BRISBANE Portraits

Meet FACCI's QLD President: Brian Lorigan

Discover the portrait of Brian Lorigan, President of FACCI QLD Chapter.

Brian works in the capital works and infrastructure industry, focusing on strategy implementation, policy-setting, and process improvement initiatives. He has held general management and advisory roles at Queensland’s three integrated LNG projects, and consulted on projects across Australia and Europe, where he built a track record of delivery internationally. In doing so, he has led projects ranging from multi $100m infrastructure subprojects, $1m change projects in cross-border organisations, to tactical consulting assignments.

Brian is currently a director at Euroz Group, an advisory company, sits on the Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Multicultural Business Roundtable. He also lectures in business process management (BPM) at the University of Queensland’s business school where he is the BPM course lead, mentors early stage company leaders, and is President of the French-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Queensland. His past external roles include lead MIS lecturer on ESCP Europe’s MBA in London, and Chairman of the Lansdowne Club in Queensland. Having grown up in a musical family, Brian is a supporter of the classical arts, and is keen to see ever-greater linkages between excellent art companies and the commercial sector, including across international boundaries.

Brian has been awarded a Master of Arts and Moderated Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Trinity College Dublin, a European Master in Management from EAP Oxford, a Diplom Kaufman from the Berlin Senate, and a Diplôme des Grandes Ecoles de Commerce from ESCP Europe in Paris. Time working and studying internationally has helped Brian build a working knowledge of French, German, Spanish and Italian, alongside his native Irish (Gaelic) and English, and, since settling down in Brisbane, is steadily improving his ‘Stralian.

Contributing time to volunteer-led associations is part of Brian’s DNA, and FACCI offered a way to give back to the French system of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (CCI) where Brian had completed his Diplome des Grandes Ecoles de Commerce (at a business school with the CCI Paris). When a former President invited Brian to become part of the FACCI Council, the open, aspirational and professional nature of the organisation sealed the deal. Building on the work done by his predecessors and colleagues, Brian sees the successes of the Queensland chapter lie with:

  • a strong and highly engaged team of Councillors, who take clear ownership of the areas they are accountable for – be it membership categories, industry sectors, the flagship events or relationships with external stakeholders
  • a community of members and friends who represent a wide breadth of the business community, both French and Australian (and other internationals)
  • a chapter strategy that has been worked up in a collaborative way with the Council and with the members, and is reviewed annually. This strategy helps keep us on mission.
  • a focus on highly relevant business events that bring high-profile speakers and other business people into our members’ networks
  • a fabulous member of the staff who, for 7 years, has brought her passion for the members’ interests, and personal charisma to just about everything the Chamber does in Queensland, every day of the week (and sometimes the weekend).

 

Brian’s primary role as President of the Queensland chapter has been to lead a group of peers whose business and government acumen is essential to the Chamber’s relevance. All Councillors bring excellent insights into their individual industries, and one of the key roles the President needs to ensure there is a scaffolding on which to develop these ideas effectively. Alongside this role, Brian represents the Chamber and its members regularly at various levels of government, engaging with stakeholders who may not yet fully understand the capabilities and reach of our members, and in doing so, develops relationships with potential new members thus deepening and broadening the Chamber’s in the community.

 

The greatest successes are in the innovative and collaborative team dynamic, which enables everything else. In terms of what members see, the most successful innovation has been what is now the national focus on multiple industry groups, starting in Queensland in 2014 with Energy & Resources, then Transport & Infrastructure, before adding Aerospace, Defence and Aviation and then becoming national with the Board’s support, and growing further. These groups, led by industry insiders, highlight some of the most relevant and visible aspects of the Franco-Australian economic relationship, have grown to include site visits, and have consistently proven to be the most highly sought after events on the Chamber’s calendar. Alongside our Bastille Day Business Breakfast and European Tchin Tchin (two more socially focussed, and very large events), they are very high on the radar for many of our businesses.

These industry events are, by their nature, very focused on vertical industries. With a diverse membership, we constantly challenge ourselves to offer a selection of services and events to all members, from our Young Professional members, in the early years of their careers, through the entrepreneurs and small businesses who contribute so much to the economic and social fabric of our communities, right up to larger companies whose focuses may be outside those industry groups.

 

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