More than twenty years after Greg Connor first walked through the Bedford site at Panorama, the impact of it still hits home as much as it did for him on day one.
Greg’s first job in the corporate world was with department store John Martin’s, where he met the company’s personnel controller Jim Bell. Jim – who ended up becoming the chief executive officer of Bedford from 1991 to 2000 – was the person who first introduced Greg to Bedford.
“Bedford had always been an iconic brand, I knew about it, but Jim actually got me out there one day, and we did the Bedford walk together. If you’ve got a pulse, you cannot help but be impressed. It’s lethal – in a good way,” Greg says.
Greg was hooked. He continued his career in business and finance, and a few years later, became acquainted with yet another Bedford stalwart, ex-chair Colin Dunsford.
“I got to know Col through work, and I said to him ‘when you want a director for the Bedford Board, I’d love to have a yarn, because you had me at hello,” Greg says.
“Eventually, the planets aligned and Col reached out to me and asked if I was interested in joining the Board. I said yes before he could finish his sentence.”
And so in 2007, Greg joined the Bedford Board – the start of 15 years of tireless voluntary dedication to the organisation.
Serving as a Board member from 2007-2015 and directing a number of investment committees and subcommittees, Greg then stepped up to take on the role of Bedford Deputy Chair. He stayed in the position until 2022.
Not one to shy away from a challenge, this was a time of massive change for Bedford, as the NDIS was in the process of being rolled out across the nation.
“Our funding model changed dramatically, and navigating that change was very complex for the Board,” Greg says.
Whenever things were particularly busy or challenging, Greg always made an effort to interact with the employees, as a pertinent reminder of the importance of the work he was doing.
“You have to have that connection about why you’re really there. The accountant would say it’s all about the numbers, the libertarians say all about the people – the balance is in the middle, you need both working,” Greg says.
With that connection at the forefront of his mind, Greg is particularly proud of the high standard of work by Bedford employees, with the work having been recognised by a number of national awards.
“The word disability still has the word ability in it, and we’re really conscious of that,” he says.
While Greg is no longer on the Board, he remains interested in the work of the organisation, and is mentoring staff involved in Bedford’s recently-launched Cultivate Food and Beverage enterprise.
“People would sometimes look to me as the voice of reason about how to process or think about things,” Greg says. “I can be that voice on boards - but not with my wife, apparently!”
