Our DNA ... the team
Charles Happell - Managing Director
In his 30 years as a journalist, Charles Happell has covered many of the world’s leading sports events, including the Italia90 World Cup, Sydney Olympics and US Masters golf. Journalism has also taken him to Canberra, writing on Australian Federal politics, to London for the Sunday Correspondent newspaper and to Milan where he worked for Reuters news agency. After joining The Age in 1993, he wrote about golf (including five US Masters), AFL and cricket - before becoming the paper’s Sports Editor in 2002. He has covered two Olympic Games, in Sydney and Athens, the latter as joint editor of a 20-strong Fairfax team. After leaving The Age, he became Crikey’s chief sports columnist and authored two best-selling books: The Bone Man of Kokoda and (as ghost writer) Wayne Carey's autobiography, The Truth Hurts. In 2010, he co-founded leading independent sports opinion website, BackPageLead.
A modest performer in the Prahran CC 1st XI middle-order during the 1980s, he has no trouble however in racking up big scores on the golf course. His wife thinks he watches too much sport on TV.
Michael Reid - Director
Michael Reid has spent much of the past 30 years tootling from one major sports event to another, laptop in hand. He has covered the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2007 rugby World Cup, both in France. He also has extensive news service experience as a senior editor – at the Sydney, Beijing and London Olympic Games, the Vancouver and Sochi Winter Olympic Games and he will play a lead role at the 2015 rugby World Cup in the UK - as he did at the 2011 tournament in New Zealand. As a reporter at the Herald Sun and The Age, Michael covered a range of sports, including the AFL, the national soccer and basketball leagues and Sheffield Shield cricket. Since moving to the UK, he has been published in the Guardian, the Sunday Times, the Sunday Telegraph and the Daily Record. As well as being a news-service gun-for-hire, Michael’s talents are sought after elsewhere: he was hired to become the sports editor for the launch of the Brunei Times; more recently, he has lectured in journalism in Glasgow, Manchester and London.
Away from his desk, Michael is a mad Manchester United fan and Celtic FC devotee, sometime hippie, real ale quaffer and Cliff Young impersonator.