{"id":561514,"date":"2026-08-07T06:02:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561514\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T06:02:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T06:02:20","slug":"curtain-closes-on-louise-herrons-14-year-leadership-of-the-sydney-opera-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/561514\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtain closes on Louise Herron’s 14-year leadership of the Sydney Opera House"},"content":{"rendered":"

When asked how she feels about leaving the Sydney Opera House after 14 years, Louise Herron’s eyes well up with tears.<\/p>\n

“I feel like it’s been the most incredible honour and privilege to hold this role,” she said, sitting under the glass of the northern foyer, flanked by the bridge and harbour.<\/p>\n

Among those who have worked with her, it seems the feeling is mutual.<\/p>\n

After more than a decade of leading the country’s most recognisable arts institutions, it is difficult to find critics of Ms Herron’s leadership.<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/p>\n

Prince Frederik and Princess Mary of Denmark (centre) with the Sydney Opera House CEO in 2013. (AAP: Jane Dempster)<\/p>\n

Former Opera House Trust chair Lucy Turnbull said Ms Herron was a “genius” at securing funding, while board member and Bankstown Poetry Slam founder Sara Mansour praised her curiosity and empathy, saying: “She’s made this House a home for so many.”<\/p>\n

NSW Arts Minister John Graham said her leadership was “formidable”, and former Liberal Party arts minister Don Harwin described her as a “first class CEO” who had been a “trailblazer” and mentor to women in the arts.<\/p>\n

Her parting gift is a $120 million funding package secured from the state government to bring its three smaller theatres into the 21st century and restore the house’s marine footings.<\/p>\n

Outsider takes the reins<\/p>\n

But it was not always easy.<\/p>\n

Ms Herron was regarded as a bit of an outsider when she started as CEO in 2012.<\/p>\n

She had successful careers in law and private equity, and had served on a number of arts and creative boards, but had never run a major arts body.<\/p>\n

“It was certainly a big jump to come in and suddenly have a thousand employees,” Ms Herron said.<\/p>\n

\"Louise<\/p>\n

The outgoing CEO is leaving after 14 years. (Photo by Daniel Boud, Supplied by Sydney Opera House)<\/p>\n

She said she was guided by the public’s sense of ownership of the icon.<\/p>\n

“The beautiful thing about the Opera House is that everyone will always give you their opinion,” Ms Herron said.<\/p>\n

She branded that principle in the motto “everyone’s house”; a concept that crystallised for her while trawling through the archives in preparation for the 50th anniversary in 2023.<\/p>\n

“There were all these quotes that I hadn’t actually seen before: ‘This is the people’s house,’ ‘The Opera House is built for everyone,’ ‘The Opera House is built to create a better and a more enlightened society’,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Louise<\/p>\n

Louise Herron at Sunrise on the Steps. (Photo by Daniel Boud, Supplied by Sydney Opera House)<\/p>\n

‘It cannot be a billboard’<\/p>\n

Questions over the use of the house blew up in an explosive interview with then-2GB host Alan Jones in 2018.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones called for her to be sacked over her resistance to efforts for the Everest horse racing logo<\/a> to be projected onto the sails.<\/p>\n

“I just thought, ‘here’s a bloke carrying on, I’m quite used to this sort of carry-on, but I’m not going to bend to it because the Opera House is so important and we have to do what’s right. It cannot be a billboard’,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I was more worried that my dog was going to bark than that Alan Jones was barking at me.”\"A<\/p>\n

Alan Jones (left) called for the sacking of Opera House chief executive Louise Herron (right) if she did not agree to promote a horse race on the sails of the iconic building. (AAP: Tracey Nearmy\/Tracey Trompf)<\/p>\n

Jones later apologised for how he spoke to her, and a compromise was reached with race organisers.<\/p>\n

That incident, Ms Herron said, had a “beautiful silver lining” in people’s outpouring of support for efforts to protect the house from private interests.<\/p>\n

“We had 5,000 people on the forecourt, 311,000 people signed a petition to not allow the lighting to go ahead,” Ms Herron said.<\/p>\n

“It was a fabulous boost into renewal.”<\/p>\n

The secrets behind one of the world’s most famous buildings <\/a><\/p>\n

It’s one of\u00a0the greatest buildings of the 20th century. Fifty\u00a0years after the Sydney Opera House opened its doors, we look at how this bold experiment has shaped Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And that renewal came with a $200 million renovation of the house’s major theatres<\/a>, a project that was not without challenge.<\/p>\n

“We closed the concert hall in February 2020, six weeks before COVID hit,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It was a great benefit because we could make as much noise as we wanted, but it was also very difficult because it was in the time when a lot of people couldn’t come to work.<\/p>\n

“We also had quite a lot of international engineers who were involved and that was also technicians, that was difficult.”<\/p>\n

\"Louise<\/p>\n

Louise Herron greets former US president Barack Obama. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Protests bring controversy to the doorstep<\/p>\n

Another flashpoint over the use of the sails arose in 2023, when the state government decided to light the house in the colours of the Israeli flag after the October 7 terror attack carried out by Hamas.<\/p>\n

Pro-Palestinian protesters marched to the forecourt in opposition to that decision<\/a>, and antisemitic chants were allegedly heard in the crowd later in the night.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the Opera House also aired safety concerns, alongside NSW Police, during a court effort by pro-Palestinian protesters to march to the forecourt<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Police were present when pro-Palestinian protesters marched to the Opera House steps on October 9, 2023.\u00a0 (AAP: Dean Lewis)<\/p>\n

“Since October 7, it’s been a really difficult time for so many people, for so many communities,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I think it is important to say that the decision to light the sails was a decision of the NSW government \u2026 and the protest was in the hands of the police, so in a sense, even though it’s on our site, those were things that we as the Opera House were at arms’ length from.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s also really important to have a clear understanding of the level of risk that you will and won’t accept.”<\/p>\n

Paying it forward\"Louise<\/p>\n

Ms Herron was regarded as a bit of an outsider when she started as CEO in 2012. (ABC News: Floss Adams)<\/p>\n

Ms Herron’s third act will be as a vice-chancellor’s fellow at the University of Sydney, teaching a course on leadership; a cause close to her heart.<\/p>\n

“One of the things that happens in mission-driven organisations is that they attract very driven people but often lack the resources to be able to really invest in their young people, and so there’s a leakage of talent and I hate seeing that,” she said.<\/p>\n

“What I love most is being able to work with emerging leaders, say in their 30s and early 40s \u2026 to make sure that they feel that people are willing to invest in them as people invested in me.”<\/p>\n

\"Louise<\/p>\n

Ms Herron in 2023. (ABC News: Keana Naughton)<\/p>\n

The search for the Sydney Opera House’s next custodian is still in its early stages, but no matter who it is, Ms Herron said she was sure it would be in good hands.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure they’ll do different things from me and that’s why I’m handing over because it needs a new hand,” she said.<\/p>\n

“But I feel that they will be true to the DNA of the Opera House.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When asked how she feels about leaving the Sydney Opera House after 14 years, Louise Herron’s eyes well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561515,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[276231,182126,442,498,499,500,3500,128209,25760,501,156,12813,5873,43905,1043,2845,276229,276232,111,139,69,64453,39499,25394,3512,2873,119771,122515,276230],"class_list":["post-561514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-14-years","tag-alan-jones","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-ceo","tag-chris-minns","tag-concert-hall","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-everest","tag-israel","tag-john-graham","tag-leadership","tag-leaving","tag-louise-herron","tag-lucy-turnbull","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opera-house","tag-pro-palestinian-protest","tag-protest","tag-racing","tag-renovations","tag-sails","tag-sydney-opera-house","tag-sydney-uni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561514"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561514\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}