In his own words
The record: what failed, what it cost, and what changed
Three episodes from my early career come up whenever someone searches my name, usually told by people with a reason to make them look as bad as possible. Here is what happened, what it cost and what I changed.
Why I wrote this page
Not everything I have built has worked. I was 19 when the first of these happened and 26 when the last business closed. Where each matter was reported is noted at the end. Nothing here is hidden, and nothing is linked to the people who profit from retelling it.
2009: the wrong employer
At 19 I was working for a man who paid wages by cheque. It turned out his business was selling stolen Telstra copper cable, and the cheques he paid us with had been altered. I banked my pay like any employee. I did not run the business, I did not profit from it and I did not know where the cable came from. Because my name was on those banked cheques, I was caught up in the police case against the business, heard at Wodonga Magistrates Court.
What it taught me. Know who you are working for and where the money comes from. I left and started my own company, so that the decisions I answered for would be mine.
2008 to 2014: International Solar Solutions
I started International Solar Solutions on the Gold Coast at 19, in the first years of the Australian solar boom. We grew to about 40 staff and installed more than 300 systems. Across the solar and LED companies we put more than six megawatts of generating capacity on roofs. That company has its own page.
In 2011 I went to Bali to rebuild the Puri Rama Resort in Kuta, which became Troppo Zone. It consumed me, so I outsourced the management of the solar business. The managers ran it down. Customers were signed up and payments taken without systems being ordered, supplier accounts were drained and staff walked.
By the time I stepped back in, finishing the outstanding jobs would have cost more than refunding the customers. I closed the company and refunded them. About 36 people lost their jobs, which is the part I still regret. In 2015 the Queensland Office of Fair Trading took the directors to court over payments taken in 2013 and 2014 for systems that were never installed. I was fined $10,000 and paid $18,355 in restitution.
What it taught me. Never hand the running of a company to someone you cannot supervise. Every business I run now has two signatories on its accounts and no single manager controls customer money.
2013 to 2017: Eco Boss
Eco Boss had two product lines: a nanotechnology cleaning range and the Cig-Arrête tobacco smoke detectors made by Radal Technology in the UK, which we had distributed in Australia for two to three years and sold into schools.
We moved to a licensed distribution model, selling regional licences to sub-distributors, and launched it properly: a branded trailer, a warehouse on the Gold Coast, launch days with the new distributors. It was a good business and everyone involved believed in it.
Then the deal soured. Our licence agreement with Radal had been signed electronically, on the same terms as our cleaning-range agreement. The UK supplier wanted half the licence fees, money we needed for stock, marketing and the warehouse. When we could not agree, the supplier said the agreement had never been validly signed, even though the signature had been sent to us by email. By then our wholesale pricing had been disclosed to the sub-distributors, and that killed the model. Fighting it would have cost about $200,000 in legal fees, and even a win could not have undone the pricing exposure. I closed the company. It was deregistered in 2017.
The Office of Fair Trading then prosecuted the company and its two directors on behalf of the 11 licence holders. Rather than fund another long fight, we pleaded guilty and resolved it in 2018. Eco Boss was fined $250,000. I was fined $85,000 and paid $102,200 in restitution to the licence holders. The matter is closed.
What it taught me. Never sell rights unless the agreement is signed in ink and checked by a lawyer first. Every agreement I sign now goes through counsel before money moves.
What changed
- Two signatories on every operating company's accounts.
- Legal review of every distribution, agency and sale agreement before money moves.
- Buyer funds held by the contracting developer or in escrow, never by the marketing business.
- Background checks on every development partner and its directors before Kinnara lists a project.
- This page, for any partner, buyer or investor who wants the full story before dealing with me.
Where these were reported
The International Solar Solutions matter was announced by the Queensland Office of Fair Trading in 2015. Eco Boss was reported by the Canberra Times and SmartCompany in March 2018, based on the regulator's statement. This page is my account of both. For the more recent dispute over a Lombok project, read my Marina Bay City statement.