| The Formative Years | Born
in Melbourne my parents purchased a dairy property and moved to South
Gippsland the same year. I attended Mirboo North High School, a two hour bus trip each day, up to year 10 at which time I left to manage day-to-day operations of the family dairy property (my father had secured a position where he was away from the property). After re-building the herd for two years, a cold snap ending a drought resulted in the loss of thirty percent of the herd, rendering the farm unviable. |
| Administration |
Leaving
the farm and securing employment with the Commonwealth Public
Service in Melbourne. I attained Leaving Certificate
(year 11) at
University High School Evening Classes, and gained promotion
within PMG
Industrial Relations Branch responsible for monitoring
ministerials, maintaining the
awards library, handling minor industrial issues; and managing the new
administrative assistant. Gaining promotion to Telstra, Information Systems Department's (ISD) Planning and Evaluation Section gave me insight into strategic planning, technology development, and yachting. Lindsay Cunningham, the section head, was a renowned catamaran designer responsible (with his father) for designing Little America's cup winners. This period also introduced me to Asian culture and cuisine through Paradee, a Thai workmate, who knew all the best Asian restaurants. In my spare time I raced and rallied, winning Datsun Car Club Australia's annual sprint and hillclimb awards and receiving clubman of the year, partly for my involvement in production of the monthly magazine and arranging with Nissan Australia to sponsor it. Following an organisational restructure I joined the (ISD) Administration Team of twenty three, responsible for accommodation, office machines, typing pool and assisting the manager. |
| Marketing, Product Development and Customer Service | In
June 1984 I was approached and accepted a sales administration role
with Telstra Directory Services, Yellow Pages reporting to Huot Ung.
Huot, a Cambodian, worked behind the scenes with the United
Nations to resolve the issues in his home country. Huot
returned
to Cambodia and went on to become the Cambodian Foreign Minister and
briefly second Prime Minister. During this time I had a number of roles across all elements of the marketing mix ( including managing a national product launch), and customer service, up to acting National Manager, Yellow Pages Product Development. I commenced a Bachelor of Business in Business Administration at RMIT, work commitments resulted in my discontinuance after gaining 9 units. In March 1989 I accepted a promotion to a market analyst role with Telstra Mobile Communication Services at a time immediately prior to the introduction of cellular telephone technology. Given the dynamic nature of the industry at the time my role constantly evolved, and included: National Marketing Co-ordinator reporting to the National Marketing Manager, this led to my appointment in 1991 to a team being established to evaluate and implement Telstra's Talkabout network and services, and subsequently a role in the Product Development area. |
| Experience Overview as an Employee |
Through the above roles I have dealt with
people at all
levels within organisations (large and small) locally and
internationally, advertising agencies, market research agencies,
service and equipment suppliers; providing me with a wealth of
commercial experience. This led to a number of approaches in
late
1995 early 1996 from an acquaintance managing the
American subsidiary of a French (Fortune 500)
multi-national to
work for him. Looking forward to a new challenge I eventually
made the decision to accept the role, unfortunately timing proved
sub-optimal as the company closed a division and had a
redeploy
policy. Having made the decision I needed a new
challenge continued with my decision to leave Telstra, which I did in
August 1996. |
| Self Employed - Owner/Builder, Project Manager | Being hands-on, project oriented and
creative I
undertook, as
an owner builder, the design
and construction of an extension to my home, leading to
requests from
others to undertake renovation and maintenance projects; including a
warehouse
conversion for a couple (both practicing architects). My home
sold privately, while not on the market, subsequently I
purchased another property renovated and sold it prior to
travelling overseas. Photographs from Ascot Vale: |
| A New Challenge | In
July 2001 seeking a new challenge I left Australia and travelled
through Europe, Scandanavia and Thailand, apart from a nine month
period when I returned to care for my ill father. Introduced
to a
talented young designer while in Thailand I was examining the
feasability of establishing an import/export business when I
established Railay Bay Holdings Co. Ltd. in November 2003, and
commenced plans for Café Pourquoi Downunder, a boutique hotel and
café-bar in Ao Nang, Krabi province, Thailand. |
| Boutique Hotel and Café-Bar
Owner/Operator |
Café
Pourquoi
evolved from several trips to Ao Nang, commencing in July 2001, where I
had observed a dramatic growth in tourist numbers and a move away from
predominantly backpackers, infrastructure being upgraded to
cater
for the increases. Discussions with both tourists and locals
confirmed my observations that a venue offering good coffee, food and
beverages in a stylish setting with ambience would be welcome.
Locating a venue which also
offered accommodation, after financially modelling
the business I
made the decision to proceed, opening Café Pourquoi Downunder in
February 2004. As an owner/operator my role encompassed management of all facets of the business from concept, planning, through design, marketing, recruitment, training and staff mentoring, implementation, launch, developing in-house systems, day-to-day operations, to guest relations. Opening in the third last week of high season Café Pourquoi enjoyed periods of 100% occupancy, repeat local and international bookings, attracted guests from 5* resorts (even Rayavadee), in those first ten months . Strong bookings for the 2004/5 high season promised a successful completion to our first year, and an excellent start to the second year with tourist numbers increasing rapidly. 2004's tsunami saw high season bookings all but totally wiped out, despite all that had occurred (you can view some of these at Life & Times of Café Pourquoi an account of my experience, presented in a humorous vein.) Railay Bay Holdings Co. Ltd returned a small profit for the year. Flowing from the tsunami an extreme decline in tourists (and revenue) during 2005 resulted in the reluctant closure of the hotel end January 2006, after attending to business matters I returned to Australia late March. At a time when most businesses were closing or reducing staff, my staff were sought by other operators when the business closed. Presently I am seeking a role with a progressive organisation where I can utilise and build on my broad experience. |
| Interests | My
interests are varied from travelling and meeting
people, music, fine food and wine, yachting (member of a
Melbourne-Devenport performance handicap winning crew), photography,
design, motor sport; to mention a few. |
| Computer Skills | I am adept at learning new computer packages, teaching myself KompoZer to construct this web-site and Microsoft publisher to produce marketing collateral for the hotel. I am also competent in - Word, Excel, Project and PowerPoint, ABC Flowcharter, AutoCAD, Revit, and Adobe Photoshop and completed the Fidelio introduction at William Angliss. |
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