The Interview Australia Ready Media Group

Joining our program on this episode to share what is undoubtedly one of Australia’s most remarkable self-made business success stories is Billionaire Trevor Lee, Founder & Principal of Australian Country Choice Group- the largest & most successful, privately-owned, vertically integrated beef processing company in Australia.

In this rare & exclusive profile of one of Australia’s most successful yet private businessman, Trevor charts his incredibly journey, from being told his academic future was limited whilst a student at Brisbane’s Anglican Church Grammar School, to working the harsh lands of Queensland’s rugged, remote environments, ultimately culminating in the decision to follow his instincts & launch his own a business - a business which has changed not just an industry, but a Nation too, all the while cementing his legacy & the legacy of future generations of the Lee Family for decades to come.

Joining our series on this episode is Co-Founder & Managing Director of ACFS Port Logistics, Arthur Tzaneros.

Alongside his father Terry, Arthur launched ACFS in 2005, growing the business over the course of the past two decades to become Australia’s largest private owned container logistics operator.

With National operations across transport, warehousing and freight logistics, ACFS has some 1,500 personnel working across company-owned facilities in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane & Auckland, providing a diverse
range of services to its blue-chip customers including Bunnings, Coles, Nestle, Kmart & Super Retail Group.

Arthur was born in Sydney & attended The Scots College, graduating in 1995 before working across the logistics sector in New South Wales including as General Manager, NSW for Smith Brothers Trade & Transport and NSW Landside Logistics Manager for P&O Transport Australia.

In this exclusive interview, Arthur shares the extraordinary journey of ACFS, the opportunities & challenges he’s encountered throughout his business career & the key learnings that have driven his success.

Joining our series for an exclusive feature profile is Jack Hutchinson - Director & Board Member of Australia's oldest & most successful privately-owned construction firm, Hutchinson Builders.

Established in 1912, Hutchinson Builders is one of Australia's preeminent construction firms, having completed a remarkable 7,500 projects with an end value in excess of $35bn.

Jack is a qualified quantity surveyor and a licenced builder. He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Bachelor of Property (QS & CM) from Bond University.

Before being appointed as a Director in 2022, Jack worked across various project and operational roles within Hutchies, as well as within other property, construction, and financial firms in both Australia and the United Kingdom.

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https://www.hutchinsonbuilders.com.au/

Our special guest on this episode is prolific hospitality entrepreneur & commercial property investor, Graham Hardie - Chairman & Founder of Hardie Finance Corporation & principal of Entertainment Enterprises.

A stalwart of Perth’s business scene for over four decades, Graham established and led more than thirty venues across the City including renowned names such as Paramount, Arcadia, Underground, Bill’s, Empire Bar, Havana & Tiger Lil’s.

Graduating from Wesley College, Graham studied accounting, later attaining his Chartered Accountancy qualification and rising to become a Partner at a leading firm before launching his first hospitality venture, Knightsbridge’s Eagle One Nightclub in 1979. 

Whilst continuing to pursue his hospitality interests via Entertainment Enterprises, Graham also diversified into commercial property investment, acquiring & developing a number of significant assets across Northbridge, South Perth, Perth City and Lathlain. 

In addition to his commercial property & hospitality interests, Graham has also sat on the board of a number of public and private companies and currently serves as a Non Executive Director of Peel Mining.

In the first & only interview of his extensive career, Graham takes us through his background, his professional accounting career, his pivot into hospitality & property and the key lessons he’s learnt in both life & business along the journey.

In a rare & exclusive profile, Founder of Costa Asset Management & high-profile member of the revered Costa Family dynasty, Robert Costa joins our series on this episode to discuss his diverse professional career which extends across wholesaling, retail, commercial property investment & philanthropy.

The son of Sicilian migrants who commenced their grocery business with the purchase & evolution of Geelong’s Covent Garden in the mid 1930’s (originally established in 1888), Robert was born in Geelong and attended St Mary’s Primary School & later, Lovely Bank’s Chanel College.

Upon graduation, he joined the family’s rapidly expanding Costa Group fresh produce business in the 1970’s alongside his brothers Frank & Anthony, with the company rising to become Australia’s largest horticultural and fresh produce supplier over the course of the next four decades.

Following more than thirty years in a variety of management positions within Costa Group that focussed predominantly on managing the firm’s asset base & liquidity position, Robert launched a new venture, Costa Asset Management, in 2011 alongside his brother Anthony.

Today, Costa Asset Management (CAM) functions primarily as an investment office with a diverse portfolio of assets across fixed income, private equity, venture capital, commercial property investment, property development & international real estate.

In addition to Costa AM, Robert & the late Anthony Costa jointly founded their philanthropic enterprise, The Anthony Costa Foundation in 2011 which seeks to make a positive impact in the communities in which the family operates in through providing grants, strategic advisory & resources to a range of causes including homelessness, food insecurity, opportunity in education and mental health.

Outside of his corporate interests, Robert has also variously held a number of professional roles including Mayor of Geelong West, Chair of Monash & RMIT University’s Global Reconciliation bodies, Chair of the Geelong Region Innovation and Investment Fund, Director of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre Trust & Life Governor of the Barwon Health Foundation.

In this exclusive, in-depth interview, Robert shares the insights & achievements behind his distinguished four-decade plus career as well as the fundamentals involved to achieve sustained success in both business & life.

Produced and distributed exclusively by Ready Media Group.

Host - Rob Langton

https://readymedia.com.au/

Joining our series for an exclusive & in-depth profile on this episode is highly regarded businessman & entrepreneur, John Rothwell AO - Non-Executive Chair, Founding Director & the driving force behind Austal, the World’s largest aluminium shipbuilding company.

Having established Austal in Perth, Western Australia in 1988 with no more than five employees & $200,000 in cash, John has grown the company over the past three decades into a global maritime behemoth with over 4,300 personnel delivering over 350 world-class vessels as well as technological solutions for military, commercial and civilian applications - including for the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, United States Marine Corps, Royal Australian Navy, Australian Customs, Government of Saudi Arabia & Euroferrys to name a few.

With a customer base that spreads across more than one-hundred operators in fifty-nine Countries, Austal has become one of the most successful businesses in Australian corporate history, with an order book in excess of $2bn per annum, operations spread across seven shipyards in five countries and a share register that includes blue-chip institutional & private companies including BlackRock, Tattarang Ventures, UniSuper, Vanguard & Pendal.

As Founding Director of Austal, John has led the business in various capacities throughout its thirty-six-year history including as Chief Executive Officer, Executive Chairman and since 2008, Non-Executive Chairman.

Prior to launching Austal, John founded a small structural engineering company which later became a leisure craft business known as Star Boats in 1972, a company that upended traditional boat-building practices by utilising aluminium rather than fibreglass for its lightweight hulls and which he grew for over a decade before selling to Christopher Skase backed Precision Marine (now Quintex Corporation) in 1984.

On a personal level, John migrated aged ten with his family from Holland in 1954 and completed three years of primary / secondary school before entering the workforce at fifteen - over the course of the following eight or so years, he held a number of roles working in steel fabrication, welding, transport & land clearing.

In a highly decorated career, John been the recipient of a number of awards including Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2004, Australian Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young in 2002, Western Australia Citizen of the Year in 1999.

In this exclusive interview, John walks us through his remarkable career, the evolution of Austal over the course of more than three decades, the opportunities & challenges in running a global manufacturing business from Australia and the fundamentals required to achieve sustained success in both business and life.

Produced, licensed & distributed exclusively via Ready Media Group.

Host - Rob Langton

Further information:

https://readymedia.com.au/

https://www.austal.com/

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