Remembering Bob Foord, former chair of the Eckermann Group board

There is a common theme in conversations when remembering Bob Foord.

Since his death last week, we have not been surprised by how many people refer to Bob’s principles, his warmth, and his ability to ask probing questions that cut to the heart of an issue.

Indeed, Adelaide Football Club chair, Rob Chapman, captured this succinctly in his tribute on the Crows’ website:

An active participant around our Board table, Bob became known for his favourite question of management, coach or list manager, ‘Out of 10, what is the likelihood of … ?’ The question was applied to many and varied topics and became synonymous with Bob and everyone thought very carefully before giving an answer because he never forgot, and would hold you to account!

This is precisely the reason we were honoured to have Bob as our chair from 2015 until his passing in 2017.

In this time, he guided us through some important decision-making processes and helped us move towards our core vision of giving as many people as possible the opportunity to experience something better.

On this day of his funeral, here are some of our reflections as we turn our minds to remembering Bob Foord.

Brad Eckermann

We were very fortunate to know Bob firstly through our mutual connection at Immanuel Primary School and College, Bob was a massive supporter of the School and will be greatly missed by that community. Bob was also a client of our Conveyancing business for many years and we’d admired him as a client as he was always a great bloke to deal with. Typically with Bob we didn’t quite realise all that he’d achieved in business until we started to ask him more questions and also speak to others about Bob, the more we found out about Bob the more it impressed us. We really wanted someone involved on our Board that could be a guiding hand for the three of us, we wanted someone that had “been there and done that” and Bob fitted that bill perfectly as he’d certainly “done that” numerous times and done it very successfully. What we didn’t realise when Bob first started with us was how much he would end up being such a positive mentor to the three of us, this is something that we will miss the most. Some descriptive words that sum up Bob for me: generous, engaging, passionate, committed, warm, positive, compassionate. Thank you for the time you spent with us Bob, we will miss you greatly.

Hayden Eckermann

I’m shattered that our time with Bob has been cut short, we had just worked on a target plan through to 2020, and at no stage did I think Bob would not be part of our journey. Bob was a guy that I had only got to know really well over the last 3 years, but was someone I looked up to and found motivating and inspirational. Where Bob got to is where I want to get to, in both business and his family life. Over the last 16 months Elle and I along with Summer and Macey have had the toughest time of our life when Elle was first diagnosed with stage 3 Melanoma and just recently being diagnosed with Breast Cancer, Bob would always touch base and give me personal strength in dealing with this,  as he has been through testing times in his family with his grand-daughter fighting leukemia. I’m so shattered with his loss but I know he got a lot done in his life and achieved a lot in his 67 years on earth, Bob is going to be greatly missed and the mentorship can continue although I will miss not being able to hear his positive tone at the end of the phone or across the board room. Thank you Bob for all that you have done for me personally, our business and most of all my extended family, you are someone that will be very hard to replace but the memories, your ethics and morals will never leave me. My thoughts are with Sheryn, Kim, Gemma, Claire, Nerida and Celeste at this very tough time, I know they will be able to keep Bob’s magic going.

Jarrod Eckermann

We are heartbroken at the untimely and incomprehensible passing of the Chair of our Advisory Board, Bob Foord. We first approached Bob to see if he would be interested in working with us because we knew of his great reputation, and from our previously limited dealings with Bob, he seemed like ‘a good bloke’. We were in need of someone who had been there, done that and who was aligned with our values. It turns out Bob’s great reputation was understated and he was much more than ‘a good bloke’. Bob was someone extremely rare, whose actions were more plentiful than his words. With every single meeting and interaction we had with Bob, we gained more valuable insights and came to respect him more and more. If you thought it wasn’t possible to be a dedicated family man, to show respect to everyone around you, to give of your time generously while enjoying serious business success, then I’m sorry that you never had the pleasure of meeting Bob. We are so upset that we will not get to spend more time with Bob, however, we will be forever grateful for the time we were lucky enough to have with him. Our most sincere condolences go out to Sheryn, Kim, Gemma, Claire, Nerida, Celeste and their families. Rest in peace to a truly wonderful man.

Vale Bob Foord. You will be sorely missed but your impact will be felt for years to come.