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“I don’t think we’ve spoken once about sport or rugby,” Mr Eales said. Instead, common ground has been forged on their mutual interests in building strong business ties and connections, a practice that has been critical to Trajan cultivating a crop of clients reliant on its niche expertise.
“We’re both very interested in business. I was fascinated by Trajan, and what the business had achieved...it’s been like this unpeeling the layers of the business getting to know a little bit more as we’ve gone along,” Mr Eales said.
The company’s success has brought significant wealth to the founders: the Tomisich family has retained a 59 per cent stake, with the shares worth close to $178 million. Mr Eales also owns a 0.7 per cent stake in the business through his Ruck and Maul vehicle, according to ASX filings, worth just over $2 million.
Trajan Group co-founders Stephen and Angela Tomisich, and their daughter Danielle, ringing the bell, at a virtual ASX listing on Monday. They were unable to attend in person due to COVID-19 restrictions in Melbourne.Credit:
The business is now chasing a new phase of growth with Mr Tomisich saying Trajan is now “cashed up and loaded and ready to make the next wave of acquisitions.”
As the chief executive of an export-only business, Mr Tomisich is very aware that beyond our borders, vaccine rollouts have propelled many countries towards a “COVID normal” and Australia needs to catch up.
“The dilemma as an exporter that we have is that we see the markets, the settings in which our major customers exist, rapidly heading towards a trajectory of whatever post-COVID normal is - be it freedom of movement, freedom of business activities, and so forth, is returning.”
“I don’t want to make any other comment [on Australia’s vaccine rollout] other than the solution is self-evident, we need to have the population vaccinated.”
Mr Eales, who sits on the boards of Magellan and Flight Centre, said while it was easy to look back on the past challenges of the rollout, the nation needed to simply focus on moving as quickly as possible.
“What has happened in the past has happened in the past, and while it is frustrating and so easy to be critical and look backwards, we have to take a stance and look at how can we vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as we as we can.to bring back as much certainty as we can,” he said.