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Name: Geoff Grady

Current position and organisation: CEO Sanctuary Cove

What was your first job and what did it teach you?

My first permanent position was as an articled clerk at Groves & Clark, a legal firm with six partners in Ayr, North Queensland. It was preceded by a myriad of temporary jobs as I progressed through a five year Commerce/Law degree at UQ, most notably as an entrée chef at a CBD restaurant most Friday and Saturday nights. Neither job was very well paid, so they reinforced in me the value of good tertiary qualifications which I’m currently seeking to impart to my kids. Each job in its own way encouraged a high level of attention to detail which is an attribute I have retained.

What’s your favourite part of your job?

Creating new luxury home product. It’s a lot of fun combining all the consultancy skills required to put together a home for say $4 million while appealing to someone who is usually well travelled, has lots of life experience and with discerning taste, and making a good return on the project on the way through.

What keeps you awake at night?

Site issues others think probably can’t be solved but which I’m sure have some resolution – problem solving. Other than that not much. Teenage kids refusing to go to bed before midnight?

When my work/life balance isn’t balanced, I …

Actually I’m highly motivated by my work and don’t often feel out of balance. I try to keep weekends as free from work as possible, but if all that fails, exercise, walking the dog, or on the grander scale, overseas travel helps.

What's the best place you have seen as a tourist and why?

The Grand Canyon – words and photos just won’t do it. The enormity of what’s taken place there over the millennia puts everything I try to do in context.

If I hadn't become an accountant, I’d be …

A doctor. I missed out on entry to UQ entry to Medicine and have often wondered what the alternative life interacting with people in an entirely different dynamic would have been like.

My next big challenge is …

Finding another project as challenging and creative as Sanctuary Cove has been. The double challenge and reward of Sanctuary Cove is not only that it is a dynamic business subject to all the usual pressures about growth and targets etc, but that it operates inside a relatively small community, where reputational issues and follow-through on promises become critically important.

If you had to put your philosophy of life onto a t-shirt, what would it say? "Just Do It"