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Commercial CV - Stephen Peter Chatterton (Retired) BEcon, BAcc, FASA, FIPM, FICS & FIPM

BEcon - Batchelor of Economics UOW
BAcc - Batchelor of Accountancy UOW
FASA - Fellow and Principal in Public Practice ASA (Australian Society of Accountants)
FIPM - 4 year Undergraduate Diploma Personnel Management and Human relations - Fellow Institute of Personnel Management
FICS - 4 year Post Graduate diploma Company Secretarial Practice and Administration - Fellow Institute of Chartered Secretaries
FIPM - Fellow Australian Institute of Management
Coxswain - Australian Maritime College - Transport and Distribution (Marine Studies)

Stephen Chatterton was born in 1949 in Penrith England and his family immigrated to Australia in 1951. In 1952 the family moved to Wollongong NSW where Stephen lived until 2002 when he an Julie moved to Kalkite in the Snowy mountains of NSW. In 2013 Julie and Stephen built a "holiday" home in Calliope Queensland a suburb of Gladstone and in 2018 they made that their permanent residence. His parents were self employed for a large part of his formative years and imparted a depth of knowledge as well as a couple of rules that he lives by:

• The golden rule ... do unto others that which you would have them do unto you.
• Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.

Amongst their interests his parents owned, and his father ran, during its halcyon years, the business known as the Normandie Private Hotel in North Wollongong. His Father also had an affinity with the water that he passed on to Stephen.

His mother was unique too and included among her achievements, being on the National Immigration committee in Canberra, being the first person in Australia to charter a Qantas 747 (all the seats were sold and her and Stephen's father Jim Chatterton, together with about 350 other expatriate Brits, went back to the UK for a holiday.) and being the first woman in Australia to host her own current affairs program (Win TV 1962 ...A current Affair with Alice Chatterton).

Stephen's first paid job was in the finance industry working first for the ANZ bank which he joined in 1965 and then for two related finance companies Alliance Acceptance and Mercantile credits. In 1976 he was “poached” from his managers role in the finance industry to take up a position of Group Accountant for a group of large local private companies of which B&W steel was the hub.

At that time B&W Steel Pty. Ltd which was a major engineering and plant hire company with its head office, where Stephen was located from 1976 to 1994, in Fairy Meadow a northern suburb of Wollongong NSW.

The engineering plant was located adjacent to the head office and the well equipped workshop of around 2,000 square meters house an impressive array of engineering plant. In the late 70's the workshop expanded with the addition of an extra 3,000 square meter bay and with the addition of several new machines and was quickly escalated to became the largest engineering plant of its type in NSW and possibility Australia. The 5,000 square meter workshop did engineering work for projects around Australia but servicing the local steel works and mining companies were the main stays to its success. The engineering workshop was unique and housed an extensive range of engineering and fabricating machines including some of the largest engineering plant in the Southern Hemisphere. The largest of the milling machines had the capacity to take jobs of up to 300 tons in weight on its flat bead and the largest lathe had a massive 3 meter swing.

The other leg of B & W Steel's operations was a crane hire company located adjacent to the north gate of the Port Kembla plant of Australian Iron and Steel which eventually became BHP Billiton. As well as having a range of relatively 'normal' mobile cranes B & W also had some very big cranes including the largest mobile crane in Australia ... a massive beast that had a 300 foot jib and outstanding lifting capacity.

When Stephen joined B & W Steel, as Group Accountant it had 3 main operations. The engineering workshop and crane hire operations both of which operating under the banner of B&W Steel Pty.Ltd and a stand alone company Southern Steel Pty. Ltd ... by the mid 70's it was the 4th largest steel distribution company in Australia. SSS as it was colloquially known had its first distribution warehouse and base of operations opposite the B & W Steel head office and engineering plant but during Stephen's involvement established warehousing and distribution facilities an Sydney, Melbourne and Wadonga.

Over the ensuing years the group, diversified further and added Allied Shipping Services (ASSCO), Rollco Engineering, St. Peter’s Winery & Distillery, Hanging Rock Winery, Surdex Steel, Steel, Longueville Private Hospital, Dee Why Gardens Retirement Village, Laurieton Retirement Village, Domino Computers, Hanging rock Winery & St Peters Winery & Distillery.

Stephen thrived in that commercial environment and quickly rose through the ranks being appointed as Group Company Secretary in 1979 and then progressive after that taking on the role of CEO of all of those companies and also as a director of a couple of other companies that the shareholders had a majority interest in.

In the early 90's during Prime Minister Keating's 'J curve recession' the shareholders of the group recognising that the group had developed beyond expectations and instigated a rationalisation plan to progressively sell of the lesser performing companies. By then Stephen had been with the group for 16 years and was working unsustainable hours and was spread very thin. A second leg of that restructuring was an announcement that he son of the major shareholder of the group, who had not been involved in the administrative aspects across the group but did have a sound 'coal face' knowledge of several of key businesses, was keen to get involved in the balance of the businesses. Rather than being involved in that restructuring on an on-going basis Stephen resigned from the B&W Group and at the same time put forward a proposal to purchase St.Peter's Winery and Distillery.

The purchase of St. Peter’s Winery & Distillery property, business, plant, machinery and stock was completed in May 1994. Stephen is convinced that both commercially and personally that was one of the bravest and smartest thing he has ever done.

The winery and distillery is located at Yenda just outside Griffith and under Stephen's stewardship developed into being in the top 10% of wineries in Australia by production capacity and in comparative terms, on that basis, equal in size to approximately 20% of all of the combined wineries in the Hunter Valley of NSW. The winery business grew and prospered and became profitable throughout the period 1992 until 2001 when it was sold at the top of the wine boom.

Stephen & Julie Chatterton also owned, but lease out, Jamberoo Valley Lodge which was a 40 room motel / reception / conference center nestled in the foothills of Jamberoo Mountain just inland from Kiama. In 2007 they also sold that business and property.

Stephen credits much of his management and professional skill not only to his parents and formal education but also to great mentoring in the ANZ Bank by Mr Keith Nunn, Mr Peter Stokes his predecessor in Mercantile Credits and also to a large extent to Mr Williams who for 16 years shared so much knowledge and understanding.

Stephen’s tertiary qualifications include a degree in Economics and Accountancy and a under graduate diploma in Personnel Administration and a post graduate diploma in Chartered Administration and Management.

Stephen is also qualified as a Fellow and Principal in Public Practice ASA (Australian Society of Accountants), Fellow Institute Of Personnel Management, Fellow Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Fellow Australian Institute of Management.

In 2004 Stephen, so that he could indulge his interest in boats, promoting the interests of Fly Fish Australia Inc, and fly fishing in general he completed a TAFE course in Transport and Distribution (Marine Studies) and became a Coxswain. This allowed him to own and operate a commercial fishing boat within his own "fly fishing business" based at Kalkite on the shores Lake Jindabyne where he also lived.

Stephen is a keen family man, and in his free time is a committed (or committable) fly fisherman and fly tier and more recently what he calls "fishing on the dark side" (which of course is fishing with soft plastics and lures). He enjoys reading and his favourite authors are Matthew Reilly, Michael Crichton, Lee Childs, Tom clancey and Clive Cussler.

He was an accredited Fly Fishing Guide until 2010 and was actively involved in the board Fly Fish Australia Inc. resigning from the position of President and other roles in FFA in 2017 after 13 years at the "coal face". Stephen was also selected to represent Australia at six international Fly Fishing Championships in the period 1996 to 2018 including the World Fly Fishing Championships, the Commonwealth Fly Fishing Championships and the Oceania Fly Fishing Championships.

More recently after moving to Central Queensland Stephen took on the role of Treasurer of Gladstone Sport Fishing Club. Fly fishing remained his passion and he participated and won a couple of relatively small Bass and Saratoga competitions as he settled into the Queensland fishing scene. Stephen has continued his interest in competition fishing (on the dark side) and in 2020 shared 5 place with his fishing partner in the Awoonga Barramundi Open.

Stephen has been involved in a number of community activities including the NSW Rural Fire Service, as convenor and administrator of the Kalkite Community Facebook page which has become a key contact point for the Kalkite community and more recently helping the Boyne Tannum Hook Up (Australia's largest fishing competition) introduce fly fishing to the competition.

Stephen has also been a Justice of the peace since 1970 and holds a Senior First Aid certificate.

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