User:Scarletpimpernels/Donald Brownlie Fleming

Donald Brownlie Fleming (Entrepreneur and Statesman)

Donald Brownlie Fleming born the 11th April 1946 started his professional life as an accountant and later became a salesman, property_developer, business developer and entrepreneur.

Early life
Don was born in Motherwell Scotland. His parents George and Jenny Fleming had at that time two daughters Shelia and Fiona. The family migrated to Australia arriving on the ship SS Asturias, in Woollamaloo on the 30th December 1951.

Don’s father was an electrical_engineer and was involved in the early development of Radar (History_of_radar) and another of George’s inventions The Fleming Starter was the technology that allowed computers to operate using Battery Power.

Soon after arriving the family moved to Adelaide South_Australia and for a short while were staying at the Pennington,_South_Australia Migrant_hostels_of_South_Australia.

Don started school in late January 1952 at Pennington Primary School. He remembers his first day very well as his Mother had dressed him, like all well dressed Scottish boys, in a kilt. Don spent the rest of the day fighting while all his class mates tried to see what a Scotsman wore under his kilt. The teachers tried to solve the problem by placing Don into the girl’s class, which for a tough wee scot was very humiliating. Don graduated from Primary school and started his high school education at Woodville_High_School_%28Australia%29. Don loved sport and played tennis, baseball and boxing. During Don’s high school years he was not a great student and his second passion was music, and every spare minute not playing sport was taken up with learning to play the guitar and then starting up a high school Rock_band. The early days of the band were influenced by Cliff_Richard and the Shadows and then of course The_Beetles. The band stayed together until Don’s marriage in 1966.

Don has kept his interest in music. He has owned two recording_studios and has been involved as an executive_producer in many music projects. In the later days mainly recording and promoting Christian_music. After Don graduated from High school in 1964, he commenced studying accounting in the evenings; he went from getting average results as a high school student to getting excellent results in his accounting studies. Don topped the State in his exams and came second in the State in his results for "Cost_Accounting". Don qualified as an accountant in 1970, while working as an assistant accountant with ARC Engineering.

Accounting career
After qualifying as an accountant, Don was transferred to Papua_New_Guinea as Branch Accountant to establish a new manufacturing facility for ARC Engineering in Lae PNG.

Don worked in PNG for three years and it was there that his entrepreneur flair began. His then wife, Carol, started a secretarial_services in Lae PNG. Don and a friend noticed that the only way to advertise items for sale for those families returning to Australia was on the local Post_Office information board. Seeing the opportunity, Don arranged for the secretarial service to print classified_advertising, and deliver the publication to all the houses, restaurants, bars, hotel and motels etcetera taking the first lot of adds straight off the Post Office notice board.

The idea took off and within twelve months the then publication known as “The Lae Trading Post” had grown to a sixty four page publication. The publication, soon after that, was sold to The_Age in Melbourne and Don’s entrepreneurial life began.

The then Managing_Director of ARC Engineering, Ken Cox, came to Lae. And while having a discussion with Don made the comment that “he really did not see Accountants as being on the team” to him Accountants were the scorers for the team. This had a huge impact on Don, and following his success with the sale of the Newspaper, Don decided form that point on in his life he wanted to become a player in business and not a scorer or observer.

Just before returning to Australia promotion from the company and Don was elevated to Residential Company_Secretary. Don was offered a senior role in Accounting in the Sydney branch, however at that time Don wanted to carve out his own career. Don considered his options and decided the best way for him to get into the game rather than be a scorer was to learn sales and marketing.

Sales career
In 1974 after returning from PNG, Don joined AMP_Limited who had an excellent sales training programme, as an insurance salesman. In his first two years, Don won several sales awards, one of the prizes getting to meet with Neil_Armstrong “the first man to walk on the moon” for lunch. The discussion over that lunch was a massive motivation for Don; he still has the photograph today and the words that Neil Armstrong said which I believe were a quote from Think_and_Grow_Rich “whatever the mind of a man can believe he can achieve”

In 1975 AMP promoted Don as an Agency Manager he was given five Agents, (within the next two years) Don built this team to 21 Agents. During this time Don also got involved as one of the trainers for all of AMPs new sales recruits.

Don also got involved in motivational_speaking outside of the insurance industry. Coming from the background of an Accountant, Don tackled selling as a profession and studied every aspect of sales that he could get his hands on. Don was then recruited in 1977 by another insurance company Eagle_Insurance. Eagle gave Don the opportunity to built his own Insurance_brokerage, although very successful in gaining sales, Don learnt a valuable but hurtful lesson. In 1979 that having your own business although you have the opportunity for success you walk the tight rope on a daily basis of failure with circumstances totally outside of your control. In 1979 Don had sold the insurance brokerage to the Cornell Group in Adelaide, all of the documentation to sell the business had been executed, from Don’s side of the ledger and the documentation was to be executed by Mr Richardson, the Managing Director of the Cornell Group the following morning. Mr Richardson died in a car accident that very evening when his new V8 Porsche hit a tree on his way home to Victor Harbor. The company was stuck in Limbo, as the new Manager for the Cornell Group, would not endorse the transaction or release the business, until a full investigation was completed. Don was stuck with the liabilities without access to the cashflow and assets. Don’s, then wife, agreed to sell personal assets to make an offer to the creditors, and entered into an arrangement with creditors to pay them off over the next five years.

Statesman
It was this time in Don’s life that he met Milt Richards; he was speaking at a Christian Businessman’s breakfast in Adelaide. Milt was working in Washington,_D.C. and he offered to organise and invitation to what is known as the "National_Prayer_Breakfast". This was an event in Washington DC USA, which every US_President since Dwight_D._Eisenhower has held, during the first week of February. Political, Business and community Leaders from around 160 plus countries around the world are invited to attend the Breakfast and other associated functions. Don first attended this Breakfast in 1980, where he met Father Walter_Lini, who was an Anglican Priest, Chief_Minister for the Condominium Government of New_Hebrides.

The New Hebrides were keen to achieve independence and Don was asked if he would assist by preparing a financial_model for the country, which along with a new constitution and some fund_raising was to support an application to the United_Nations for independence.

Independence was achieved in 30th July 1980 and the new independent nation of Vanuatu was born. Don maintained his friendship and relationship with the newly elected Prime_Minister, Father Walter Lini until his unfortunate death in February 1999.

Prime Minister Walter Lini honoured Don, by naming a street in Port_Vila after him. Don continued to attend the Washington event every year as an invited guest since 1980. During this time has had the privilege of meeting and becoming friends with Senators (Senate) and Congressmen in the United_States and Political (Politician), Business and Community Leaders around the worlds. Don has a particular interest in the Asia_Pacific region and established personal friendships with the former Prime Minster of Samoa Tofe Lau, Don was given the title of Matai (chief) Fa%27amatai in Samoa, with the title of “Laue Moana”.

Ongoing Projects
In the year 1998 Don commenced the construction of aCoconut_Oil Mill in Vanuatu, which at its peak production in 2004, generated 50% of the Vanuatu’s total export income. During this same period a roller_mill was purchased in Madang PNG and in Apia Samoa. A copra buying network was setup throughout the South_Pacific.

In the mid to late 80’s Don became a share_holder and Director of the Stewart Group of Companies. The Stewart Group consisted of a Group_of_companies, which were involved in Car_dealership, Land Subdivision_%28land%29, Motels, Caravan_Parks and Property_Developments. Don personally did loan_guarantees for the Stewart Group, and when the group collapsed in 1989, his guarantees were called upon. Don declared himself bankrupt in March 1989. The National_Australia_Bank at that time provided a good reference on the basis that it was not the fault of Don in the demise of the group and that Don has assisted the bank in the sell down of the Groups ssets and the recovery of their loans. The Major Shareholder of the Group, Allan Stewart, also provided a letter exonerating Don of any fault in the Groups demise. The Stewart Group failed as a result of the Stock Market Crash in 1987 (Black_Monday_%281987%29), and the subsequent property crash late 1988, where banks began to make margin_calls.

In 1995 Don started again with the formation of a company with a few friends that purchased a building at 41 Currie Street Adelaide. Two of the members from that original group then purchased the Mutual Community Building at 99 Gawler Place Adelaide at $7.8M; the property was upgraded, tenanted and subsequently sold three years later for $16.5M. The same group acquired another high rise building at 20 Blackwood Street North Melbourne. One of the original investors in the group, who had made an initial investment of $100K which was repaid twelve months later, after the fourth year the value of his investment in cash and property, had grown to over $5M.

Don has never had trouble in finding investors for his various projects as the majority of them have been spectacularly successful.

The Elan Group started by Don had begun to develop with the success of the property transactions, and over the next few years developed into a diverse manufacturing and property holding group which boasted the largest aloe_vera Plantation in the Southern Hemisphere with the only certified Organic Aloe Vera product production factory in Australia. One of the largestpistachio farms in Australia, the largest producer of organic coconut_oil in the World. The group also had a canola crushing mill in the South East of Australia and were the fore runners of grape_seed_oil production in Australia. The Elan Group also had a recording Studio and a Christian Music distribution/music_industry company. The Group continued to be involved in Property Development, with its major acquisition 13 Grenfell Street Adelaide. The Head Office of the Australia_and_New_Zealand_Banking_Group (ANZ) at the time. The group was placed into voluntary_administration in November 2005, when a contracted investment in the group was not honoured.

Current Activities
Since that time Don has been successful as one of the Founders of MyATM Holdings Pty Ltd. He has been involved in many successful Property Developments over the past five years and has acted as a consultant to approximately ten companies over this period. See