Chris Ellison has taken a bold approach to building his billion-dollar
business from the ground up.
WORDS | ADRIAN RAUSO
PHOTOGRAPHY | IAN MUNRO
Chris Ellison has taken a bold approach to building his billion-dollar business from the ground up.
WORDS | ADRIAN RAUSO
PHOTOGRAPHY | IAN MUNRO
Chris Ellison is not afraid to speak his mind and forge his own path as a leader.
From propelling the creation of an in-house airline, building a childcare centre next to company headquarters, or feeding his horde of workers spread across remote stretches of Western Australia with gourmet food, the self-made billionaire does things differently to most CEOs.
From humble beginnings, which included leaving school at 15, the outspoken Kiwi is now a billionaire in charge of Australian mining heavyweight Mineral Resources and the 7000-plus employees on its books.
Chris Ellison is not afraid to speak his mind and forge his own path as a leader.
From propelling the creation of an in-house airline, building a childcare centre next to company headquarters, or feeding his horde of workers spread across remote stretches of Western Australia with gourmet food, the self-made billionaire does things differently to most CEOs.
From humble beginnings, which included leaving school at 15, the outspoken Kiwi is now a billionaire in charge of Australian mining heavyweight Mineral Resources and the 7000-plus employees on its books.
With a leadership ethos that has intrigued many, Ellison says being a good corporate captain all boils down to one thing.
“Great leaders surround themselves with great people. The trick is in finding great people,” he says.
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“I’ve always tried to bring people on board who are intelligent and fearless. You give people an opportunity to prove themselves by handing them responsibility and ownership of their job — give them bandwidth.” |
With a leadership ethos that has intrigued many, Ellison says being a good corporate captain all boils down to one thing.
“Great leaders surround themselves with great people. The trick is in finding great people,” he says.
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“I’ve always tried to bring people on board who are intelligent and fearless. You give people an opportunity to prove themselves by handing them responsibility and ownership of their job — give them bandwidth.” |
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Great leaders surround
themselves with great people.
- Chris Ellison
Great leaders surround
themselves with great people.
- Chris Ellison
At barely 20 years of age Ellison crossed the Tasman Sea to Sydney in 1977 with virtually the clothes on his back and a few friends, soon finding labouring work across Western Australia’s Pilbara region and the Northern Territory.
His first venture began not long after he got a heavy machinery licence — a crane hire business in the Pilbara — and by his mid-20s he had cashed out for a small fortune.
One person stands out in moulding his leadership style and early success.
“When I was in my 20s, I had a managing director take me under his wing. His name was Don McConnell and he was the boss of Walter Wright, which was the biggest crane-hire company in the southern hemisphere,” Ellison says.
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“One of Don’s favourite sayings was, ‘If you don’t know the answer, don’t make a decision because time is on your side and the answer will always come to you’. I’ve never forgotten that.” |
Ellison also points to Kerry Stokes, the chairman of Seven West Media, as someone he has “a huge amount of admiration for” given their similar backgrounds.
“He’s a self-made man, he’s got natural instinct. He cares about people — and he’s a great mentor,” he says.
“I have (other) people that I reach out to now and then to get advice and guidance from, and to understand how they feel about the world at the moment.”
At barely 20 years of age Ellison crossed the Tasman Sea to Sydney in 1977 with virtually the clothes on his back and a few friends, soon finding labouring work across Western Australia’s Pilbara region and the Northern Territory.
His first venture began not long after he got a heavy machinery licence — a crane hire business in the Pilbara — and by his mid-20s he had cashed out for a small fortune.
One person stands out in moulding his leadership style and early success.
“When I was in my 20s, I had a managing director take me under his wing. His name was Don McConnell and he was the boss of Walter Wright, which was the biggest crane-hire company in the southern hemisphere,” Ellison says.
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“One of Don’s favourite sayings was, ‘If you don’t know the answer, don’t make a decision because time is on your side and the answer will always come to you’. I’ve never forgotten that.” |
Ellison also points to Kerry Stokes, the chairman of Seven West Media, as someone he has “a huge amount of admiration for” given their similar backgrounds.
“He’s a self-made man, he’s got natural instinct. He cares about people — and he’s a great mentor,” he says.
“I have (other) people that I reach out to now and then to get advice and guidance from, and to understand how they feel about the world at the moment.”
The money Ellison made before he turned 30 was ploughed back into a mining services business that was swallowed up by ASX-listed Monadelphous, but he retained a big exposure to the acquirer and its subsequent collapse left him teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
Down to his last 10 grand and some maxed-out credit cards, he started a pipeline contractor in 1992 that would eventually evolve into MinRes, making Ellison a rich-lister in the process.
But the ride has not always been without bumps, even in recent times.
“I’ve experienced three downturns in lithium and probably four in iron ore,” he says. “In the commodity cycle I learned very quickly that there are times you have to wind back your costs incredibly fast.
“You just don’t know how far the commodity is going to fall or where the bottom is, but one thing’s for sure — if you haven’t got enough cash, you will run out.”
Those downturns lead to the toughest part of being a boss, he says.
Less than two months ago MinRes started to axe more than 100 workers from its Perth head office and is slimming down the operational workforce across its portfolio as weak commodity prices bite.
“The most difficult times are when you lose people... you can deal with assets and park up equipment, but people have families and futures,” Ellison says.
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“We try and make sure that when we employ people, we’ve got them for the long term. Unfortunately, the commodity cycle doesn’t always allow that to happen.” |
The money Ellison made before he turned 30 was ploughed back into a mining services business that was swallowed up by ASX-listed Monadelphous, but he retained a big exposure to the acquirer and its subsequent collapse left him teetering on the verge of bankruptcy.
Down to his last 10 grand and some maxed-out credit cards, he started a pipeline contractor in 1992 that would eventually evolve into MinRes, making Ellison a rich-lister in the process.
But the ride has not always been without bumps, even in recent times.
“I’ve experienced three downturns in lithium and probably four in iron ore,” he says. “In the commodity cycle I learned very quickly that there are times you have to wind back your costs incredibly fast.
“You just don’t know how far the commodity is going to fall or where the bottom is, but one thing’s for sure — if you haven’t got enough cash, you will run out.”
Those downturns lead to the toughest part of being a boss, he says.
Less than two months ago MinRes started to axe more than 100 workers from its Perth head office and is slimming down the operational workforce across its portfolio as weak commodity prices bite.
“The most difficult times are when you lose people... you can deal with assets and park up equipment, but people have families and futures,” Ellison says.
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|
“We try and make sure that when we employ people, we’ve got them for the long term. Unfortunately, the commodity cycle doesn’t always allow that to happen.” |
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The most difficult times are when you lose people... you can deal with assets and park up equipment, but people have families and futures.
- Chris Ellison
The most difficult times are when you lose people... you can deal with assets and park up equipment, but people have families and futures.
- Chris Ellison
Despite the recent job cuts, enticing people to join and stay at MinRes has been a big part of Ellison’s leadership focus over the past few years.
The company is well known in the industry for its seafood feasts on Fridays — where workers at even the most far-flung mining camps get lavished with menu options such as lobster, crayfish and barramundi.
Getting those workers to and from site is also becoming more efficient, according to Ellison, as MinRes-branded planes with extra legroom take to the skies.
MinRes Air — a 50/50 joint venture between the company and Multiplex heir Tim Roberts — recently launched. The first flights took off earlier this year between Brisbane and some of MinRes’ Pilbara mine sites.
Roberts, who is a friend of Ellison and also a billionaire, runs his own private jet charter business and was brought on for his expertise.
“He (Tim) understands the aviation business, and he’s the one that’s really been the leader in being able to pull it together,” Ellison says.
Despite the recent job cuts, enticing people to join and stay at MinRes has been a big part of Ellison’s leadership focus over the past few years.
The company is well known in the industry for its seafood feasts on Fridays — where workers at even the most far-flung mining camps get lavished with menu options such as lobster, crayfish and barramundi.
Getting those workers to and from site is also becoming more efficient, according to Ellison, as MinRes-branded planes with extra legroom take to the skies.
MinRes Air — a 50/50 joint venture between the company and Multiplex heir Tim Roberts — recently launched. The first flights took off earlier this year between Brisbane and some of MinRes’ Pilbara mine sites.
Roberts, who is a friend of Ellison and also a billionaire, runs his own private jet charter business and was brought on for his expertise.
“He (Tim) understands the aviation business, and he’s the one that’s really been the leader in being able to pull it together,” Ellison says.
Ellison made international headlines in August when he said he didn’t want workers leaving the office to get coffee.
“I want to hold them captive all day long,” he said. “I don’t want them leaving the building... I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”
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It is part of the reason why he’s made the office such an appealing place for staff to be with coffees, juices and shakes priced much lower than surrounding cafes. |
The in-house facilities at the company’s Osborne Park office also include an impressive a la carte restaurant with sushi and salad bars, offering subsidised meals and take-home options so staff don’t have to worry about swinging past the shops after a busy day at work.
Ellison made international headlines in August when he said he didn’t want workers leaving the office to get coffee.
“I want to hold them captive all day long,” he said. “I don’t want them leaving the building... I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”
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It is part of the reason why he’s made the office such an appealing place for staff to be with coffees, juices and shakes priced much lower than surrounding cafes. |
The in-house facilities at the company’s Osborne Park office also include an impressive a la carte restaurant with sushi and salad bars, offering subsidised meals and take-home options so staff don’t have to worry about swinging past the shops after a busy day at work.
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Another one of Ellison’s strongest opinions as a leader is his stance on people working from home.
A growing wave of Australian companies are starting to wind back their WFH arrangements introduced during COVID, but few CEOs have been such ardent critics of remote working arrangements as Ellison.
“A lot of CEOs I know really object to this whole concept of people working from home. And I don’t know what the problem is with it (objecting to WFH), because the vast majority of people, 90-something per cent of the population, cannot work from home,” he says.
“The concept where you’ve got a very small part of your workforce that’s actually at home, and let’s face it... they’re not always working when they’re at home.
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“The 5 or so per cent that can (WFH), we need them here to collaborate, and we put them in an environment where they’d rather be here in the office than at home.” |
After five decades of work, evidently not from home, Ellison has led businesses across the spectrum — big and small, private and public.
“Obviously with a (big) publicly listed business, your life also becomes more public. You become a walking billboard,” he says.
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“But given the choice, I’d rather run a public company than a private company — there’s a lot more opportunity, more reward and more growth for the business.” |
“I’m lucky to run a business like MinRes. My Mondays are better than the average person’s Fridays because I’m so passionate about the things we get to do all week.”
Ellison made international headlines in August when he said he didn’t want workers leaving the office to get coffee.
“I want to hold them captive all day long,” he said. “I don’t want them leaving the building... I don’t want them walking down the road for a cup of coffee. We kind of figured out a few years ago how much that cost.”
|
|
It is part of the reason why he’s made the office such an appealing place for staff to be with coffees, juices and shakes priced much lower than surrounding cafes. |
The in-house facilities at the company’s Osborne Park office also include an impressive a la carte restaurant with sushi and salad bars, offering subsidised meals and take-home options so staff don’t have to worry about swinging past the shops after a busy day at work.
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