All the information on the 2019 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame inductees is here.
Six Queensland business icons that have made their mark in everything from movie-making to mining have been honoured as the 2018 inductees in the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, celebrating its 10th anniversary.
The Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame was established by QUT Business School, State Library of Queensland and the Queensland Library Foundation in 2009 to recognise the public contribution made by leaders of business to the reputation of Queensland and its economic and social development.
Dr George Miller AO
In recognition of his unparalleled contributions to producing and directing commercially successful internationally award-winning films and for his outstanding contributions to the Australian and international film industries.
Chinchilla-born filmmaker George Miller AO has been inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
Think the Mad Max movies, Babe, Happy Feet, Lorenzo’s Oil, just some of the notable successes from the stable of more than 20 movies Mr Miller has directed or produced.
While becoming a doctor fulfilled a childhood ambition, Mr Miller combined it with film-making during his residency at St Vincent’s Hospital. He combined medical practice and film-making until the completion of Mad Max 2: Road Warrior in 1981.
A film director, screen writer and producer, Mr Miller is a towering figure in the global movie production business. His body of work has garnered more than 100 national and international awards or nominations, among them his most recent work, Mad Max: Fury Road which took out six Oscars (2016); Happy Feet won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film (2007); and Babe won the Oscar for best visual effects. His movies have grossed more than $1billion at the box office.
Growing up in Queensland, Mr Miller’s early years were spent almost entirely in play and were enriched with storytelling by his Greek parents. These experiences and the Saturday movie matinee were all vital elements in stimulating his imagination and life-long curiosity.
Mr Miller’s enduring cinematic achievement owes much to his ability to build a film-making business which, balances astute financial judgement, measured risk-taking and imaginative storytelling shaped by his country Queensland childhood.
Other iconic Queensland businesses and business people inducted into 2018 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame are:
Domino’s
In recognition of its remarkable national and international success in the food industry resulting in pizza market leadership in seven countries through Don Meij’s outstanding leadership and disruptive innovation.
Domino’s Pizza Enterprises is the largest pizza chain in Australia with more than 600 stores and the largest franchisee for US-based Domino’s Pizza, Inc, a listed US company. Domino’s is the market leader, with more than 2200 stores, in Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Japan and Germany.
Don Meij, who became CEO in 2002, entered the pizza industry in the late 1980s as a delivery driver for Silvio’s. In 1993, Silvio’s acquired the Australian franchise for Domino’s, and in 1995 merged the two businesses.
Domino’s has a long history of innovation, with Silvios providing the first home delivery pizza service in Australia. The company has invested heavily in digital innovation which is now firmly embedded in the firm’s operating culture.
The business’s growth is largely attributable to Don Meij’s drive, innovation, and relentless focus upon delivering positive customer experiences. Market-leading digital initiatives have transformed customer choice and experience, and generated impressive financial and brand outcomes.
Wagners
In recognition of their intrepid entrepreneurship in successfully completing highly challenging infrastructure projects nationally and internationally including Wellcamp Airport and for creating world-class breakthrough building products.
A major achievement of this venerable family company is the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, the first public airport built in Australia in the past 50 years. Built entirely with private money in less than 20 months, the airport is owned and operated by the Wagner family and is a thriving regional and interstate passenger facility and an export hub.
The Wagner family has been a business stalwart of Toowoomba since 1896 when John Henry Wagner first established the now legendary stone masonry business JH Wagner & Sons which operates today. Grandson Henry expanded the business to include concreting and in 1989 formed a partnership with three of his sons – John, Denis and Neill and later fourth son Joe.
The business expanded rapidly from one concrete plant to 19 within 20 years employing 1100 people. Wagners diversified into pre-cast concrete, re-enforcing steel, ground-breaking building products and major construction and infrastructure projects both at home and overseas. The firm took on many international projects including in sub-zero temperatures in Sakhalin, Russia.
Wagners developed world-leading fibre technology products and the revolutionary earth-friendly concrete and its building materials and mining services operations are listed on the ASX.
Thérèse Rein
In recognition of her outstanding international business achievements as a ground-breaking social entrepreneur leading to unprecedented employment outcomes for people with disabilities.
One of Australia’s most outstanding social entrepreneurs, Thérèse Rein, achieved international recognition for ground-breaking disability employment outcomes and visionary business leadership.
Ms Rein built her company, Ingeus, into the third largest welfare-to-work service provider in Australia. By 2007 when the Australian business was sold it was generating $175 million in revenue and employing 1200 people in Australia, Britain, France and Germany. By 2011 Ingeus was the largest provider of work-to-welfare services in the UK and when it was sold in 2014 it was operating in 12 countries, employing 6000 people.
Ms Rein used an individualised approach which recognised the dignity of each client and their potential to live a fulfilling life. Her insights and values were shaped by the experience of her father whose life was transformed by a World War II aeroplane accident that confined him to a wheelchair but did not prevent him from achieving great things. These experiences formed the basis of her business model which is helping people to reconnect with their potential.
John Moffat
In recognition of his pioneering entrepreneurship in establishing North Queensland’s mining industry and for his extensive business and community development in the Cairns hinterland.
Arriving in Queensland in 1862, 21-year-old Scotsman John Moffatt was a shepherd, then a store owner before heading to North Queensland after tin was discovered there.
From 1880 to 1910 North Queensland’s economy was determined by Moffat’s mining entrepreneurship. He raised capital in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and even London for the more than 100 companies he controlled, founded on base metals including tin, silver, lead, zinc, wolfram, molybdenum, bismuth, antimony and coal in North Queensland.
A multitude of mining towns sprang up around his ventures with their social infrastructure and prosperity depending upon the Moffat mines. It is said he was revered in North Queensland for demonstrating four characteristics of Scottish entrepreneurs in Australia: vision for development schemes; practical ability to implement them; managerial energy to pursue his goals, and tight budgetary control.
George Marchant
In recognition of his significant national business success, internationally recognised innovation and for creating an enduring legacy for Queensland through outstanding philanthropy.
George Marchant, born in England in 1857, left school aged 10 and arrived in Brisbane in 1874 uneducated and penniless. He found a job as a carter for a soft drink factory in 1877 and in 1886 he opened his own soft drink and cordial factory in Spring Hill.
He gained a competitive advantage with his invention of a method of sealing soft drink bottles that extended their shelf life. Next came the invention of a revolutionary bottling machine which accelerated the production process and was widely adopted around the world.
In 1888 Marchants opened in Sydney, then Melbourne, Adelaide and Newcastle to become Australia’s largest soft drink producer.
He employed women in his factories despite being pressured by unions not to; he paid employees well for eight hours of work and also awarded bonuses out of company profits.
Among his many charitable deeds, two most obvious today is the 100-acre Marchant Park in Chermside and the establishment of Wheller Gardens, a state-of-the-art aged care facility which continues to this day on 25 acres of prime Chermside land. All told his philanthropic legacy to Queensland exceeds $100 million in today’s money.
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