Life In A Suit
John Snelson
John Snelson was born in Liverpool, England. He went to The Liverpool Institute High School before starting work at The Ministry of Defence where he became a qualified accountant. He then moved to London to work with International Computers Ltd and emigrated to Australia in 1971. For the next 8 years he continued to work in an industrial environment in financial systems and I.T. becoming Systems Manager at Comalco Ltd.
In 1979 he joined Ernst & Young as Senior Management Consultant, and was invited into the Partnership in 1984, becoming Divisional Director of the Management Consulting practice in Sydney and National Director of the Performance Improvement Division. He retired from Ernst & Young as a Senior Partner when the consulting arm was old to Cap Gemni in 2000 but stayed on as Executive Consultant until 2007.
John has worked for most of his career with blue-chip companies, such as AMP, Bank of America, Boral, Cadbury Schweppes, Coca-Cola Amatil, Commonwealth Bank, CSR, Fujitsu, HCF, Leighton Holdings, Readers’ Digest, Southcorp, St. George Bank, Telstra, Time Warner and Westfield. John played a significant role in the implementation of the NSW State Owned Corporations Act and commercialisation, corporatisation and privatisation programs for New South Wales in rail, gas, electricity transmission and distribution, ferries, water, mines and grain handling.
Overseas, John worked in Jakarta, Indonesia, as Accounting Team Leader on a special project for The Asian Development Bank with the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises as special advisor on the costing and pricing of Community Service Obligations. For three years (2003 – 2005) he was Chief Executive of a charity, Life Education (NSW) Ltd. John worked in New Delhi, India leading a team for the World Bank as Project Director Accounting Reforms (Indian Railways) from 2006-2007.
In 2001, he conceived the idea of opening a new bank in his community and led the team behind the establishment of the Turramurra Community Bank, becoming the company’s first Chairman and a member of the Board for many years. This bank is the jewel in the crown of the Community Banks franchised by Bendigo Bank and is perhaps one its most profitable in the whole network.
On Tuesday 2nd October, 2007 John was presented with the Australian Community Award, being a Certificate of Appreciation to Australian Volunteers “for outstanding service, contribution and dedication to the community”.
In his spare time, John took up genealogy as a hobby in 1970, and has been looking in vain for treasure, nobility, deeds of daring, adventure, achievement, fortune and royalty in his lineage but alas has only found a family of bogans, derros, cocky watchmen, agricultural labourers, rustic clods, mountebanks and brazen hussies, scrubbers and putains with character. He runs the global Snelson DataBase & Index.
John has been a keen Rotarian for some 30 years being the inaugural and founding President of The Rotary Club of Sydney Darling Harbour and Sergeant at The Rotary Club of Sydney Cove over those many years.
In 2011, John determined to build on his interests in the arts, photography and music to commence an internet magazine – Get Shot Magazine – to give aspiring journalists and photographers an outlet for their work and to put back into the music and performance industry some of the great pleasure he had gained since those heady days in 1961-63 in The Cavern Club in Mathew Street in Liverpool, where he saw The Beatles perform more than 50 or so times before they ever wrote a song or made a record … and yes, can you spot him on this photo …
Cavern Club – Mathew Street Liverpool – Queue for The Beatles All Night Session 1962 Photo by Astrid Kirschner
So John’s employment history is not a long list :-
- 1964-1968 – Executive Officer – Royal Ordnance Factory, Patricroft, Min of Defence;
- 1969-1971 – Systems Analyst – International Computers Limited, Putney, London;
- 1971-1973 – Senior Systems Analyst – CableMakers Australia, Liverpool (NSW);
- 1974-1979 – Corporate Systems Manager – Comalco Limited;
- 1980-1984 – Senior Management Consultant – Ernst & Young;
- 1984-2000 – Partner, Ernst & Young
- 2000-2007 – Managing Director – Traction Management Services/Executive Consultant Ernst & Young
Since 2000, John has been involved at a Board level with the following companies …
- Director – Southern Cross Connect Pty Limited (Internet Service Provider);
- Director – Southern Cross Genealogy (Family History Services);
- Director – The ClaimRoom Pty Limited (Online Dispute Resolution);
- Director – The Society of Australian Genealogists (Historical Society);
- Director – The Royal Exchange of Sydney (Private Business Club);
- Chairman – Ku-ring-gai Financial Services Limited (Community Bank);
- Chairman – 2NSB 99.3fm North Shore Radio
Currently John is :-
- Chairman – Triple H 100.1 fm Hornsby & Ku-ring-gai Radio; and
- Vice President – Hornsby & Ku-ring-gai Rural Fire Service Communications Brigade
- Chief Editor – Get Shot Magazine
Professional Qualifications:-
FCMA Fellow Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.
CGMA Chartered Global Management Accountant
CPA Member Australian Society of Certified Practising Accountants
