Geoff Fuller

From the past:

"I am distantly related to the third President of the United States - Thomas Jefferson II."

2004

Well- here goes - Born in the USA - landed here in ‘51 - thought I was related to Kit Carson which I found out later to be untrue (after a relative did a family genealogy which went back the 1500’s!) . In fact my ancestors go right back to when the first people came to America on the Mayflower - from England, to settle on the east coast in the late 1500’s, (No I am not going to recant the 500 year history of the Fullers - BUT I can tell you I am distantly related to the third President of the United States - Thomas Jefferson II...)

Dad was American (ended up in Australia after his ship was diverted as it headed to Pearl Harbour after it had been bombed some weeks earlier), Mum, a Sydney girl - they met in Townsville in WWII - married - went back to USA (Spokane, Washington) - stayed 6 years -Quentin (Twin brother) and I were born during that time - Mum convinced Dad to come back to Australia (too cold in Spokane!! )_Dad got a job at Colgate Palmolive and eventually became Finance Director before retiring in 73 We grew up in Woolaware, Cronulla and Maroubra before moving to South Turramurra in ‘61, where we started at Asquith (in its second year)-big change after coming from a combined High School (Maroubra Bay). Concentrated on doing well (trying at least), academically - and not much good at sport - playing only baseball for the school. ( Ithink I caught the ball once!) .Yes I remember some of the school plays!! (as some have commented) .... Quentin and I had a big advantage when it came to roles like Cinderella...

Studied Economics at Sydney Uni - full time then part time - finished my Econ. degree in 1970 (after a few subject repeats-in fact I believe I was and still am the only person to ever do Accounting II , three times!) - my work career started at NCR in programming and systems support (which was attached to sales) - where I learnt programming and worked on a few in house, and client projects, in the early days of mainframes and VRC’s (No, not VCR’s but Visible Record Computers)

Also met my first wife there (NCR) - Jeanette Muir (one of the Muirs Motors (Holden dealer) daughters) - married in 73.

Her parents lived next door to Sir Nick Shehadi (ex Wallaby Captain, Sydney Lord Mayer etc ), who officiated at our wedding which was held at home. Nicks’ wife Marie (Bashir) is now the Governor-General of NSW. Got called up into Nashos (as did my brother, obviously) - did Officer training at OTU (71) and ended up in Bendigo as an officer (2nd lieutenant), in Topography helping with computerisation of survey maps etc - did not know what I was doing the whole time there and luckily neither did anyone else.. (Stig, after your comments today you may be interested that I was officer in charge of wine and spirits - where I first learned to like Cherry Liqueur and unfortunately drank too much!!)

Will try to summarise now ....( I am not very good at summarising) After NS, joined Westfield (73) as Assistant Group accountant (or was it assistant to the Group Accountant?) and EDP manager (set up Westfield’s first computerised systems), and in those days you could go and talk with Frank Lowey - my biggest career mistake was leaving there - the $1,000 shares I was given in 74 would now be worth over $2m - I sold them of course within months ....

Still being a keen surfer I was swayed (with a great salary) to join a hardware /building supplies group on the North Coast which would see me based at Kempsey (near Crescent Head)-dumb move career wise...great life otherwise -after 15 months the coy went broke - I joined a retail group in Grafton and setup from scratch a Computer bureau which served the North Coast area for many years - I was GM and chief sales person - also my wife worked there(In fact she was key to the business) and about 4 other people...our first child Christina was born there in 76. I joined Rotary at that time and became International Director of our local Club in Grafton - and was elected Vice President before leaving Grafton... Moved to Melbourne in 78 to joined an Australian Computer company (as sales consultant), specialising in accounting software for accountants and commercial use (Hartley Computer) - my wife was 8 ½ months pregnant with our second child - so was not impressed.. Second child also named Quentin (after my twin brother) born there in 78..

6 years at Hartley. including 2 years back in Sydney but I ended up as State manager in QLD, (had a year in the middle at the then fledgling SOLution 6 in 82, before returning to Hartley), but then left to set up my own business with another ex Hartley colleague, marketing contact database/sales prospecting systems (before ACT, Maximiser, GOLDmine and at the high end, Siebel, even existed)..

We (my business partner and I ) were offered and bought 50% of Computerland Brisbane (then a franchise) and we took it from no 8 position (out of 31 Computerland stores in Australia ) to No 3 in 2 years. As well as a principal (there were 3 of us), I was Finance and Marketing Director - an interesting combination, whose objectives often conflicted). Was at Computerland (which went thru many changes) in various positions for 6 years ....

....ComputerLand International formed a National Computerland group in ‘88 and bought our franchise business as well as most of the city based Franchises - and I was GM Northern region for 2 years ( a fancy title for QLD State Manager) - A great time in my career and we won Dealer of the year (with IBM and Compaq in successive years) - it was a good training ground for many people some of who are now in high level executive positions in HP/Compaq and other companies. Lots of perks and trips overseas etc...( I was International representative for Australia for ComputerLand International - so got a couple of trips to the US, before we fell on hard times).

But Computerland ran into trouble after less than 2 years - losing a lot of money - and the Yanks (who owned 50% of ComputerLand Australia ) came in and changed the top management over - I was promoted to GM Australia and an executive director - it was tough trying to turn a $20m loss into a profit when the economy was about to hit a bad recession - but we made a small profit in the first 6 months (after much restructuring and retrenchment), but eventually the recession of 90/91 hit us and we were in trouble - forced to sell most of the business late 90 - which we did to a competitor (at firesale price) - and dissolved the rest - needless to say we didn’t make any money out of this transaction - My 20 year marriage dissolved at the same time and it was a trying time ..... I took it easy for 6 months (rest and recuperation, helping out a colleague in the sales area of his business during that time)...

Then bought a third share of a newly formed IT applications solutions distribution business (Automated Timekeeping and labour management) and was GM for the 4 years the business operated until we sold it. I was one of three partners (yet again) with its inherent problems! Helped build that business up into a good business - and we sold it to the US supplier who set up a subsidiary here, and I worked for them for 2 years under an arrangement I made as a result of selling the business - but the MD and I did not agree... - so left and decided that I did not want the hassle of management etc but could still sell IT solutions successfully (had done most of the selling/sales management in the distribution business), and so joined CSSL (eventually bought out by POWERLAN), in a sales position selling ERP systems - quite satisfying.

Was offered a position at a real ERP company a year later ... Next move disastrous as the IT industry imploded !!(well a little anyway), and I was retrenched when they closed down - so suddenly out of work at 54 - not a great position to be in - had a couple of jobs in between, then joined a small IT company in the same type of business as the Distribution business I mentioned above (automated Timekeeping and labour management), as Sales and marketing manager with the potential to become shareholder. It is going well ...

Sorry if this is a little long ...

My daughter (who went to PLC Pymble ) and graduated with Hons in Psycholgy at Uni NSW, is now 28, married for over 5 years - She has one son ( and I have one Grandchild!) Joshua, now 2 ½ years old, a great kid, and there is another on the way ...She works part time in the Work Injury Management Services industry, which as spawned when Workcover decided that they weren’t automatically going to pay Workers compensation for ever, and people, injured in their work, had to try and find alternative employment as soon as practical...Her family live at Nth Parramatta My son Quentin, now 26, went to Barker College and works in the finance/trust management industry - still trying to finish a Commerce degree at Macquarie UNI - now in his 8th year ( I give him great credit for perseverance) ..

I married again in 94 - to a lovely lady (as was my first wife!) called Rosemary - our 10th Anniversary this year- she works as a receptionist/administration officer at North Shore Private - maybe some of you have spoken to her .. (she answers ‘Rose’). We initially lived at Willoughby, then buying a house more suitable teenagers and moving to Pymble in 97.

Rosemary’s has two lovely children, (now adults) Tim & Vanessa now 21 and 23. Both work in Retail (Just Jeans and David Jones). I take no responsibility (or credit) for their upbringing.. They still live with us...

My most momentous and joyful change in my life (for which I thank God) was becoming a Christian in 92 - I am active in the church (St Swithuns at Pymble) including taking services on Sunday at the Roden Cutler Aged Persons home in Gordon.. My daughter and son have also become Christians, for which I am extremely thankful...

I still surf a little (on a surf ski), play golf a little (poorly) and go bushwalking with my wife and occasionally go to her church (catholic church at Pymble)

I am not ready (or able) to retire yet ...

I look forward to catching up with many of you tonite.