Leslie Janusz Hooker (born 28 September 1969) is an Australian businessman and former Australian national champion and representative

rower Rowing, often called crew in the United States, is the sport of racing boats using oars. It differs from paddling sports in that rowing oars (called blades in the United Kingdom) are attached to the boat using rowlocks, while paddles are ...

who won a bronze medal at the

1996 Atlanta Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Family background and education

Hooker's grandfather

Leslie Joseph Hooker Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker (18 August 1903 – 29 April 1976) (born Leslie Joseph Tingyou) was an Australian property entrepreneur, businessman and philanthropist. From humble beginnings he created the LJ Hooker empire and was at one time Austra ...

("LJ") was born in Canterbury, Sydney and was of Chinese heritage. He started a real estate business in

Maroubra, New South Wales Maroubra ( ) is a beachside suburb in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is 10 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local government area ...

in 1928 which by his retirement in 1974, had grown into the

LJ Hooker LJ Hooker is one of Australia's largest real estate groups, with 600 franchise offices and 6,000 people engaged in residential and commercial property sales and property management. The company was founded in 1928 by Sir Leslie Joseph Hooker a ...

national real estate network with more than 2300 staff and assets of almost $200 million. LJ's second son David married Urszula Tomaszewska and they had two children Leslie Janusz and Natalia Hooker. Janusz Hooker was educated in Sydney at

SCECGS Redlands Redlands, Sydney Church of England Co-educational Grammar School, is a multi-campus Independent school, independent co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, primary, and Secondary school, secondary day Anglican school ...

. He studied at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

where he was a member of the

St. Anthony Hall St. Anthony Hall or the Fraternity of Delta Psi is an American fraternity and literary society. Its first chapter was founded at Columbia University on , the feast day of Saint Anthony the Great. The fraternity is a non–religious, nonsectar ...

fraternity. He has a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the

Wharton School of Business The Wharton School ( ) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia. Established in 1881 through a donation from Joseph Wharton, a co-founder of Bethlehem Steel, the Wharton ...

, with a concentration in finance.

Club and state rowing

While at school Hooker rowed for the

Mosman Rowing Club Mosman Rowing Club is an all-level competitive and recreational Rowing (sport), rowing club on the North Shore (Sydney), North Shore of Sydney. Since 2007 the club's facilities have been wholly located at The Spit, New South Wales, The Spit in S ...

and was coached by Bruce Evans. At the 1986

Australian Rowing Championships The Australian Rowing Championships is an annual rowing event that determines Australia's national rowing champions and facilitates selection of Australian representative crews for World Championships and the Olympic Games. It is Australia's pre ...

he contested and placed third in the national schoolboy single sculls title. In 1987 he won the national U19 single sculls title in Mosman colours at the

Australian Championships The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events every year, held be ...

and placed second in the schoolboy scull racing for Redlands. In 1987 he was Australia's junior sculler selected for the Trans-Tasman match series against New Zealand. Hooker won all of his match races. In 1988 he first made state selection for New South Wales as stroke of the youth eight which won the Noel Wilkinson Trophy at the Interstate Regatta within the

. As a composite

Mosman Mosman is a suburb on the Lower North Shore region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Mosman is located 8 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local governm ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

crew that same eight contested national title for a men's U23 eight at those championships. Whilst conducting his tertiary studies at Penn in the USA he rowed for the

. Following his return to Australia Hooker made the 1995 New South Wales men's eight contesting the King's Cup at the Interstate Regatta. In 1996 he contested the open single sculls title at the

national championships A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

International representative rowing

Hooker made his Australian representative debut as an eighteen year old single sculler at the 1987

World Rowing U23 Championships World Rowing U23 Championships is an international rowing regatta Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is ...

in Aigubelette where he rowed to overall eighth place.Hooker at World Rowing
/ref> That same year he was Australia's single scull entrant at the

Junior World Rowing Championships The World Rowing U19 Championships, former name World Rowing Junior Championships is an international rowing regatta organized by FISA (the International Rowing Federation). A rower or coxswain shall be classified as a Junior until 31 December ...

in Cologne where he won the bronze medal. He made the Australian senior representative squad after his study years in the US and was selected in 1994 in the coxless four which raced at the World Championships in Indianapolis to an eleventh placing. The following year at the

1995 World Rowing Championships The 1995 World Rowing Championships were World Rowing Championships that were held from 20 to 28 August 1995 at Lake Kaukajärvi, Tampere Tampere is a city in Finland and the regional capital of Pirkanmaa. It is located in the Finnish Lakel ...

in Tampere, Hooker rowed the Australian single scull and was well off the pace in his sixteenth-place finish. 1996 saw Hooker achieve senior representative success when he was selected in the Australian quad scull for the

1996 Atlanta Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. The crew was composed of diverse rowers from four states and was coached by Tim McLaren who also had responsibility for Australia's lightweight double scull. Both those sculling crews made their Olympic finals and placed third. Hooker brought home a bronze Olympic medal to mark the end of his elite rowing career.

Business career

Hooker is the Chairman and was formerly Chief Executive Officer, of

Limited, a company founded by his grandfather Sir

. He led a group of investors who acquired the LJ Hooker business from

Suncorp Suncorp Group Limited, known simply as Suncorp, is an Australian finance, insurance and banking corporation based in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was formed on 1 December 1996 by the merger of Suncorp, Metway Bank and the Queensland Ind ...

in 2009. Hooker's career has included being the managing director of Asia for W.P. Carey & Co., a New York-based investment management company. Previously he was the founder and CEO of TiNSHED, an Asia-Pacific investment firm. In his early career he was investment officer at the Asian Infrastructure Fund in Hong Kong and a business analyst on the China desk at

Price Waterhouse PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along ...

. He is passionate about youth education, co-founding the Foundation for Kids in New York and the Kids to Coast Program for the

Mutitjulu Mutitjulu is an Aboriginal Australian community in the Northern Territory of Australia located at the eastern end of Uluṟu (also known as Ayers Rock). It is named after a knee-shaped water-filled rock hole at the base of Uluṟu, and is loc ...

Community in Central Australia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, Janusz 1969 births Living people Australian male rowers Rowers from Sydney Rowers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Olympic rowers for Australia Olympic medalists in rowing Australian businesspeople in real estate Businesspeople from Sydney Australian people of Chinese descent People educated at Redlands, Cremorne Sportsmen from New South Wales 20th-century Australian sportsmen