Introduction
Mark Roderick:
A warm welcome to all our clients and team members on this occasion as we bid farewell to one of our founding directors, Greg Perks, on the occasion of his formal retirement from the firm. But it’s good to know Greg won’t be going totally away from the firm, and he’ll continue to work with us as a member of our Investment Committee and Perks Private Wealth.
So it’s difficult to put Greg’s full career into a 10 minute video, but I thought we’d start off by asking you a couple of questions and see how we go.
Q & A
Mark Roderick:
Greg, congratulations on your retirement (if you can congratulate someone on their retirement). What led you to the decision to finally, after 40 years, retire?
Greg Perks:
Well, as you know, it was really, really difficult for me to do that because this place, Perks, feels like such an important part of my life. But what happened I think in the end – and a lot of people think I’ve been retiring for a long time because I’ve spending less and less time here. But really, the bottom line is, the clock’s ticking. And the reality is we all know the clock’s ticking in our lives.
What became evident to me is I could hear that clock ticking more and more. Whereas when I was younger, you don’t really you’re not, you’re not listening to those sorts of things. So yeah, and it became that the more time I spent in the office, that was an opportunity I could do something else in my life that I couldn’t do. So really, you know, that’s the driving force in the end. And if you’ve got a lot of things that you want to do outside the office, then you’ve got to face the reality of nothing goes on forever.
Mark Roderick:
Greg it’s been 40 years since Perks was founded. Tell us about some of your favourite Perks memories over that journey.
Greg Perks:
When we started Perks, Harry was 33, I think, and I was 26. So we were very, very young. It seemed like that now, and those early days of Perks were just so much fun, working with your team, with the Partners, becoming very close. This place feels like my family, you know. And other than my real family, my personal life and the things that we did Mark, going away on the Perks mountain climbing adventures with Partners, team members, clients. Those things I’ll never forget. They were so memorable. Running marathons with people in the firm overseas and New York. Just incredible stuff. So it was great to do that with all the people at Perks. Just made it so much more special.
Mark Roderick:
Greg, what’s your proudest Perks achievement?
Greg Perks:
Wow. Well, I think I’d have to say the firm itself. When it started, it was a start-up company with not much to it. And so going back all those years and seeing that, and seeing all the endeavour and the planning and the vision – all those things – and see what the firm’s like now. And it’s like, that is an incredibly proud thing for me. And obviously all the Partners and Harry would feel the same. Yeah, that’s probably the overarching thing.
Another one that does stick out in my mind very personally was later in the career at Perks was to be very foremost in the starting of Perks Wealth Management (that it was called then). And seeing that grow also from nothing to a very sophisticated business now, makes me very proud of that.
Mark Roderick:
Greg, you’ve served as mentor for many Perks as young emerging stars over the years. What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve encountered through that process over the years?
Greg Perks:
In reflection, I think the thing that sticks out in my mind is the saying: “if you’re green, you grow. And if you’re ripe, you’re rotten”. And it’s quite stark. But to me, what it always meant was – and it was also the challenge of Perks – how big do we grow? How aspirational our goal is to get bigger and better? And in essence that’s saying sums it up in that it was always about growing. It was always about improving, learning, challenging yourself and never stopping doing that. And I don’t think it Perks we ever have. And it’s become a really important part of our DNA that everyone in this place adopts that way of thinking. So those things, and also to try and do that in your personal life – it’s just not about work – to challenge yourself at every opportunity. You know that from that, you will learn all sorts of things that you didn’t know and that drives success. So the thing that I would say to our younger people now is to do those things – delegate as hard as you can. Because by doing that and implementing that strategy, you’ll create a lot of opportunity for yourself, for the firm, and also you create the space for your team for them to be the best that they can be because you’re charging on ahead growing at every opportunity. So I think the culture of Perks is, and hopefully always will be, that that’s the way we do things.
Mark Roderick:
So, Greg, this is a pretty obvious question, but what are you looking forward to doing most in your retirement?
Greg Perks:
Mark the number one word for me is freedom. And with that freedom, I do say to my beautiful wife, Sonia (who I’m also looking forward to spending a lot more time with. I’m not sure if she’s so inclined, but we’ll see! [laughs]), It’s having that freedom to do all the things that I haven’t had time to do. And I dream about doing a lot of that involves travelling, taking on new challenges. As I’ve said before, I’m sort of signing up for a bike ride up this big mountain in Italy next year – and I’ve never done bike riding before – so that’s going to be a challenge that I’m not sure how that’ll go, but we’ll find out.
And also I’m thinking about sailing, learning how to sail. So just personal challenges like that. I feel like they keep you young, they keep you engaged. And yet life, I don’t think will be dull.
On the work front, I’m still involved on the property syndicate boards and I really enjoy doing that. And certain things will unfold for me, I think. I’m open to all sorts of opportunities, but it’s very much about freedom.
Mark Roderick:
Greg, what do you think the next 40 years of Perks looks like and what legacy do you hope to leave at Perks in your retirement?
Greg Perks:
Well, the future for Perks… Perks is in an incredibly great position right now to go forward from this point. But I’ve had a lot of influence over what the firm’s done in the last 40 years. But I know it’s up to the new Partners (the new ones and the ones that are here, the existing Partners). It’s up to them to work out their vision. But I’m sure that they will adapt and change and innovate, which we’ve been incredibly good at and continuously get better.
I think that our Perks model, our business model and our structure of ownership is such that it’s a really strong business and it’s very correlated to our people, and to me and their wishes and desires as well. There’s no there’s no one else making decisions for us. It’s the Partners who own this business, making the decisions of where they want to take this business. So they’ve been very good at how to do that.
The legacy that I think that I might leave a bit would be…really about the people and our culture. It’s the Perks culture. It’s all the 1% things we do that other firms will have so much difficulty to copy and emulate. We’re quite unique and that’s a massive part of our success is all of our great people, and the fact that when they come they want to stay, and they stay for a long time because they love what we do. Our clients are great, and this place is fun! So where else would you want to be?
Mark Roderick:
Finally, Greg – do you have any parting words of wisdom for our clients or the young guys coming up through the firm who are just starting their career at Perks now?
Greg Perks:
Yeah, I think that the really difficult thing for all of us that work and aspire to do really well at what we do – the biggest challenge is getting the balance right between work, your family life, and don’t forget your own personal life. You know, you’re the you’re the seriously most important in that chain of events because if you’re not right, all the rest tends to crumble. So getting that balance right – I had a chat with someone this morning who asked me a similar question. And I said, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle; you have to get each one of those component parts working really well, and then it’s just so easy. If you don’t, then, you know, aspects of one part will drag you down – cause you to not be successful. And that takes an enormous amount of planning, organization, delegation – all the things that free you up as much as you can to still achieve, but to do each one of those things really, really well. So that’s probably the most important thing to me. But I’ll reinstate, the most important other thing is to always challenge yourself so that life doesn’t get mundane, and just always be up for the challenge. It’s only going to be good for you.
Mark Roderick:
Well, Greg, Thanks for coming in today. It’s certainly been great to hear all your recollections on the 40 years you’ve had at Perks. You certainly left an amazing legacy – not only for all the current Perks team members, but for all those clients that you’ve dealt with over the years. And I’m sure a lot of them owe a lot of their success to the great advice you’ve given them along the way.
So we’ll miss you around the place. But as we said at the beginning, we will still be seeing you quite often, I hope. And I look forward to seeing you on the golf course in the future.
Greg Perks:
You will, Mark – I’ll be there! Cheers, Thank you. Thank you very much.
