Educator becomes business leader

FOR Bundaberg Brewed Drinks CEO John McLean, the role as head of a multi-million dollar company was hardly the career he imagined as a kid on the Sunshine Coast

FOR Bundaberg Brewed Drinks CEO John McLean, the role as head of a multi-million dollar company, with staff based in four countries, was hardly the career he imagined growing up as a kid on the Sunshine Coast.

"I was going to be a guidance officer, that was my dream job. I used to watch Mr Gilroy read the newspaper everyday and thought - that's a job. He doesn't have to do much," he said.

But after marrying Rae-Lee Fleming, of Bundaberg Brewed Drinks founding Fleming family, the couple was asked to join the company. Mr McLean took six months leave from his environmental education centre principal position to try it.

"I'm still on my six-month trial," he joked.

"I started in April of 1994 and over the years I've worked in nearly every department in the business.

"For me I think it was a really great grounding."

Mr McLean helped build the company, a feat that last week saw him named among the state's 25 Best and Brightest in the Courier Mail's QWeekend Magazine.

"I think when I started turnover was about $12 million and we probably employed 45 people," he said.

"Now our turnover is about $100 million and we employ about 180 in four different countries."

The demands of such an influential position are not lost on Mr McLean.

"There's many different things that keep me awake at night ... and people is always - it's the one thing that people always say - people are your greatest assets but I worry about people an awful lot," he said.

"You play with people's lives with the decisions you make, sometimes not ones everyone enjoys."

And with export now accounting for 35% of the company's revenue and growing, Mr McLean also handles the challenges of doing businesses internationally.

"For us it's a little bit like a kid in a candy store and you've got an open bank card," he said.

"You could easily get distracted and try and get a little bit here, a little bit there and a little bit everywhere. That hasn't been good.

"Our largest export market next year will be the United States and it is based around one street. "If we get that street right, we can get the suburb right and get the city right."