[Music] hello and welcome to Red's business technology podcast I'm your host Jackson Barnes and I'm your co-host Nigel home today we're sitting down with a very exciting guest Peter Johnson from the Clem Jones group Peter thanks for joining us today let's start back with your professional career where you first started look I yeah I've had a bit of a hybrid sort of career I'm very proud of where I've come from and two and certainly all the people that I've dealt with but I first came into working for the Shaman's Guild of australasia which is the Outdoor entertainment industry and people involved in the shows and carnivals and festivals and a wonderful group of people I learned a lot of them probably some of which I wish I hadn't but on the whole there was a wonderful experience and a great wonderful group of people which then led me on to working in government with firstly the former deputy premier of Queensland Tom Burns and on his personal staff and then I was the CEO of the royal Agricultural Society of Queensland at Toowoomba the Toowoomba Royal show and there was a wonderful experience again and some Sensational people and working with people in the bush and Rural and Regional Queensland taught me a lot about people living under tough and difficult conditions in drought and flood and fires and so forth then I would see oh the leukemia foundation and that was just with all due respect to the job I have today which is a sensational role but the job as a CEO of the leukemia Foundation it'll take a lot to ever beat that and it was a very hard decision for me to move on from from that role well listen let's um unpack that one a little bit the from your time at leukemia Foundation um I was wondering what did you know about that time yeah well Peter it was 18 years ago when I met you you know obviously I lost my father from multiple myeloma and you know reached out to you saying want to give back and help and yeah so share with us your time with the leukemia Foundation I'm sure you you know so many achievements and it was a great Organization for us to partner and meet you so yeah Keen to hear more yeah no it is Nigel and wonderful opportunity to meet you and that 18 News has gone very fast we're both younger than what we were then uh it's uh look the leukemia Foundation Vision to cure and a mission to care and we live that every day I bounced out a bit every day knowing that whatever I did that day was going to benefit somebody or some family some carer where a diagnosis with a blood cancer has been involved and Leukemia Lymphoma myeloma and the leukemia Foundation provides of course free accommodation to people who have to come from rural and Regional Queensland to Brisbane for their treatment or to Townsville and anywhere in Australia now where they where they have to seek treatment leukemia foundations there for them not just to provide free accommodation but also to provide psychosocial support to families and carers as well as the patient often in those situations the families and carers get forgotten where they're on the journey obviously supporting somebody with a diagnosis and I know that's very personal to you with with your family in the past and it's uh it's certainly something that we um we're very you know proud of to to provide that service and of course the other thing was that was for the people who had leukemia today but there's also those people who have no idea they're going to have a blood cancer in the future and the whole idea there was to provide medical research funding to some great and wonderful people who've been on set a bed every day to put on a lab coat and look down a microscope and find a cure for blood cancer and in the 12 years that I haven't been with the leukemia Foundation of course it's Advanced incredibly and today we find that when I first started with leukemia Foundation I remember I was told by the comes people that you couldn't say anything more than you know fifty percent of kids that were diagnosed with leukemia survived by the time I finished I was able to say 75 and look today I think it'd be a sensational figure and and that's not just because of any work that the leukemia Foundation does it's not just any work that researchers over at qimr or any of those other research organizations do it's a full community commitment to uh to giving and ensuring that the funds are there to find those skewers but a sensational role and you know it was just a wonderful experience to be a part of that and to meet so many different people often when I think I'm you know doing it tough for some reason or it's been a bad day at work or something I think of those people who I met who lost loved ones and I went to sadly went to many funerals during that time it was a very sad situation particularly if it was kids involved but it was just an incredible experience to see their resilience and their vibrancy and and to celebrate with them at the appropriate times and to to cry with them at the appropriate times too anticipated now changing gears a little bit in terms of your time now at Clem Jones can can you share a bit about who Clem Jones was for those listeners and viewers that actually don't really know Clem Jones was a sensational Queensland he was a great queenslander very passionate about Queensland but he was even more passionate about Brisbane and so Clem was born in Ipswich in 1918 so he's about 105 if he was alive today he um his family had emigrated from from England Wales a long time before he was born and his grandfather was the first portmaster of Ipswich which is a bit interesting to say when you consider where Ipswich is today in terms of the the bay and the ocean but but Clem was educated at churchy here in Brisbane his father was a brilliant mathematician and teacher Edward Jones and today we have a scholarship at the University of Queensland which is the club and Ted Jones scholarship in mathematics and in recognition of his father but we um Clem went on from churchy to uq where he graduated in sciences and then became a licensed surveyor surveying was his profession and he never never left surveying it was always a part of the Clem Jones group and it's very much a part of DNA today surveying as well so Clem became a Fulbright scholar in the late 1950s and went to the United States and studied urban planning and Urban Design and urban growth got some wonderful ideas there and it gave him a passion then for being involved in local government in particular because he saw local government as being the the real area of government of the three tiers of government local state and federal local government was the one where he believed that you could get the most done at uh for each and every resident at Grassroots level roads rates and rubbish I think he coined the phrase and and of course when we think about it you know a lot of the things like Gaba stadiums and and all the other things that happen around the state and federal government do very important obviously in health and education and so forth but when you think about it every day your daily life roads rates and rubbish are really what it's all about and if your rubbish is not collected it's really bad and if the roads aren't local roads aren't in good condition it's really bad so clearly focused on on local government and he became very successful he was elected as the Lord mayor of Brisbane in 1961 and he stayed the Lord mayor of Brisbane until 1975 when he retired of his own volition he never drew a salary during that time and and of course his legendary for suering the city of Brisbane when he became Lord mayor very few parts of Brisbane other than the um the more expensive parts of Brisbane at the time had sewage and that just went straight into the Brisbane River today of course the city Seward the improved health conditions of Brisbane residents was went through the roof of course she didn't have the disease of the the night carts going around the the suburbs and the the roads were sealed and there was curb and channeling Brisbane went from being a small country town in 1961 to being a vibrant livable City in 1975 that we could all be proud of and of course every Lord mayor since has been up to build on that and there's been some Sensational Lord mirrors that have come along since and they've been able to build on the foundation that Clem put in place if he hadn't done what he did between 1961 and 1975 with the councils that he was the Lord mayor of Brisbane would be a very very very different place today I doubt we'd be sitting in this type of building today there would be so many things where we would be that far behind in terms of infrastructure we think infrastructure is slow today imagine trying to sewer the city in the 1960s so so when he retired he was appointed as the chair of the Darwin reconstruction commission for the next four years and so Darwin had suffered from Cyclone Tracy a 1974 Christmas Day 1974 and the whitlam government appointed him as the chair of the Darwin reconstruction Commission because he'd been the Lord mayor of Brisbane during the 1974 floods and they'd seen what he'd been able to achieve during that time and then 1975 was appointed to that role and the Darwin you see today has got Clem Jones's fingerprints all over it the type of architecture in Darwin today is very much that Cyclone proof housing and that type of thing and and you know Clem's recognized as being not only the father of Brisbane but the father of Darwin as well in that regard so um he um he then didn't retire he was a businessman and uh he uh he had a a vast array of interests that uh that kept him busy including the Clem Jones Center at Karina uh which he was the chair of for many many years uh he was involved in the establishment of food bank here in Queensland and in Australia he had relationships all over the world with many and varied people in particular in the United States in the the town of the city of Brisbane California as they pronounce it yeah of course is really the gateway to Silicon Valley which would be relevance to you halfway between San Francisco and uh City and and the um and the San Francisco International Airport I finally see that sign whenever I'm traveling in San Fran and yeah think back home well if you called into Brisbane City Hall you'd find a a small statue of Clem Jones which is a replica of the Statue of Clem Jones that stands in Adelaide Street in Brisbane adjacent to City Hall which I was able to present them with in 2018 during my visit there and um and so Clem had the relationship there he had a relationship in lags in Scotland and lags in Scotland you'd wonder why but that was the birthplace of Governor Brisbane who was the governor of New South Wales at the time and he established the state of or the colony of Queensland and sent people up here to uh to colonize Brisbane and the rest is history so before we get into what mcclem Jones foundation and doing an amazing kind of medical research Innovation space how did you get involved with the Clem Jones Foundation or Clem Jones itself I had the privilege of working with Clem Jones back in the 1990s mid 1990s when I worked in government and there was the Clem Jones community recreation centers program it's a great Innovation by the government at the time they wanted to place 10 community recreation centers in 10 locations all around Queensland and at the time you could build a community recreation center which is what we would refer to today more or less as a basketball stadium that type of construction where you've got multiple Sports being played uh change rooms that type of thing but they also became Community hubs and community centers so during a disaster they're places where people can go for Safety and Security and so for um for about six months I traveled all over Queensland with Clem and um and but usually just one-on-one with him looking at locations for these community recreation centers and it was a sensational education traveling with him it didn't matter where we went wouldn't matter if it was dargaminda longreach Mount Isa Cairns Townsville Rockhampton Gold Coast people would come up to him g'day claim highway it's great to see you and all that type of thing he was well known from his days as a surveyor people knew him of all ages and all generations and I was totally inspired by that of course and in Aura the fact that I was driving the car for this guy and and more or less carrying his bags but but what I learned from him in that six months no education at churchy or anything could ever you could ever afford um and I watched him very close quarters how he dealt with people how he conducted himself always professional always respectful he was he was a leader he was a Visionary in many of the things he could see an area and and see what was going to happen what was actually happening on it in the years to come that was his surveying mind you know he was seeing parts of Queensland back in the 1940s and 1950s that a lot of people had never seen before other than First Nations peoples and he uh um he was at the Forefront of First Nations recognition he was the Forefront of women's sport he was a big supporter of women's sport long time before it became what it is today back in the 1990s and 1980s he was encouraging people to get involved in sport young people to get involved in sport he had a mantra of um get them into Sport and keep them out of court he saw sport that was the Genesis of the Clem Jones Center at Carina he saw Sport and that's why he was dedicated to this community recreation Center's program because he saw sport as being the Avenue for which people could get themselves from the situation they're in into a better situation of course we see that today but um Idle Hands make for the devil's work was another one of these quips and um and of course sport was something that engaged young people be they male or female and uh and and he he saw a a real Gap at the time that there was plenty of opportunities for boys to get involved in sport but very limited opportunities at the time for girls and um and I I would like to think that the success of women's sport today is in part due to his encouragement and uh and investment in women's sport over the years but that was how I became no Clem Jones and be inspired by him and that type of thing and he and I maintained a friendship that um transcended you know probably two generations really uh at the time um you know we were we were great mates and um and I never asked him for anything he never asked me for anything but uh when he died the trustees came to me and said look we'd like you to be involved you knew Clem you knew the type of things that he liked and we'd like to um to involve you in in the foundation right so when you say involved in the foundation um you're currently you're CEO of the Clem Jones group as a whole um that was essentially what he meant was that you need to steer this ship in the direction that I kind of set and the the many years you've been working with them absolutely well I've been with I've been CEO of the Clem Jones group now for 12 years we talked about 18 years being fast I tell you what it only seems like yesterday that I started but uh the the group uh consists of primarily the philanthropic wishes of Clem and that's the Clem Jones Foundation yep so do you want to jump back down the the group like what's in the group now um obviously medical research being a big one of them um but what's in the actual group so what we do today is uh Clinton had three medical research projects that he wanted to see his his foundation involved with very simple things he just wanted to cure dementia he wanted to cure a macular degeneration he had that himself and he found that a very debilitating disease and of course he was a voracious reader and really struggled with uh with it and then the use of stem cells and and he was an adopter of stem cells a long time before it became part of the common vernacular in fact I can remember him talking about it in the mid 90s about stem cells and of course if you heard stem cells back in the mid 90s you know oh don't talk about stem cells you know but but he realized that stem cells were going to be the basis upon which medical research would advance to the point of finding cures and so we also are involved with the stem cell project at Griffith University nasal stem cells just to be clear at Griffith University which is seeking to regenerate spinal cord injury for spinal cord for spinal cord for injury patients in paraplegia and quadriplegia and very excitingly with the dementia project and with the which is not far from here at the University of Queensland the Queensland brain Institute is going into human safety trials that's an ultrasound and you know Technology's played a huge role in that and then at Griffith University is the stem cell nasal stem cell project which is seeking to find a cure for uh spinal cord injury and then down at Bond University is the macular degeneration project wow that's exciting What's um obviously you've probably seen a lot in the last 12 years what are you most proud of that you've seen happen in your time at Clem Jones Foundation well all of the three research projects that we fund philanthropically are um that didn't exist before Clem Jones funded them they were all startups and that's probably a very relevant word in in this environment and he was the original startup I reckon I think he he sort of uh he was a great disrupter he was one of the best disruptors of uh which is a common part of vernacular today but he's also a great startup but none of those research projects existed before we were involved so they came from scratch they started with one person as startups do and of course now you've got in some cases over 100 medical researchers involved in the uh the the research without a question of a doubt both the University of Queensland uh dementia project at the Queensland brain Institute and the which is an ultrasound technique to remove plaque from the brain uh and the stems nasal stem cell project at Griffith University where they're using they're taking stem cells from the nose and they then put them into a 3D organic bridge in the spinal cord or spinal injury patients with the hope that those stem cells will be able to regenerate into spinal cord and reconnect the spinal cord for spinal cord injury patients days to projects I don't care whatever it is but I do in the rest of my life but having been involved with those from the start now I'm not a researcher I'm not a scientist I don't claim to be but I've been very involved with those projects day in day out and and having seen them developed where they are and having seen the collaborations of philanthropy and government and the corporates coming into that has just been Sensational and I know that irrespective of whether they find a cure for dementia there's no guarantee that they will but irrespective if they find a bit a cure for dementia or they find a cure for spinal cord injury both of those projects have led on to other areas of Interest the dementia project for example with the ultrasound opens the blood brain barrier a very novel thing to happen in the first place there's many people who would never have believed in their lifetime that they would be able to see that happen but the the ultrasound does that this is a very simple ultrasound it's not an invasive ultrasound uh it's just the ultrasound probes on the head no different to any ultrasound that you would have anywhere else on the body and they are looking there to be able to remove the plaque without invade anything invasive uh in the plaque is the is dementia is Alzheimer's that forms in the brain and of course it gets around the neurons and stops people from being able to access their memories and and living the life that they once did very tragic to what you've got a personal experience of at the moment and it's um very personal to me in that regard that you know we we find a cure for dementia like it is for lots and lots of other people and it doesn't matter who I talk to everybody knows somebody that's got a parent or a loved one with dementia my grandma right now is actually going through exact same thing for the 1994. yeah and uh must be really rewarding what you do some of the stuff you've seen those big hairy audacious goals we kind of talk about the B hag magni will walk again what speaks fixing spinal issues and then curing dementia is that's definitely a big hero audacious goals yeah you want to take the conversation next yeah so look it's interesting the model that Clem is a startup right so a lot of these things don't happen without that philanthropy you know thought process and we see that with the you know Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation so Peter just talk us through I guess you know philanthropy models and I think you know something that the US do really well and we probably struggle with here um Keen for your thoughts philanthropy government business corporate world uh we we often hear about government and business working together philanthropy is a critical part of all of this because again with these three projects and I'm just doing about three projects that the Clem Jones foundation's funded but there's a lot of Sensational philanthropists in this state we are blessed in Queensland with some very generous and wonderful people people like Tim Fairfax Bob Bryan and his family Tim Fairfax and dim and Gina Fairfax and their family uh the um uh the English family philanthropy in Queensland punches well above its weight I mean in Melbourne and Sydney you've got some pretty big hitters who are obviously involved in a lot of things different things but here in Queensland you've got some really significant generosity coming from a very small group of people we need to promote philanthropy in Queensland but we also need to promote philanthropy working with government we need to promote philanthropy working with the corporate sector because we can get extra bang for the buck obviously philanthropy is not a never-ending Highway it's it's the philanthropy is the Genesis of a lot of the medical research that we're seeing come to the fore now back in the early 2000s the BD government started the line the Mantra about the smart State and everybody laughed at us you know everyone said oh it's just hilarious you know smart State Queensland they're not laughing now because the smart state is today paying a dividend to the people of Queensland and the people of Australia and the people of the world by having dementia projects like I've just talked about having the stem cell projects that I've just talked about but again that's only just a little splash in the ocean of the medical research that's happening within a stone Australia from your headquarters here in tawang and it's uh it's important to me personally but it's also important to the you know the better outcomes of everybody that philanthropy is something that's promoted very heavily in the United States as you say you know you've got Warren Buffett you've got Bill Gates we were very lucky here in Queensland Chuck Feeney came along as part of the spart state and what Chuck Feeney hasn't in my opinion been fully recognized for is he provided philanthropic funding for a lot of the buildings that uh where the research that Clem Jones Foundation today funds happens so for example the Queensland brain Institute he funded that at the University of Queensland and there was an incredible uh hundreds of millions of dollars were funded in Queensland to build medical research facilities and fit them out to allow the research to actually happen in it if we hadn't had that bricks and mortar villains philanthropy from the U.S through Chuck Feeney we wouldn't have the opportunity to fund these things in the first place it's as simple as that so all credit to Chuck Feeney or credit to Peter Beatty and the other people that have been involved in smart State because today that's now paying the dividend that it should I think you're right like the uq in particular gets a lot of international people come over just to go to uq because it's got such a good name and I've been to qbi I did some work with the IT team there I'm Jake and peranko and it's a maca facility of course and some of the stuff they do and I do want to tie this into I guess what we do around technology as well because I know the medical research very technology and data heavy in what we do how important is technology to Medical innovation well in the two scenarios that I've mentioned about dementia and stem cells technology has been a crucial factor in providing to get to the human safety trials uh to get to the human safety trials where we are today the uh the ultrasound for example um you know is a is technology-based you know without technology without I.T without all the componentry to go into that and the hardware and software it wouldn't exist it wouldn't happen because you've got scanning of the brain you've got CAT scans you've got all sorts of scanning going on which allows for the ultrasound to be targeted at different parts of the brain uh just absolutely critical you know there's a a whole idea of we'll we'll find a tablet or we'll find a medicine that will clear the plaque and people are working on that and I hope that you know they they're a success in that area uh but that's not technology-based in essence you know it's uh it's this ultrasound that's technology-based similarly with the stem cell so where the stem cells are harvested um they uh they then uh 3D printing creates the bridge for them so again Technology's come into that it's an organic bridge that goes into the into the spine in the spinal cord where the stem cells are placed because you just can't sort of throw stem cells you know in the body and hope that they'll you know do their thing they've got to be very selectively placed and uh and they've discovered that this 3D Bridge so without 3D printing out I.T without technology we wouldn't have that situation that exists uh and uh and so it's just so vitally important that technology continues to grow and works in partnership with medical research um I think you know you've just talked about your involvement with the Queensland brain Institute absolutely critical that there's a partnership between technology and I.T companies with uh
with universities with medical research it's all apart it's all a hand in hand situation and when I think of you know my first Commodore 64 that were no doubt we all had um and uh you know to where we are today and you know our phones and all that type of stuff I'm just in order of where Technologies come I'm in awe of people like Nigel who've uh you know really taken a punt on themselves and believed in themselves to establish I.T startups and and that's been of huge benefit not just to us personally in our daily lives but you know being able to put our shopping list on an app or whatever it might be put right through to uh to you know incredible things like this and of course we're seeing it in um in in operating theaters around Brisbane where you know it's playing a crucial role in terms of heart transplants and a whole range of things so very very exciting and my daughter Bella who's uh 16 she's in year 12 this year she um uh is is looking at doing vet tech and uh and she's telling me the other day about all the different technology and how it all works and all that type of thing and when I think about that and how that works in large animals or small animals and you know humans um it's uh by the time she's you know graduated from whatever it is that she does technology will have advanced you know another decade in terms of uh in terms of those couple of years so what she studies in year one isn't going to be relevant relevant when she graduates with different technology yeah four years later yeah so now it's uh it's just incredible but again like philanthropy it's important that philanthropy partners with medical research is important technology technology companies are involved with medical research as well because I think that scientists are great the ones who throw on the white coat every day and look down the microscopes and they see all the DNA and the RNA and this and that all swimming around that's all all you know very much their specialty but it's where that partnership with technology and uh and technology companies can bring that all together what's next for the Clem Jones Foundation this might be some things you can't share but uh what you what you can share what are you working on oh look we've got a lot of things that we're doing I mean we're continuing to partner with our um our medical research projects but uh we uh we we support food bank in Queensland we support beef Bank beef bank's a bit of a newer Innovation but food bank is critically important in terms of the staple food that that people who who need food can access very quickly and efficiently and and effectively obviously but um beef bank is is a unique organization what they do is they buy cattle red meat from the vegetarians listening this probably won't agree with me but in terms of uh the uh they buy red meat from man from cattle farmers in Queensland obviously at a reduced rate to a philanthropic rate they then dress that cattle and they distribute that to people who need red meat with the iron and different aspects of of coming through in their diet that they don't otherwise get so that's a great organization we're very pleased to be involved with them uh but we're also involved with things like the Brisbane portrait prize which is another great uh innovation of highlighting Brisbane artists and we fund their a women's prize the Sylvia Jones award which recognizes the role that Clem's late wife Sylvia played in not only his life of course but also in terms of the Arts community in Brisbane we've funded the national parks Association for getting families back into National Parks we've we've funded a little literacy and numeracy organization spelled which has been been great to be involved with them and and on and on the list guys of different organizations sporting wheelies which were currently funding in in preparation for 2032 and ensuring that the paralympic games outdo the Olympic Games in terms of medals and that type of thing and we've got a great time ahead of us in that regard so we're very involved with the Brisbane Community obviously not just in terms of medical research but other things and we also fund programs in Rural and Regional Queensland such as Outback Futures which is a mental health organization which goes into Rural and Regional communities rural communities in particular and ensures that people living in those communities have access to to Quality mental health counseling so we're very diverse just a bit on just a bit on yeah just just a little bit on but now it looked very exciting and you know I think really the next decade in Brisbane next decade in Queensland is going to be a very exciting place I'm energized by the Olympics our office is over at East Brisbane and uh we're we're very close to the Gabba so I'll be keeping a very close eye on on how all that develops but I think that if we recognize and accept that the Olympic Games will happen in Brisbane and we all get on board with that there's huge opportunities for all of us to uh to grow personally out of that organizations companies like Red digital will be at the Forefront of all of that I've had no doubt and I think that there's there's huge opportunities for sport and the development of sport in and around Brisbane climb would just love that I mean he would be just so excited and you know it'd be shaking if it's with excitement yeah that's great I really appreciate you sharing all the the story on how you got to what you're doing now and what you've achieved leave me a foundation the Clem Jones foundation and what you've got going on next is it's crazy to think that we actually had yesterday in here Sarah harapa CEO of food bank Queensland sitting in that chair on an episode for the listeners that'll be uh last with last week's episode but I really appreciate you coming in it's really fascinating to see the the crossover that technology has in the medical and what and what you do on a day-to-day basis and for the listeners it's a bit different to our usual episode we talk about technology and cyber and business but um if anyone can reach you it wants to reach you Peter maybe they want to give back or um find out more about what the some of the amazing initiatives you've got are going on right now how can they reach you Peter at clintonjonesgroup.com we'll use the technology yeah email Peter clementjonesgroup.com happy to talk to anybody about anything anytime provided it's uh advancing uh the interest of Brisbane and Queensland and um and and in keeping with the spirit Nintendo The Glenn Jones Foundation very keen to talk to anybody about their ideas or help them in whatever way we can it's not always about philanthropy I think sometimes if I'd say quickly the length is not always about money well entry is about introducing people philanthropies about obviously providing startup funding to projects that wouldn't otherwise start up and giving them a chance but but also about networking and introducing people and giving ideas and sharing ideas or saying that idea is not going to work but this one might or if you're you know amended you know slightly adjusted slightly this might work this way so uh very happy to talk to anybody but um but no thank you for having me on and it was a great honor to be invited by Nigel to do so and appreciate deeply the friendship that I have with Nigel and over so many years and didn't realize it was 18 until you pointed that out makes me feel a bit a bit old but even though we're very young but but I think um you know all hail to uh to Hugh Jackson and to you Nigel for what you do and these podcasts are a great opportunity to educate and inform people from all over uh and all your clients and all your network so very important to do so and having people a little bit different like me on is great to be able to to give coverage to a topic that doesn't always get a lot of discussion that's philanthropy and as you can see it's very close to my heart that's the case so I think that there's some you know significant uh growth for your organization for your company in the future and uh and as I say the next 10 years Brisbane is the place to be Peter thank you so much you know you've been a huge inspiration I know you've touched so many people and that you know nearly two decades ago when we met your vision was to make people's lives better red took that even further we want to make people's lives better with technology and just you know what we can achieve and um you know Queensland Brisbane next decade really appreciate you know everything you've contributed in your time thank you [Music] uh
2023-03-19