Irish Australian Business Awards Peoples Choice 2022

Paschal Baugh, from Co. Cavan Ireland, is an Alumni of Trinity College Dublin. He has had an international career in construction since 1994 and has travelled and worked internationally in both exotic and hardship locations. Paschal has always promoted all things Irish and given employment to a multitude of fellow Irish people, in the West, Middle East, Far East and Australia.

He graduated in 1995 in Quantity Surveying, became Chartered through the Society of Chartered Surveyors of Ireland (SCSI) and went on to become a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and a Member of the Australian Institution of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS). He is also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the Society of construction Law. He has since completed several post-graduate studies.

Paschal has worked for Systech since 2018 and was recently promoted to Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, a role which makes him responsible for over 50 staff. Systech is a successful global construction consultancy that specialises in construction cost control, claims and dispute resolution, led by Stephen Rayment, CEO, whose family stems from Drogheda Co. Louth, Ireland.

Paschal has delivered webinars to contractors promoting Systech’s innovative software – Site Diary Application which allows engineers to complete a record of their daily site activities using their handheld device/phone and stores the data and provides automated daily reports for senior management.
Paschal ensures that all deliverables such as reports, estimates, claims documents etc are peer reviewed internally to comply with best practice principles and industry standards. To ensure ISO compliance Paschal works closely with Systech’s QA/QC division.

As Country Manager for Systech, Paschal has a diverse range of staff in Australia hailing from Ireland, UK, Middle East and Far East. Around 25% of staff in Australia are Irish nationals and for those staff who join direct from Ireland, full visa sponsorship, mobilisation, accommodation, training, and orientation is provided.

Paschal is keen to recognise the Systech philosophy to sponsor and support staff in achieving their lifestyle and professional goals. In the last year he has helped Irish staff become Citizens of Australia and he has encouraged his team to become Chartered RICS or members of the AIQS, for which he manages the in-house training and mentorship programmes.

During the Covid -19 pandemic, Paschal took special care of his staff and created a positive team attitude which enabled Systech to maintain its excellent client support service whilst minimising staff turnover. Systech was the first-in-class to instigate working from home, an innovative move well before the national regulatory authorities initiated the WFH guidelines.

Paschal encourages his team to have regular social evenings down at the local including PJs, the Dosshouse, The Mercantile and other local Irish venues and he is a keen supporter of IACC, Club Hibernia, The Landsdowne Club, and charities such as Vinnie’s CEO Sleep Out, Child Rescue Coalition, Youth Three Sixty Charity, UNICEF and he regularly attends Irish events in Sydney and Melbourne.

A born entrepreneur, Aisling Smith Vance (Ash) is a highly accomplished businesswoman, bestselling author, podcaster and mother. Having built multiple businesses globally, appearing in the reality TV show The Apprentice and brokering many multi-million dollar business deals throughout her corporate career. This provided Ash with experience, confidence and the ability to utilise 20 years of Personal Development and channel it into creating a thriving business.

Aisling lives a life true to her name - (Aisling in Gaelic means a dream or a vision), and Aisling is a visionary. She has sacrificed everything to develop her business and help and empower other people. A motivated and inspiring young female entrepreneur whose own life was changed by personal development. Developed a dream and a vision to empower 1 million people through her courses, books and apps, by facilitating people to achieve their dreams and aspirations.

Throughout her 12 years in Australia, Aisling has contributed considerably to the Irish Community in Australia through her committee involvement with The Ireland Funds and The Melbourne Rose of Tralee. Aisling joined the IACC in 2011 at 25 and utilised the years therein watching, learning and listening to experienced professionals and global leaders. Aisling recognises that her membership and opportunities in The Chamber are a testament to her development as a successful young entrepreneur. Through participation in the mentoring program, the horizon program and the Emerald program within IACC. Aisling had the opportunity to learn from those who have succeeded in life and business and from her peers. It provided the chance to ask questions and develop an understanding of what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur and business person. And how to support and empower others to do the same.

After spending over a decade in the psychological analysis of consumer and human behaviour, Aisling decided it was time to turn her gifts and talents into helping people, helping them overcome their innermost fears, anxiety and blockages. Helping people to perform at the highest level in their lives, relationships and careers. Helping people to discover their purpose. Helping People become the Best Version of themselves and Live a Life true to their Beliefs and Aspirations.

With training as a Hypnotherapist, Counsellor, and Master Coach of NLP through 1-1 coaching, seminars and training courses. Aisling has changed the lives of hundreds of her clients and their families. She believed it was time to create a business that would impact people globally, and IEP was born.

Aisling developed The Institute of Empowered Psychology in 2020 during the global pandemic. The vision was clear, and Aisling knew that the potential for the business was huge. Aisling now co-owns and runs IEP with Fran Harper, a phenomenal woman who has the same vision as Aisling to create a globally renowned business in the coaching and training industry. Together they co-authored a book entitled Empowered Women in Business, which has become an international bestseller. With their second book in preparation for publication. In the first two years, Aisling utilised all her skills and wore many hats within the business - Content Creator, Social Media Marketer, Trainer, Coach, Salesperson, Website Developer, Graphic Designer, Producer And technical development. Now the team has grown to 6 with 3 additional subcontractors in 2022 and estimated future growth to 10 by 2023.

I would be a worthy winner of the award as I I feel I have accomplished a lot in my professional career, as so many before me, I arrived in Australia as a graduate with no professional experience. I made it my mission to get sponsored in my first 6 months and not end up on a farm picking fruit so I could stay in the country. I was able to achieve this 9 years ago. I then started my career in Technology Start-Ups, doing the very hard yards, working crazy hours and doing what needed to be done to to bring the company to success and also allow me to stay here (I think it’s safe to say there are a lot with similar war stories to share!).
 

I was promoted to General Manager very early in my career - understanding that the company I was working for was quite small, but it certainly set my intention to be in a leadership role for my career. From there I have gone to travel the world In many different roles (making sure there a few trips home on the way) around the US and APAC and Europe, building relationships with vendors, customers and attending trade shows. I am only starting to be recognised for my place in the professional world and I cannot wait to see where it ends up. Having a Young Professional award from the IACC would be a great moment to self reflect and appreciate all the hard work that has gone into my career to date. It has to be said without the support and connections from the chamber I would not be where I am today.

I completed my audit training contract in Dublin with Smith and Williamson, who are a member of the Nexia International network of accounting firms. After passing my final exams with Charted Accountants Ireland, I was offered a four-month secondment to the Nexia office in Perth. Little did I know at the start of 2016 that I would spend the next three years working part of the year in Dublin, part of the year in Perth and travelling Australia and Southeast Asia in between.

I have been a full-time employee of Nexia Perth since the second half of 2018 and in that time, I have been promoted twice within the audit team and in 2022 I moved into the Managed Services Division as a manager. This is an exciting transition into a team which is growing very quickly.

During my career so far, I have had the opportunity to work with a broad range of clients from ASX listed companies, to family-owned businesses, and not for profits, in sectors including mining, oil and gas, construction, distribution, manufacturing, property investment, education, and charities. My work has allowed me to travel around Ireland, and the UK and around Australia. Some highlights have been visiting clients at Uluru, and the Cocos Keeling Islands.

One part of my job that I really love is training and mentoring the junior members of my team and seeing them progress in their own careers. I have been lucky to have a number of amazing mentors over my career so far and I am always happy to help and pass on what I have learned as well as my technical knowledge and experience. I keep in touch with many of my previous graduates and I’m honoured that they still reach out to me for advice and guidance.

I am passionate about supporting women in business and I have made many amazing connections with other women working here in Perth and also around Australia through the IACC Emerald Programme and IACC Kindred Networks. I have worked with and for many incredible women during my career so far and I am excited to continue promoting the value women can bring to any organisation.

I am proud that my career has also put me in a position to help others and I am happy to give up my time pro bono to assist a number of organisations with their accounting and compliance requirements, including an Irish community group in Perth and a number of not for profits.

A proactive and highly motivated professional who demonstrates a strong work ethic and genuine care for clients and peers, and is approachable and a team player. As I reflect on my journey and experience, both professionally in the construction industry, and personally as an expat who​ ​embraced the opportunity to relocate from Ireland to Australia, these are some of the words that​ ​colleagues and friends have used to describe me, and I believe that the winner of the Irish Australian​ ​Chamber of Commerce Young Professional Award will also embody these very characteristics.

I am currently an Associate Director for Linesight, a construction consultancy headquartered in​ ​Ireland. Moving to a new country, no matter how exciting, comes with unique challenges, especially​ ​without the support system you would have, by way of family and friends, as you would in your home country. However, I am lucky to have colleagues who continue to provide invaluable support, not only during my transition from Dublin to Sydney, but also as I continue to progress my professional development. I believe that learning is a two-way street – I take pride in being part of a team that allows me to take initiative and lead by example, while at the same time, I value team interactions that give me the opportunity to learn from others.
 

It is for this same reason that I am extremely passionate about giving back to colleagues and contributing to the wider construction industry as well as the local communities we work in. Internally at Linesight, I successfully set up and run the APAC Learning & Development (L&D) support team. This consists of organising learning hours for all staff, ensuring regional alignment with our global approach to L&D, and the establishment of a regional chartership programme, the ‘Linesight Chartership Pathway’. The programme is specifically designed for staff pursuing chartership as a Quantity Surveyor, and includes a balance of ‘on-the-job’ learning as well as formal training courses to help them pass their Assessment of Professional Competence (APC).

I am also one of the founding members of the APAC Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) committee in 2021 – something I am equally passionate about and will continue to champion, especially in the male-dominated construction industry. Ultimately, my vision is for DE&I not to be something we have to constantly push for as its ingrained at the core of any business. Since the committee’s inception, we as a group have sought to make our company a more inclusive place and to ensure all staff are both represented and heard. One of the initiatives we have introduced was a ‘company catch-up day’ where we paired staff members who do not usually work together to encourage relationship building across our global team.

Outside Linesight, I champion the same initiatives and maintain close ties with my Irish roots by being involved in related associations, such as the Young Ireland GAA Club Sydney, given my hobby of playing football, and participating in social events, such as St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. This serves to further strengthen my network and broaden the reach of my impact on the community.

I moved to Australia in 2017 following completion of my Bachelor of Engineering in Energy and Building Services Engineering at Ulster University. I spent the last two years of my degree working part-time as an Undergraduate Mechanical/Hydraulic Design Engineer for Caldwell Consulting in Belfast before embarking on my engineering career in Melbourne. On arrival in Australia, I quickly discovered there were numerous opportunities to develop and progress my career as an engineer.

I commenced my career in Australia in 2018 within the Building Services sector as a Graduate Hydraulic Engineer with Wood and Grieve Engineers. In 2019 I joined LCI Consultants as a Hydraulic Engineer.

In my role as a Hydraulic Engineer with LCI, I am particularly proud of the work we do in designing hospitals and healthcare facilities knowing that we are ultimately having a positive effect on patients, staff, and families in the healthcare system. I have been fortunate to have contributed to the design or upgrade of many hospitals, aged care facilities and medical research laboratories. I design and review drawings to obtain information on new and existing services, complete calculations and produce hydraulic drawings. I have developed a high-level of skill on IT based engineering design programmes such as Revit and AutoCAD.

As a female engineer in a male dominated industry, I have demonstrated my ability, innovation, and passion for my chosen career. I am always working towards further development of my knowledge and skills through continuous improvement. I am constantly keeping up to date on the latest thinking and new working practices in hydraulic engineering and apply this in my day-to-day activities. As part of LCI’s ongoing commitment to a sustainable built environment I have a responsibility to ensure I use renewable techniques and technologies in my designs. I also network with other engineers and professionals in the construction industry and am proud to represent LCI at industry functions and forums.

My Irish fiancé and I are looking forward to returning to Ireland for the first time since COVID for our wedding later this year. After years of living in “the world’s most liveable city” and enjoying the benefits of exceptional career opportunities we have applied for our Australian Permanent Residency. Having lived in Australia for over 5 years, we place significant value on our Melbourne-based Irish Community and the strong connection it gives us to our home.

Once we return from Ireland, I will commence the process to achieve my professional NER (National Engineers Registration) and then, eventually, my Chartership.

I represent the best of what the Irish workforce has to offer the world – highly skilled and educated with a globally recognised professional accounting qualification; an ability to foster dialog that drives success for any project or initiative I am involved in, our gift of the gab; and a resilient, industrious, and tenacious work ethic that doesn’t succumb to any challenges presented. Traits and characteristics that I feel are uniquely Irish and drive unique success for anyone we encounter.

Like everyone else in the last two years, I found myself needing to pivot life during the pandemic to balance a demanding global executive job, support the change for my growing global teams and suddenly become a schoolteacher for my two young children. And I am pleased to say achieved all the above.

I established key operating practices and processes at Inflo as we navigated the early years of business that have led to us being recognised with a multitude of awards for our commitment to our customers and profession over the last two years, including Accounting Software of the Year in 2021 and 2022, User Experience of the Year (Vendor) 2022 and Cloud Initiative of the Year (Vendor) 2022. I grew my global division from 7 people in 2019 to 18 across three continents in 2022, increasing customer satisfaction to an NPS of 62 and revenue growth of 35% YoY (FY22). And as for my children, well the impact of my teaching capabilities is yet to be seen, but my son was accepted to a top 20 selective school in Sydney this year, so I will take that as a win.
 

More than the above continued professional success however, I am most proud of being able to continue to find time to give generously to my communities – professional and personal. I mentor younger Irish professional accountants looking to establish their careers in Australia, I provide pro-bono support to professional education initiatives in Asia and Africa looking to create stronger accounting professions to drive economic advancement, and I am an active advocate in my children’s schools finding ways to bring my personal and professional experience to achieve improved fundraising and community engagement opportunities, and was this year nominated to the Council of Catholic School Parents of NSW to further my ability to influence how our schools engage with families for the betterment of our children’s education experiences. I have been fortunate enough to be involved in the Chamber’s Emerald Leadership program – last year as a participant, which provided me the opportunity to reframe my own sense of purpose and why, and this year I am looking forward to facilitating the journey for more Irish female professionals as a Chair in the Emerald program.

I feel that I am worthy of this business award from the Chamber for my continued professional and personal growth and success, achieved from Australia on a global scale, but always grounded in my unapologetically Irish character.

I have more to learn, but I hope the following will demonstrate my commitment to business, partners, clients, and highly-valued employees.

I believe I am worthy of being awarded an Irish Business Award, as I’ve achieved what I set out to deliver when I first created Premier Constructions Australia - a safe, fair and healthy work environment for construction professionals to build their careers, without fear of discrimination, without uncertainty of wages or career growth, and with certainty that their experiences and values are respected.

Humble beginnings
I came to Australia in 2010, and started work in the construction industry as a labourer on high-profile civil projects across Australia. I learned technical skills across formwork, concrete and machine operations. After I experienced an avoidable work injury, I recognised it as a sign to take the risk and start my own construction business. The former experiences helped shape the ideal construction world I wanted to see.

In 2015, Premier Constructions Australia (Premier) was born, and I have been focussed on being the leader I wanted to work for, or admired when I was in the trenches.

Fast growth
Over the last 7 years, I have overseen the delivery of over $50 million worth of Premier’s construction projects. Through strategic investments or acquisitions, I have since expanded the business, Premier Management Corporation, to include 5 core subsidiary companies:

Premier Constructions Australia (Founder & MD), a national construction company, specialised in bridge construction, architecture formwork, substructure construction and early works construction;Premier Concreting Group (Founder & MD), our delivery partner in Victoria, specialised in civil construction;
PremHire (Founder & MD), a fleet, equipment and plant hire national service;
UtillixAR (Investor & MD), a mobile GIS app that provides Augmented Reality 3D and 2D mapping views of underground assets to provide safer underground services; and

A residential and commercial property portfolio including 10 properties, and development of 2 commercial warehouses across Victoria and South Australia.

I am proud to confirm, each business has been established without additional shareholders or investors.

Prioritising diversity to grow and prosper
I am proud to have employed people who experienced rejection across the Australian construction industry due to a lack of ‘local experience’. I walked side-by-side with the Premier team, when my diverse workforces faced difficult comments from other crews as they entered sites. I remember being in their shoes not that long ago, and I’m grateful for employers who are committed to driving diversity to ultimately shape the next generation of construction professionals, and change the industry to thrive. I wouldn’t be here without those employers, and it’s my duty to pay it forward.

I operate with this empathy and passion for providing positive opportunities for others, and I’m proud that Premier today has a reputation for delivering high-performance, impeccable quality, and strong sportsmanship to projects. I have employed Irish, Mongolians, Australians, Israelites, Germans, English, Welsh, Brazillians, and more. I believe this has been vital to our team’s ability to solve problems uniquely, and build the reputation we have over the years.

Two Stacks was founded in 2020 by the owners of an import/export and marketing company dedicated to beverages; Ireland Craft Beverages Ltd

Our focus has always been on local and artisanal products, aiming to revitalize the national tradition of bonders: the search for whiskey focuses on small productions from around the country, with the aging and blending carried out in strictly artisanal manner.

In addition, our labels meticulously state the composition of the blend, which is quite rare within the Industry.

Two basic blends, The First Cut and The Blender's Cut, the latter bottled at cask strength, as well as several limited editions with different agings.

Two Stacks has shuck up the Irish Whiskey Industry with their invention of 'Dram In A Can' product, the world's first straight Irish Whiskey in 100ml can format. Not since the invention of the baby power's Miniature in Dublin 1889 has there been similar disruption within the category. The product hold's the exact same world award-winning whiskey that comes in their 700ml bottle product 'The First Cut'

Launching in the USA March 2021, the product has seen roaring success selling over 1M units with large retail partners including Wholefoods, Total Wine & More, and Woolworths Australia who will be launching the product in August across all their Dan Murphy's outlets.

The product weighs 1/8 the weight of a conventional glass bottle holding the same measurement of whiskey and allows for 30%+ additional whiskey to be packaged onto 1 x standard pallet, a very substantial savings both environmentally and on the carbon footprint supply chain of the product.

The new 6,000 Sq Ft facility in Newry was built completely off solar energy, with fully charging machinery and employee car chargers on site. The site runs its canning and bottle lines throughout the day and evening and manages to champion off-grid energy consumption with monthly bills coming in <£100 per month due to the solar energy & hearing set-ups.

A pioneer within the drink beverage space, Two Stacks Irish Whiskey look forward to pushing future boundaries as they develop more trade with both Australia and other global partners.

Over the past 10 years, a Dublin-based Ag Tech business has developed a device that can be retrofitted to almost every boom spray machine, currently deployed in agriculture in the world. The Technology has particular potential benefit to the Australian and New Zealand horticultural, cereal, and textile farming industries, as the cost of crop protection inputs, soar, climatic derived challenges prevail and the requirements for efficacy in crop protection passes are as critical as ever.

With concern over critical issues such as spray drift, disease and pests that have the potential for catastrophic crop damage, MagrowTec technology gives growers across Australia and New Zealand a highly effective tool to support their efforts in minimizing spray drift, improving profitability and productivity.

Local national crop producers and spraying services are amongst the first of the Technology’s early adopters, having purchased the technology and are now leveraging a plethora of advantages. They are heavily cutting waste that would otherwise be lost to the natural environment. To date, the deployment of the system has made a measurable environmental improvement as damage from sprays drifting on the breeze. The Agricultural industry is recognizing the potential of the system. It has already achieved the highest level of accreditation as a drift reduction technology in Europe and attained the Bayer Crop Science Thrive Award for its potential social impact on sustainability - not just on the environment, but in lowering the cost of crop production.


For example, a Queensland Sweet corn grower, improved spray precision through the adoption of MagrowTec technology in August 2022. A customer conducted crop science studies at farms in major horticultural districts, with the support of the MagrowTec crop science team. Recently a Water Sensitive Paper (WSP) methodology study was undertaken on a mature sweet corn crop. MagrowTec achieved a +33.24% increase in total mean spray coverage. That means a third more crop protection reached its target, as opposed to being lost to the environment. The vegetable grower has observed better drift control and improved coverage to reduce the number of Fall Armyworm pests.

In this year’s summer cropping season, the technology has been deployed in Queensland, NSW, South Australia, and Western Australia, with the first Crop science studies in New Zealand taking place in May 2022. The technology is being assessed in the national cotton industry with interest from some of the most sophisticated producers assessing every possible dimension of the technology, with positive findings so far.