Name: Frank Adoranti
Current position and organisation: Legal Director Australia & New Zealand, Company Secretary, Ingram Micro Pty Limited
What was your first job and what did it teach you? I was a law clerk working for the oldest sole practitioner in the State at the time (admitted to practice in about 1933) -- he did everything from commercial work, crime, probate, family law, tax fraud and Liquor Act work.
The first thing it taught me was the value of versatility.
As a babe in the woods, I was subjected to a baptism by fire, when confronted with the intricate foibles of human nature, often when it was at its worst.
The other thing it taught me was the delicious unpredictability of people’s actions and reactions.
What’s your favourite part of your job? Devising solutions for the business, actually being part of their implementation and seeing them through to completion.
What keeps you awake at night? My four kids, my work, worrying about “stuff”… or any other excuse to avoid having to sleep.
When my work/life balance isn’t balanced, I … Eat chocolate… lots!
What's the best place you have seen as a tourist and why? Maitland Gaol, as a newly-admitted young lawyer, doing the legal aid duty list. It’s the kind of place, the inside of which is best seen only as a tourist…
If I hadn't become a lawyer, I’d be … an astronaut.
My next big challenge is… Developing further and better ways of:
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implementing commercial solutions for the business, as it continues to grow; and
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continuing to evangelise on preventative risk management in organisations.
If you had to put your philosophy of life onto a t-shirt, what would it say?
I love to chuckle at a cynical old saying, apparently attributed to the father of fallen media mogul Conrad Black, as his dying words to his son:
“Life is hell. All people are bastards and everything is bullsh*t”.
However, something more aligned to my own outlook are the words of a mentor from long ago, which have always remained top-of-mind for me:
“Be the best you can be”.