My life journey has been closely aligned to supporting entrepreneurs. As founder of Silver Chef, I created an equipment funding solution that enabled young entrepreneurs to get business essential equipment needed to start their business in the cafe or restaurant in the hospitality industry. The model was a rent try buy solution that meant they could rent the equipment until their business was proven and delivering profitability before spending their hard-earned capital. If they chose to purchase at the end of their first 12 months we gave 75% of the rent paid back off the purchase price.
Getting equipment funding has always been pretty tough in the hospitality industry so our solution was very popular. We have been most fortunate that our clients repaid our faith in them by recommending their friends and colleagues and the business has continued to thrive. In 2005 Silver Chef listed on the ASX and today has some 25,000 clients with offices in NZ and Canada. The business has attracted some wonderful talented people to join us and we are proud to be in the BRW top 50 great places to work in Australia.
In 2010, we set up a family foundation to focus on supporting Social Entrepreneurs who create their enterprise to for the benefit of the community and address some of our more challenging issues in our society. In 2017 I was included in the Financial Review list of 21 True Leaders who are making Australia better.
In 2020 I was honoured to receive an Order of Australia AM for Philanthropy and services to the community.
