TWO iconic names forming part of Queensland’s rural fabric were named among the six Queensland business leaders from past and present inducted into the 2014 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame last Friday evening.
Now in its sixth year, the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame is a joint initiative between QUT Business School, State Library of Queensland, and the Queensland Library Foundation, and it celebrates those organisations and individuals who have enhanced the state’s reputation and economy.
Among those six inductees is one of Australia’s most generous philanthropists and former director of several large companies, the late Sir Vincent Fairfax, along with meat processing family dynasty Teys Bros.
The very humble late Sir Vincent Fairfax may have spent much of his later life in the boardrooms of Sydney, but his Queensland roots were always firmly embedded within his character.
He was born on the family property Marinya, near Cambooya, on the Darling Downs, where he stayed until early adulthood.
Sir Vincent was inducted in recognition of his outstanding contribution to leadership in Australian business community organisations and for his visionary and enduring philanthropy.
Apart from his key role in the successful growth of the Fairfax Media group, Sir Vincent served as chairman and director of the AMP Society for 26 years, and also the inaugural chairman and pioneer of its subsidiary, the then Stanbroke Pastoral Company from 1964 to 1982.
Stanbroke Pastoral Company, which became Australia’s largest beef producer proved to be a triumph for the AMP in a risky industry.
He was also a councillor of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, an organisation he generously contributed to.
However, it was in 1962, Sir Vincent established the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, which is one of the largest family foundations in Australia, and over the years it has touched the hearts of organisations in distributing more than $100 million to community initiatives, education for the disadvantaged, Christianity, and community wellbeing.
Son, Tim Fairfax, says his late father would have been humbled by being inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame, as throughout his life he was always a “Queenslander”.
“His roots were always in Queensland, and he remained a true Queenslander, living out the values and experiences which shaped him on the family farm, and as owner of number of significant rural properties including Kiama, in the Toobeah district and Tralee at Leyburn,” Mr Fairfax said.
“He particularly loved his time as chairman of the Stanbroke Pastoral Company, as he could mix it with the ringers on the stations throughout the state over morning smoko, and with the directors in the boardroom.”
Also inducted were Teys Bros, in recognition of their highly successful and resilient leadership and innovation, beef processing and exporting for over sixty years.
The story of Teys Bros grew from a humble family butcher shop in post-war Brisbane to the second largest meat processor and exporter in Australia, it is today.
It began when Cid Teys saw his three younger brothers, Cliff, Max and Mick, return from serving in World War II in Papua New Guinea and struggling to find work, and he bought a butcher’s shop to start a family business.
Today, some 68 years later, the family business operates six plants in Queensland and NSW, employs almost 3900 staff and turns over around $2.5 billion a year.
Cid’s son Allan Teys is the current chairman, and his sons Brad and Geoff are the third generation to be involved in the company, and are proud of how far Teys Australia has come.
“By about 1954 we had acquired a plant at Beenleigh and we were processing about 300 cattle a week, and today we are processing 32,000 a week,” Mr Teys said.