Franz and his sons

Introduction

We caught up with Franz as he visited HO to organise a surge deployment for his site. I get to HO weekly wherever possible, combined with a lot of travel. I should probably be in the office more often but there is a lot of travel to site.

Franz was nominated by his Manager Max Walker who did a neat sidestep and Franz owes him one!

What is your professional background?

I was in NSW Police for 25 years, I retired at the rank of Detective Inspector in 2011 and I was also a Detective Superintendent for the AFP as National Coordinator the airport investigation teams across Australia. Involved with counter-terrorist first response teams across the aviation sector.

Where are you working now?

For the last 2 years I have been working at a mine and rail construction project across 3 divisions, medical, fire & rescue and security. It has been my life for the last 2 years. I work closely with Max Walker.

What other CPA Group sites have you worked?

Some years ago I worked for CPA in Business Development and in the interim I have worked on and off for CPA since 2015.

What are your primary responsibilities?

It is a vast array, ensuring we comply with the contract and ensuring we have the staff, travel and logistics. Contract management, dealing with the client directly. I don’t work a formal rotation but it is definitely not a 9 to 5 job. I can be at the office or site, depending what is required.

I have worked rotations as a fill in where a permanent staff goes on leave and I fill in the gap.

What do you find most challenging or fulfilling in your role?

A good challenge is getting the right staff on the job. It is not an every day security job, they are not sitting in a monitoring room. They are specifically trained to managed IMGs (Issue Motivated Groups). This is a unique role within security in Australia. This is an ongoing global issue that security teams confront, protests occurring all over the world.

It was fulfilling to convert the project based contract to win a tender for the long term Operations service, we are now there for a further 3 years.

I give credit to our highly committed and dedicated team for this success.

Franz and his lovely wife

And what do you do in your spare time?

I try to get to the gym, bit of surfing, spend a fair bit of time with my family. My wife and daughter are in the horse world which means a lot of responsibility. I have two adult sons 30 and 23 years old. I become a grandfather next month!

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What would your manager say?

I won’t tell you what I would like to say to him after he nominated me for this. I think he would say we work well together – we probably spend 3 hours a day talking by phone!

Manager comment

Franz is a consummate professional who balances many varied roles within the projects and acquits himself to an extremely high standard in all facets of his working life. Due to the complexity of our daily operations, we have developed an almost symbiotic relationship, that only enhances the results on the ground.  He is a Broncos fan though and I am aware of this, so I know I must speak slowly for him.