The eagle has landed

After 15 years at Monos, Paul still enjoys working with ninety nine percent of the people around him. Not bad for someone who once arrived from the UK with an eagle tattoo and no idea what a Spotter or a Franna was.

Paul’s first week was filled with cultural discoveries and footy politics. With no local allegiance, a very important decision was due.

“My first day on the job, an EC General Manager at the time, Danny Raschiatore, suggested that myself and Dai Bayliss (another project engineer who started at the same time) needed to pick a local AFL team to support, and also suggested that it would be good if one of us was an Eagle and the other a Docker to even things out,” Paul explained.

“I went for the Eagles to go with a dodgy eagle tattoo I had from my youth in the UK. and I’ll let the audience decide whether I made the correct choice?”

Originally joining Monos as a project engineer, he then progressed steadily through senior project engineer, project manager, area manager and operations manager before settling into his current role as General Manager.

“My first big achievement was the outstanding contribution margin on a major project I was the site project manager for,” he said.

“It was acknowledged personally by both EGMs at the time (Dino & Zoran), which is something I am very proud of.

“Being promoted to a General Manager was also a big career bucket list ticker.”

Throughout his time, his motivation for success has been to do his job as best he can.

“If you focus on doing the best job you can do, the opportunities will present themselves without having to chase them. My whole career has been built around this ethos,” he said.

But with any journey, it wasn’t all sunshine and milestones; there were tough moments, too, that came with important lessons.

“The biggest challenge I had was getting sucked in to SCM17 which was a major construction project at Olympic Dam, that was being run like a shutdown. That was a painful job with lots of lessons learned!” he said.

Looking back at it all, the lessons learnt and all the things achieved, there is one thing he would go back in time to tell a younger version of himself.

“Actions speak louder than words!” Paul said.

All said and done, Paul acknowledged the people who recognised his potential, challenged him and broadened his thinking.

“I have a few people to thank, who have been key in my career. Daniel Kennedy (EC Project Manager) for first recruiting me and recognising my potential, Shane O’Brien (EC Construction Manager) for our project successes at Cape Lambert over many years,” he said.

“Danny Raschiatore for being a great GM in my EC days, Zoran Bebic for being a detailed, dedicated and disciplined leader, and Al Reid for his diverse thinking and the business acquisitions and improvements he has brought about.”

Fifteen years later, Paul remains energised, grateful, excited to accomplish his next big goal and still refuses to confirm whether the Dockers might have been the better footy choice.