On Wednesday 2 October, the Queensland family business community came together at the Family Business Insights QLD State Conference in Brisbane.
It was a fantastic day, starting with our Family Business Excellence Award QLD winner announcements, an afternoon of powerful speakers and finishing the day with a networking event.
Family Business Excellence Awards
The Family Business Insights QLD State Conference started with a presentation to QLD awards winners of our Family Business Excellence Awards.
The Family Business Excellence Awards are presented to an outstanding family business demonstrating excellence and achievement in the core business principles of Governance, Entrepreneurship and Stewardship, and exhibits how family ownership and involvement has helped the business to achieve a competitive advantage.
AthoGroup were the winners of the 2024/25 Founder's Family Business Award for Queensland. The award was accepted by Julie Russell.
“AthoGroup has been a member of FBA for 8 years and have witnessed great businesses recognised for awards. It is really humbling to now be included in their company."
"When I started the business, I had a key focus around life safety. I wanted lifesaving services within fire evacuation, emergency management and the work health and safety space. As with all micro businesses it was really hard at the start. Fast forward to now and we operate from a formal business premises and have 6 people working in the business. Collectively for the team, this award is for all of us. Thank you."
AthoGroup started as a one-person operation working from home, specialising in the development and implementation of tailored operational compliance systems. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, it heightened awareness of operational compliance, leading to a surge in demand for their services, enabling it to grow beyond the micro-business stage. AthoGroup demonstrates a strong understanding of its core strengths while effectively balancing family and business. Its core values—integrity, flexibility, and confidentiality—are closely tied to its strategy, and FBA membership is leveraged to emphasise its family-owned nature.
The 2024/25 Established Family Business Award for Queensland was awarded to Queensland Gaskets, and accepted by Carl Quarterman.
During his speech Carl acknowledged the significant impact his dad, Guy had on the business, while letting everyone know it is also his birthday. Happy Birthday Guy!
“Thank you for this award, it's very humbling. We only joined FBA quite recently, about a year ago and it was great to come into a room with a bunch of like-minded people, families and businesses that have the same challenges or struggles, but we are also all unique and all different at the same time which is great."
"We are a manufacturing business, manufacturing in Australia - I am very proud to be manufacturing in Australia and a big supporter of manufacturing in Australia."
"Quentin my grandfather started the business in 1953. Dad took over the business after he passed, and mum became an equal partner in the business after they married. I'm a little bit after that. It wasn't until 2012 that I took over the business and dad has been there mentoring me and supporting me since then. Dad was there for both transitions of the generations we have had. His steady hand and guidance on the business is a key part of the success that we have today. Each generation has brought something new to the business and its a steady growth in capability and diversity in our customers over the years that really enables us to be successful today."
"I want to thank the families and the employees over the life of the company, and our customers and suppliers who have supported us.”
Established in 1953, Queensland Gaskets, a 70-year-old family business, began in a humble South Brisbane worker's cottage, where it built a reputation for honest, reliable service and quality products. Now in its third generation, the business has grown and diversified, supplying various industries, including export. Having successfully transitioned through three generations, family harmony remains a priority. The core values of Relationships, Teamwork, Accountability, and Quality have been the foundation of the business’s success and continue to guide staff behaviour and strategic decision-making.
Family Business Insights QLD State Conference
To start our afternoon of speakers and keynote presentations, Stewart Rinkevich, Special Counsel at Ai Group Workplace Lawyers, provided a brief overview of the recent changes in industrial relations. Due to recent changes to the Industrial Relations Legislation through the passing of The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes) Act 2023, and The Fair Work Legislation Amendment (Closing Loopholes No. 2) Act 2024, there are differing implications for business. Stewart provided insights into these implications to help attendees understand how these changes may impact on their family business.
Download: Content Slides IR Briefing
For our keynote presentation, Nick Bloor, CEO and Founder of IVM Group shared his insights on leadership and fostering a culture of innovation within a family business through proactive management of the environment.
Nick Bloor dropped out of law school when he was 19 to pursue his dream of making a difference. Inspired by his love of nature, Nick developed a passion for sustainable vegetation management and soon started his own company, Technigro. His vision to change the way vegetation is managed in Australia and beyond, and resonated deeply with his family, prompting both his brother and father to join the business.
Nick continuously sought better ways to do things. This led to the successful growth of the business, culminating in the Bloor family selling Technigro in 2013 and transitioning its innovations into a new technology and innovation company called the IVM Group. The family business now dedicates all of its energy to disruptive innovation in the field of Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM).
Nick shared his learnings from this experience including how to navigate the challenges that inevitably come up working in family business and how to embrace those challenges as new opportunities. He shared the importance of open communication in order to work through the issues within the family business.
Another key takeaway was around challenging the status quo and the necessary skills you need as a leader in family business to achieve success, and importantly, persevere through tough times.
Insolvency specialists, Shane Williamson from Sparke Helmore and Michael Dullaway from Pearce & Heers shared key lessons in managing insolvency risk and the protective measures that can be taken, from both accounting and legal perspectives, to protect business assets and family wealth.
Download: Content Slides Insolvency
We were then joined by Barry O’Sullivan, Managing Director of Newlands Group, William Gooderson, Resilience Coach at Unconventional Leader, and Michael Fingland, Founder & CEO of Vantage Performance. All three sharing the importance self-care and how to build resilience in your leadership position, with learnings from their own respective backgrounds.
Barry O’Sullivan shared the crises his family business faced and how he got himself “fight ready” to steer the business from financial crisis back to strong profitability.
William Gooderson is a retired British Army Major, who served as an engineer and paratrooper within the special forces and intelligence communities, before transitioning into corporate Australia in 2012. Williams powerfully shared his experience facing a mental breakdown due to ongoing challenges with PTSD. Now a leadership coach, he shared the principles of resilience that he developed from his experiences with soldiers battling PTSD and from his own journey.
The session was facilitated by Michael Fingland, bringing his experience as a CEO to the table.
Together, they provided great takeaways around building resilience, maintaining mental and physical readiness, and integrating self-care practices into your routine to navigate through crises effectively.
Download: Content Slides Self-Care/Leadership
For our final session of the conference, we were joined by the Sharpe family from Sharpe Engineering. Anne Sharpe, Founder, Ellen Bain, CEO and Elizabeth Sharpe, Communications and Document Manager, shared how they are evolving the businesses since it’s humble beginnings in 1995.
Founded by Peter and Anne Sharpe in 1995, Sharpe Engineering started from humble beginnings. The business has enjoyed sustained growth and continual investment over nearly three decades and expanded from being a small workshop in regional Queensland to supporting over 120 employees across four locations around Brisbane and Roma.
As the business has grown, so has the involvement of all family members. They have been proactive in their approach to learning and the application of best practices. Over the past ten years they have implemented governance measures, improved business systems and achieved professionalisation.
The family explained their evolution, both from an operational and governance structure perspective. It is all about getting the family business ready for further growth and ensuring they are in a good position for the eventual hand-pass to the 3rd generation within the family.
The family shared their experiences and thoughts around managing the intersection between the Company Board, their recently re-established Family Council and educating and preparing the Next Generation, sharing their lessons learned along the way.
Thank you to all those who attended, presented and made the event such a success.
Photo Gallery
Thank you to our Table Sponsor and QLD State Sponsor:
