Country kids are punching well above their weight in the big city.
Twenty-one of our top 100 chief executives – or 38 per cent of those born in Australia – grew up in regional towns from Tamworth to Tenterfield and Bathurst to Broken Hill.
The list of country luminaries includes Woolworths ’ Grant O’Brien from Tasmania’s Burnie, BlueScope Steel ’s Paul O’Malley , born in NSW’s Dubbo and Fortescue Metal ’s Neville Power , a banana bender from far north Queensland’s Mount Isa.
The number of country-born bosses is well above the 10 per cent of us categorised as regional by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, raising questions about why so many country kids have risen to the top.
“Tough times, plenty to do in terms of work and maybe a bit of resilience," Wesfarmers chief executive Richard Goyder quips about growing up on a farm in Tambellup, near the southern tip of Western Australia.
Korn Ferry chief executive Katie Lahey agrees that resilience, a propensity to travel and the ability to talk to people of all levels of society were key characteristics of country people that translated well to management.
“If you have been through seven years of drought, the chances are you’ve got a bit of backbone," Ms Lahey said.
“Children from the country have to come to the city to further their education or start even earlier at boarding school, so already they have left home and learnt about being independent," Ms Lahey said. “It also gives you that mobility factor which is so important for CEOs."
Ms Lahey said those who grow up in the country tend to be excellent at “managing and getting on with people".“The lowest person in the shearer’s shed knows the top grazer. If you are a leader, you have to feel comfortable with people at all levels." Opportunities their parents never had
The chief executive of paint maker Dulux , Patrick Houlihan , 47, is one of six children who grew up on a dairy farm in Winslow on the south-western coast of Victoria. All six Houlihan children ended up taking science degrees, despite the fact that by year nine he “had never heard of university".
“I think I had only been to Melbourne three days in my life before I came to study [but] a lot of kids in my generation were getting opportunities that their parents never did," Mr Houlihan said.
The over-representation of regional-born chief executives is one of the stand-out revelations of Pathways to CEO research, prepared by the University of Sydney Business School and to be published in BOSS magazine on Friday, which looks at the birthplace, education and career path of each of our top 100 chief executives.
The most common country of origin outside Australia is the UK, where 15 per cent were born including ANZ ’s Mike Smith and BHP ’s Andrew McKenzie . Five per cent were born in New Zealand, including CBA ’s Ian Narev ,while just two were born in Asia: Newcrest Mining ’s Sandeep Biswas and Aristocrat Leisure ’s Jamie Odell .
While degrees in commerce (18 per cent) and economics (11 per cent) are most common, science (20 per cent) and engineering (16 per cent) are also strongly represented. Twelve have no degree at all, including David Jones Paul Zahra and Greg Roebuck of Carsales who dropped out of a computer science degree. He said his travails as a long-suffering Richmond Football Club fan were the best training. “You have to take the good with the bad."
“There were periods when my two daughters wanted to change teams because after 25 years they have never seen a grand final. I would go: ‘but that’s part of the deal, you sign up to be committed to the team you choose and you don’t get a choice to go look when things aren’t good I am going to choose something else," Mr Roebuck said.
