Cairns business blockbusters: FNQ’s corporate stars
Some of the region’s greatest tech, business and corporate stars have shared the secrets behind their success – and the big role the Far North played. SEE THE FULL LIST
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THEY are our very own business giants, tech CEOs and rising stars of the corporate world – but you might never have heard their names.
The cutthroat world of corporate takeovers and big commerce do not immediately spring to mind when thinking about Far North Queensland.
Sydney, sure. Melbourne, you betcha. But Cairns, Atherton and Kurrimine Beach?
It turns out the steamy tropics are just as conducive to the production of cutting-edge corporate superstars as the big cities – and this list shines a light on some of the most interesting players.
They are hotshots in their respective fields, and they all have strong links to the place we call home.
Sophia Hamblin Wang
Witnessing damage caused by two cyclones as a child, set Sophia Hamblin Wang on a path to success that nobody could have foreseen.
The former Silkwood State School and Innisfail State High School student grew up in the fishing village of Kurrimine Beach.
These days she is an eco-tech entrepreneur whose carbon-fighting start-up has attracted global attention.
The Mineral Carbonation International chief operations officer made a pitch at the COP 26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year.
It was one of 2700 climate change solutions pitched – and it won.
Ms Hamblin Wang’s operation focuses on using chemical engineering processes to convert carbon dioxide to building materials such as glass, cement and plasterboard.
The technology accelerates natural processes that turn carbon dioxide into rock, reducing millions of years’ work to mere minutes.
The idea is to make decarbonisation a profitable enterprise – and with net-zero targets taking over the world, it is a case of right place, right time.
The company has 30 employees, a head office in Canberra and a research team at the Newcastle Institute for Energy Research.
Mark Cantoni
Atherton Tablelands export Mark Cantoni is one half of the successful Travello app, which now boasts hundreds of thousands of users.
Many Far North Queenslanders’ first encounter with the company would have come earlier this year when a thousand $100 vouchers were given away to be spent on tourism experiences.
The TNQ Experience Dollars program was launched in partnership with Travello – but there is much more to the company.
Mr Cantoni and his mate Ryan Hanly set the ball rolling in 2015, after realising there was no simple way to meet fellow travellers abroad.
“Facebook just wasn’t cutting it!” the avid globetrotters’ website explains.
“After much procrastination, it was a chance meeting with a group of backpackers on the Gold Coast that provided the final motivation to actually create this concept.
“They loved the idea and insisted that we actually do something about it. And from that, Travello was born.
“Travello’s aim is to simply make travelling easier and to help travellers connect. Hopefully you’ll make some lifelong friends along the way.”
Like most great ideas, it is a fairly simple concept.
Travello uses a phone’s geolocation to suggest nearby attractions, tours and accommodation deals – and to put users in touch with other travellers.
The social networking platform proved a hit.
It raised $5m in funding in 2018 and another $6.5m last year from industry executives including Flight Centre co-founder Jim Goldburg.
Not bad in the midst of a Covid shutdown.
Mr Cantoni and Mr Hanly have big expansion plans and intend to target the US and European markets as well as their bread-and-butter Australian and New Zealand interests.
Lydia Gentle
Australia’s youngest ever engineering executive was born and raised in Atherton, attending the local state school and becoming one of its most successful former pupils.
Lydia Gentle (nee Iobbi for the locals) is an engineering manager for Australia’s biggest company, mining giant BHP.
Ascending to such heights on the corporate totem pole is an achievement in itself – but Ms Gentle has more up her sleeve.
She was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for services to engineering at the age of just 35 in 2019.
Speaking after her award, Ms Gentle explained her Grade 12 maths teacher was the one who steered her towards engineering.
“My parents had both migrated from Italy and had left school in Grade Five, so it was always so important to them that I continued with my education,” she said in a statement issued by BHP.
“While it’s been amazing to work on some of the largest projects in the world, I’m most proud of the work I do to inspire and encourage others to take up engineering.
“I hope I have inspired others to join the profession as you cannot be what you cannot see, and the role of engineers often goes unnoticed.
“I aspire to bring grit and grace to all my undertakings and leave a mark upon the engineering profession.”
Adam Adams
He was born into a prominent family in the automotive industry, but set out on his own and opened the Adams Motor Group dealership in 2002.
It was about the same time he and wife Katrina opened their first NightOwl store in Cairns.
The Mulgrave Rd car yard has since closed – with some whispers about redevelopment as a Containers for Change bottle and can recycling depot – but the convenience store interests have blossomed.
Mr Adams bought the overall NightOwl franchise in 2007 in a deal believed to be worth about $10-15m.
He instantly became the franchisor of 42 stores in Queensland and NSW, as well as the six he operated directly in Cairns and Airlie Beach.
The empire has since ballooned to 75 stores across Australia – although it could soon face extra competition with 7-Eleven announcing plans to open 15 new stores in Cairns and Townsville.
As if that is not enough of a juggling act, Mr Adams has recently turned his attention to the accommodation sector.
He built the Oaks Cairns Hotel above McDonald’s on the Esplanade in 2020.
Last year he bought the run-down Rydges Plaza Hotel for $11m, undertook a massive renovation and relaunched it as The Benson Hotel.
He also bought the iconic Bransfords Tackle Shop in 2021, along with its attached Mobil service station, Clifton Village Takeaway restaurant and a small supermarket.
The legendary fishing gear business was pegged for major renovations, with Mobil to stay on as a tenant and a new NightOwl convenience store thrown into the mix.
Lorna Jane Clarkson
She was born in England and raised in Brisbane, but Far North Queensland is well within its rights to lay claim to the namesake of the iconic Lorna Jane fashion brand.
The highly successful businesswoman was posted to Cairns shortly after graduating as a dental technician – and that was where it all happened.
She was crowned Miss Cairns and met her future husband and business partner Bill Clarkson in Cairns in 1986, shortly after running her first marathon.
Together, they have built a $500m fitness-wear empire with an estimated $200m annual revenue.
Lorna Jane has 134 stores across Australia, New Zealand, USA and Singapore – not to mention licensee stores in Europe, New Caledonia, Mexico, Dubai and Malaysia.
Tom Hedley
Tom Hedley became a household name after he went from larrikin plumber to pub baron and powerful property developer in the 2000s.
He rose to spectacular riches and once sold 36 hotels, 103 bottle shops and 17 other properties to Coles Myer for a clean $306m.
It was not to last, and Mr Hedley’s empire collapsed in 2009 – but that too has passed.
Mr Hedley struck lucky in 2018 when he landed a $10.8m government contract to dump Trinity Inlet dredging spoils at his Northern Sands Quarry.
Since then, he has bought up multiple pubs across the region including the Imperial Tavern in Innisfail, Ye Olde Gordonvale Hotel (relaunched as accommodation), the Parkview Tavern and the Great Northern Hotel in Gordonvale, the Carrington Hotel in Atherton, and the Tolga Hotel.
He has returned to property development with a new five-storey apartment block in the Cairns CBD, multiple subdivisions around Goldsborough, the 250-lot Panoramic Views subdivision at Tolga and the Lakeside View estate at Yungaburra.
He has also undertaken several small-scale residential developments nearby the Red Beret Hotel – the one pub he never lost through all of his troubles.
Marita Cheng
A former Young Australian of the Year, an alumna of the Forbes 30 under 30 list for high achievers and the creator of a robot that allows people to “teleport” themselves anywhere in the world.
Not bad for a girl who grew up in a housing commission home in Woree and graduated from St Mary’s Catholic College.
Marita Cheng is the CEO of Aubot, which makes a “telepresence robot” called Teleport that allows kids with cancer in hospital to attend school, people with a disability to attend work and to monitor and socialise with elderly people.
She is also at the cutting edge of robotic arm research and development, virtual reality and autonomous mapping and navigation technology.
Her single-parent mum worked as a hotel room cleaner and, by all reports, she could not be prouder of her daughter.
Ms Cheng said her passion for robotics was born from a four-day engineering camp at the University of Queensland while she was still at school.
Students were tasked with building a simple robot that could follow a line.
She was hooked.
“I grew up in Woree and just thought it was so cool that even from so far away, we could use the internet and access information so quickly,” she said.
“It seemed magical.
“So I wondered if we could apply those same computer systems to the mechanical world.”
Trent Twomey
Trent Twomey is another St Mary’s Catholic College graduate who has gone on to great heights in the corporate world.
The successful pharmacist is one of the driving forces behind the Alive Pharmacy chain, alongside Nick Loukas.
However, his rise to the top of the food chain has extended beyond just Far North Queensland.
Mr Twomey is now the national president of the Pharmacy Guild of Australia, has been awarded an honorary professorship title from James Cook University and has sat on more boards than Kelly Slater.
He has also been a prominent figure within the local LNP, but has made no bones about criticising the party in recent weeks.
Mr Twomey said the government had squandered an opportunity to address medicine affordability in its federal budget.
“Despite constructive discussions with the government over the last few months, they decided to ignore the pleas of healthcare professionals leaving Australians to continue to juggle with cost of living pressures and make potentially harmful sacrifices,” he said.
Chris Boland
It is never nice to have your pay packet plastered across the place – but them’s the breaks when you are the head of a major government organisation.
Chris Boland took home a $393,613 total remuneration package in 2020-21 which, while staggeringly high to most of us, was a significant cut on the previous year’s $428,674.
As Ports North CEO, he oversees nine ports across the region with planning control over 228ha of freehold and 635ha of leasehold strategic port land.
It is a big responsibility with big corresponding compensation.
Mr Boland studied at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, gaining an honours degree in engineering before setting off to work in Melbourne and the United Kingdom.
He ultimately ended up back in the sunshine state at the helm of the organisation that manages the ports of Cairns, Karumba, Thursday Island, Mourilyan, Skardon River, Cape Flattery, Quintell Beach, Cooktown and Burketown as well as the Cityport project in Cairns.
Peter Beattie
It can be easy to overlook retired politicians when it comes to corporate ladder climbing, but Peter Beattie is a special kind of beast.
The former Queensland premier grew up in Atherton and went on to take the state’s top political role from 1998-2007.
His post-political life has been one of soaring success.
He was chairman of the organising committee for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast – an appointment that caused some controversy for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.
He is now a commissioner of the Australian Rugby League Commission, having been chairman of the powerful organisation from 2018-19.
Darren Halpin
The Innisfail-born accountant has spread his wings beyond traditional bookkeeping with a growing collection of big-ticket business and property projects under his belt.
Darren Halpin inherited the Halpin Partners firm from his accountant father, but has gone on to build an empire.
He has dozens of companies across multiple sectors and is the driving force behind the $300m The Palms residential estate in Kewarra Beach and Freshwater Pocket in Freshwater.
It is a fair achievement for someone who failed his first two years of university before shifting to James Cook University in Cairns to study in earnest part-time.
Mr Halpin says calculated risk-taking, backing good people, not taking no for an answer and old-fashioned grit are the secrets to business success.
“Working long hours and knowing the value of your own time are critical to learning your trade,” he said.
“You’ve got to find what you’re really good at and then maximise it.”
Anthony Beven
When it comes to accounting, tax and advisory firms, they do not come much bigger than Grant Thornton.
The multinational company has an annual revenue of more than $7.5bn, operates in more than 130 countries and employs more than 56,000 staff.
Becoming one of its partners is a big deal.
Anthony Beven grew up in Cairns and has gone on to become a partner of Grant Thornton, specialising in the Indigenous advisory sector.
He is a lawyer with more than 20 years’ experience as a senior statutory office-holder, including ten years as Registrar of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Corporations and eight years as an ASIC regional commissioner.
Professor Bernard Lanskey
He is one of the country’s most respected music educators, researchers and pianists – and it all started here in Cairns.
Professor Bernard Lanskey grew up under the tutelage of prominent piano teachers Mary Corsetti and Sister Mary Mercy.
He played the cathedral organ, featured in musicals and kept the tune alongside local jazz and pop bands.
His passion led him to study and work in places like Paris, London, China, the UK, Europe and Southeast Asia – and ultimately to his current gig.
Prof Lanskey was appointed to the top post of the Queensland Conservatorium of Music last year as director.
The institution is the breeding ground for some of Australia’s best musicians, and it has a born and bred Cairns local at the helm.
Roberto Venturato
You have likely never heard of him – but if you lived in Italy, it would be another story.
Roberto Venturato’s father moved to Australia to work on the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme in the late 1950s.
His mother followed a couple of years later, and their son was born in Atherton in 1963.
The family shifted back to Italy when young Roberto was just 10 years old – but it was Australia where his passion for football was born.
These days, Mr Venturato is one of the most prominent soccer coaches in Italy.
He steered the AS Cittadella 1973 team to the Serie A promotion playoff finals in 2018-19 and 2020-21 – no mean feat for a team in the calcio-mad country’s second highest football division.
He was appointed head coach of Serie B club SPAL in January 2022.
George Chapman
It sounds bizarre at first, but the journey from surveyor to tourism magnate makes sense when you think about it.
George Chapman is the patriarch of the Chapman Group empire which includes the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway as its crowning glory.
He is a fourth-generation North Queenslander who graduated from the University of Queensland with a Bachelor of Surveying in 1960.
Mr Chapman went on to establish one of the state’s largest surveying practices – and it was those landscape-navigating skills that allowed him to make the Skyrail a reality.
His contributions to the tourism sector are massive.
He was a director of the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation (now Tourism and Queensland) from 1984 to 1987, and a member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association Development Authority over the same time.
Mr Chapman was the founding chairman of the Cairns Regional Development Bureau, which went on to become Tourism Tropical North Queensland.
He also oversaw the privatisation of TAB Queensland as its chairman back in 1999.
In 2004, he and ANZ Bank bought the shares of McCafferty’s Coaches – now known as Greyhound Australia – and has significant property interests across the country.
The list goes on, but these days his son Ken Chapman has the reins of the family business.
Fittingly, Ken is also chairman of Tourism Tropical North Queensland – the organisation his father helped form so long ago.
Lui Garozzo
This born-and-bred Far North Queenslander has a keen business sense and plenty of clout when it comes to the food logistics industry.
His father Sam launched the distribution business more than 50 years ago, having migrated to Australia from Italy.
Mr Garozzo went straight from school to the family business and has helped steer it into lucrative new markets over the past three decades.
Total Food Network is a major player in the food export sector with a significant presence in Papua New Guinea – particularly in the supply of mining operations.
It has its own customs clearing team in PNG, an export hub in Brisbane and sources meat, fruit and vegetable produce from all over Australia.
Its distribution centres are in Cairns, Brisbane, Port Douglas and Port Moresby.
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