After 31 years Ian Nelmes is retiring from the Board of the Greater Building Society.

Mr Nelmes will attend his last Greater Board meeting this afternoon (Friday June 24). He is the Greater’s longest serving Board member and served as chairman for 22 years.

When Mr Nelmes joined the Board in 1980 the Greater had 23 branches, 156 staff and assets worth $180 million. Today it employs 700 staff, has assets worth more than $4 billion, and is one of Australia’s Top 200 private companies. It now serves 250,000 members across NSW, South East Queensland and Townsville through 68 branches, the largest branch network of any Australian building society.

Greater chairman John Kilpatrick praised Mr Nelmes for his tremendous dedication to the Greater, its members and its staff.

“Ian Nelmes has a long list of achievements that have served the Greater well, contributing significantly to the Greater’s strong financial position,” Mr Kilpatrick said.

He said Mr Nelmes had been instrumental in facilitating the Greater’s mergers with Mitchell and ABS building societies. On becoming chairman in 1986 he encouraged the formation of an executive management group and promoted the principles of equal opportunity in relation to staff appointments.

“Ian also initiated major changes to the Greater’s IT department with the external appointment of current CEO Don Magin as IT manager,” he said.

“Those changes helped to deliver the Greater’s state of the art in house technology and systems.”

Minimising risk and ensuring business continuity were also priorities for Mr Nelmes. He initiated an effective audit committee and has ensured that the Greater has invested heavily in measures to protect members’ funds, including the construction of a multi-million dollar business continuity centre.

Mr Nelmes paid tribute to the Greater’s staff whom he will miss the most. Always empathetic with staff, as chairman he conducted annual visits to branches to hear staff members’ views. An annual staff award for excellence in Mr Nelmes honour will ensure he is remembered by staff.

“We have worked to build a family like culture where we value, develop and retain our staff and this fosters our very high customer satisfaction,” Mr Nelmes said.

“It has been a privilege to work with our highly skilled staff to serve the members of the Greater,” he said.

Mr Nelmes said he is looking forward to putting his feet up and doing a bit of fishing and gardening.
 
Media information: Craig Eardley, ChurchComm on 0437 477 493.