the recruitment of former Deloitte national health & human services leader Luke Baxby to set up an adjacent healthcare consultancy.

Speaking with the AFR, Scurrah, who bailed from the Sayers partnership last year after previously serving as chief of staff to former Queensland premier Anna Bligh, said the appointment of Capp would allow her to spend more time focusing on her areas of expertise in serving clients as Create’s executive chair, describing the consultancy’s new CEO as quite different in personality.

“Sally has all the skills that I don’t, we’re almost like Word and Excel together.” Scurrah said. “She loves being in the market and talking to people, and she deeply understands the arena of compromise between perfect and policy outcomes. That’s what you need when you are advising the private sector or even government on a business case, understanding what can really happen.”

Capp started her career in 1992 as a lawyer at what would become Herbert Smith Freehills (its tax advisory line since picked up by PwC), and then worked in C-suite roles at the ANZ Bank, Committee for Melbourne, the Property Council of Australia, and Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, before being the first directly-elected female lord mayor of Melbourne in 2018.

For the footy-minded, Capp was also a one-time director of the Collingwood Football Club, whose most fierce rival in Carlton is headed by Luke Sayers as president, the former PwC Australia managing partner who defected from the Big Four firm to establish his own eponymous consultancy in 2020, bringing Scurrah along before her own defection with a dozen staff last year.

Capp, who will continue in her current role as vice-chancellor’s fellow at the University of Melbourne, said of her latest appointment; “I am thrilled to join Create Advisory. Nicole has built an impressive business over the past 18 months with an experienced board and talented team of experts. Together, we will continue to grow nationally delivering quality advice for valued clients.”

It’s clear that Scurrah means business. After persuading Baxby to join her endeavour, Create Health has since lured a stack of senior talent, including former BDO partner Joseph Occhino and Deloitte directors Mihovil Matic and Melissa Carter as principals. The firm all up now has a headcount of around 30 professionals, with paralympian Michael Dobbie-Bridges also on board as a director.