Downer and The Adventure Group join forces to help vets and execs

IT WAS a pretty wet time for Downer executives and a group of military veterans near Brisbane but the damp feet and sore muscles were all in a good cause.

Downer teamed up with The Adventure Group to launch Operation Bellator.

BUSH BASHING

IT WAS a pretty wet time for Downer executives and a group of military veterans at Mount Barney National Park near Brisbane on the weekend. But we hear the damp feet and sore muscles were all in a good cause.

Downer teamed up with outdoor activity firm The Adventure Group to launch Operation Bellator, the first of a series of two-day military-themed experiences designed to help veterans readjust to civvy street. Bellator is the Latin word for warrior.

The first weekend saw veterans and Downer executives, including infrastructure services chief executive Sergio Cinerari, wading across swollen creeks, abseiling and tracking.

Downer executive general manager defence Brett Sangster, himself a veteran, says the idea of Operation Bellator is to help veterans reconnect with their former lives while providing mentoring opportunities from business leaders.

“As an Army veteran, I know how daunting the transition (to civilian life) can be,” says Sangster. “The idea of the weekend was to put veterans in their comfort zone and take the executives out of theirs.”

Brett Sangster illustration by Brett Lethbridge.

He says the Downer guys acquitted themselves well, although he noted top boss Cinerari was the only executive to fall in the creek.

Other bush bashers on the weekend included Downer senior project manager Mark Burnett, who served in the British Army for 25 years, and JPMorgan’s vice president for equity research, gaming and leisure Don Carducci.

FELINE FINANCE

TOOWOOMBA-BASED Heritage Bank is hoping people’s obsession with funny cat videos will play into its new marketing message. The bank has launched an advertising campaign featuring a spoiled snooty-voiced cat that pushes a mobile phone off a kitchen bench, lies on a laptop while its owner is trying to access the Heritage Bank website and sarcastically says “whoopty doo” when the bank says it’s “putting people first”. The ads, which are now showing on commercial television and on social media, end with the cat standing in front of the Heritage sign and proclaiming “they should be putting cats first”. Heritage chief executive Peter Lock says the star of the campaign, which he just calls “Cat”, was spotted at the Ekka last year and was already proving a hit even among people who don’t like cats.

Heritage on Monday unveiled a record half-year profit of $26.27 million, up 25.8 per cent. Lock also announced Heritage was planning to open branches in Sydney and Melbourne for the first time. Good to hear at least one bank opening branches rather than closing them.

DOLLARS AND SENSE

LONG suffering subbies caught out by the collapse of a construction firm part owned by giant China Railway Construction Group (CRCG) are set to find out this week whether they will see any of their money.

You might recall that CRCG-Rimfire, a joint venture between China Railway Construction Group and local Brisbane building firm Rimfire Constructions, went into voluntary administration in November only two years after its launch.

A report by CRCG-Rimfire’s administrators is set to be released this week followed by a meeting of creditors who are expected to vote on a proposed deed of company arrangement. A CRCG spokesperson says the Chinese company still wants to be a “productive and long-term participant in the Australian construction industry” and that its focus is on providing a “fair solution” for subbies.”