12 October 2011

Lord Mayor's Business Awards Young Business Person of the Year - ben shipley

(Read the official winner's list here). (Click here for a photo gallery of the awards ceremony).

International corporate communication provider Comscentre’s managing director Ben Shipley has capped a busy and successful year by being named Young Business Person of the Year in the 2011 Brisbane Lord Mayor’s Business Awards.

Shipley, 37, was presented with his award by Brisbane’s Lord Mayor Graham Quirk on October 12th at a black tie event at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre. The National Australia Bank-sponsored award recognised his leadership and the personal qualities he has demonstrated in leading the business communications company to a position of strength.

“It’s a great honour to receive this award and to know that we have a fantastic and extremely talented team at Comscentre,” Mr Shipley said.
“This award wouldn’t have been possible without them.

“Growing our business substantially this year, receiving key accreditations from Cisco and being named an NBN retail service provider have certainly been highlights.”

Shipley said a key achievement this year had been meeting challenges during January’s Brisbane floods which resulted in the company’s head office suffering a prolonged power outage in flood ravaged Milton. Comscentre enacted its full disaster recovery plan, which included switching its primary support centre and network operation centre to its secondary support site in Manilla. Three generators were initially able to keep the business running after power was cut.

“We had a team of seven key staff at the office doing 12 hour shifts in the dark, ensuring no customers were impacted before switching to our secondary support centre which manned operations,” Mr Shipley said.

“Looking ahead, we aim to be the largest IP telephony and data network solutions provider for Australian business and continue to develop our export opportunities.”

Mr Shipley believes characteristics developed from an early age in business including passion to succeed, vision to look for the next improvement and the ability to learn from others have been integral in his business success. From its humble beginnings operating out of a Sydney garage in 2002, Comscentre has grown to become one of Australia’s leading corporate communications providers by offering small to medium businesses with technology previously only available to big companies with the money to match.